Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies

While I was blog surfing a few weeks ago I came across this incredibly delicious sounding treat on the Beantown Baker blog. As I have mentioned before, I am not a huge fan of cooked fruit and do not generally use it in my desserts, but there is something about the combination of raspberries and chocolate that I just can not resit (besides, preserves don't really count as cooked fruit). When you add cheesecake to the mix I begin to drool. So I knew that I would I be making these scrumptious little delights very soon. This morning was the perfect opportunity. I am not working on Fridays and do not have class until 1 and today I made plans to have lunch with my old coworkers. I figured it was the perfect excuse to make a sweet treat and not have to worry about it laying around the house.

I decided to use a different recipe for the brownies because I wanted to use a 9x13 pan, so, I went back to my new favorite recipe (King Arthur's). Because I used a bigger pan my cheesecake didn't turn out quite as puffy and pretty as the Beantown Bakers. My brownie also did not seem to want to cook, so the 4 brownies right in the middle were very gooey. I think next time I will reduce the oven temperature a few degrees and cook them for longer. Other than the gooey brownies in the middle (which are really not a bad thing in my book) they turned out great! The perfect balance of chocolate, raspberry and cheesecake.

Raspberry Cheesecake Swirl Brownies

Brownie Recipe can be found here.

Cheesecake Topping
(Source: Found on Beantown Baker, originally from Baking Bites)

8-oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (I also added a 1/2 tsp of raspberry extract)
1/3 cup raspberry preserves/jam (heated mine in the microwave for about 20 seconds so it would be easier to work with)

Prepare brownie batter and pour into a 9x13 pan lined with foil (this makes it easier to pull them out and neatly cut later). Then pour the cheesecake topping over top of the brownie batter. Next drop dollops of the raspberry preserves at random on top of cheesecake. Use a spoon to swirl the raspberry preserves into the cheesecake.

Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes (mine was closer to 38 and next time I think I will turn my oven down to 340 and bake for 45 minutes straight)