Description
These Cream Cheese Brownies come together quickly, they’re super chewy and moist and will surely get you in the Halloween spirit!
Ingredients
For the Brownie Batter:
- ⅓ cup (26 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ cup (118 ml) boiling water
- ¼ cup (44 grams) semisweet chocolate chips
- 4 tablespoons (½ stick / 56 grams) unsalted butter, melted
- ⅔ cup (160 ml) vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 large egg yolks, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons (10 ml) vanilla extract
- 2 ¼ cups (450 grams) Domino® Golden Sugar
- 1 ¾ cups (210 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon (5 grams) kosher salt
For the Cream Cheese Mixture:
- 8 ounces (227 grams) cream cheese, room temperature
- ¼ cup (50 grams) Domino® Golden Sugar
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- ½ teaspoon (2 ml) vanilla extract
- Orange gel food coloring
Optional decorations:
- Candy eyeballs
- Halloween sprinkles
- Frosting or decorating icing to “glue” eyeballs
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350º F (180º C). Line a 13 by 9-inch baking pan with parchment paper, allowing some to hang over edges of the pan for easing removal of baked brownies. Set aside
- Whisk cocoa powder and boiling water together in large bowl until smooth. Add chocolate chips and whisk until chocolate is melted. Whisk in melted butter and oil. (Mixture may look curdled.) Add eggs, yolks, and vanilla and continue to whisk until smooth and well combined. Whisk in sugar until fully incorporated. Add flour and salt and mix with rubber spatula until combined
- Scrape batter into prepared pan, reserving ¼ cup of the batter to swirl on top with the cream cheese mixture. Set aside while you prepare the cream cheese mixture
- Combine cream cheese and sugar in a medium-sized bowl. Use a stand mixer or hand mixer to beat until creamy. Stir in egg and vanilla extract. Stir until well-combined. Add 5-10 drops orange gel food coloring and mix until evenly combined
- Dollop the cream cheese mixture over prepared brownie batter then dollop reserved brownies batter to fill in some of the spaces next to the cream cheese dollops. Use a knife to swirl the brownie and cream cheese mixture together, being careful not to swirl too much, otherwise you’ll lose the beautiful swirl pattern
- Bake at 350°F for 25 minutes or until center is set and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean with a few fudgy crumbs
- Using parchment paper overhang, lift brownies from the pan. Return brownies to the wire rack and let cool completely, about 1 hour
- Optional: Decorate brownies with candy eyeballs by sprinkling them on top of the brownies or by “gluing” them to the brownies using a small amount of frosting or decorating icing dabbed on the back, then press gently onto the brownies. Sprinkle with festive Halloween sprinkles
- Cut into 2-inch squares and serve
Notes
- Start out just a few drops of orange food coloring and add more, 1-2 drops at a time, until desired color is reached. Adding too much at once could result in an undesirable color and there’s no going back
- Be careful not to overbake your brownies. Check for doneness by inserting a toothpick directly in the center. There should be just a few crumbs stuck to the toothpick and no raw batter. Overbaking will lead to cakey or rubbery brownies vs chewy brownies
- Recommend using a metal baking pan vs a glass pan. Glass retains heat very well and the brownies will continue baking in the pan for a while after they are removed from the oven, potentially leading to overbaking. If using a glass baking dish, remove the brownies from the oven 5 minutes before the bake time called for in the recipe
- Store baked brownies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. They’ll last 7-10 days in the fridge and about 3 months in the freezer
- Category: brownies, halloween
- Method: bake
- Cuisine: american
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