Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies
This decadent chocolate brownie topped with rich and creamy raspberry cheesecake is a dessert you will definitely feel guilty about... but it'll be so worth it! Plus, there's a super fun Berlin giveaway! Yay! There's no doubt about it. There is nothing healthy about these raspberry cheesecake brownies. From the eggs, butter, sugar and chocolate...
This decadent chocolate brownie topped with rich and creamy raspberry cheesecake is a dessert you will definitely feel guilty about... but it'll be so worth it! Plus, there's a super fun Berlin giveaway! Yay!
There's no doubt about it. There is nothing healthy about these raspberry cheesecake brownies. From the eggs, butter, sugar and chocolate in the brownie to the full fat cream cheese and sugar covered berries in the cheesecake topping... everything about this dessert is decadent, delicious and oh so good!
While I was in Berlin for the New Year, I knew I had to take some time out to meet and bake with Erin of Texanerin Baking. There aren't many American food bloggers living in Europe and I've been looking forward to connecting with Erin since I've lived here. Her style of baking is a it different from mine because it focuses on making healthier versions of desserts, snacks and other food yet still maintaining delicious taste and quality!
I met up with Erin at her apartment and was greeted so sweetly by her husband. Erin and her husband live in Berlin while he finishes up his education. Before we got to baking, I had brought a surprise for Erin... a 5lb bag of all-purpose flour! See, Germans don't use AP flour. They have different versions of white, unbleached flour but none of them are as good as AP flour. Erin had never seen a bag so big before... she was pretty excited to start baking with it!
We had decided to make a Raspberry Cheesecake Brownie together... but make it two ways. Full fat, full sugar and full flavor and then a lightened up, healthier version. We wanted to show that you don't have to sacrifice flavor for healthier choices in baking.
Starting with a baked brownie recipe for the base, my recipe used all-purpose flour and granulated sugar. Erin's version uses whole wheat flour and coconut sugar... two easy ways to lighten up the brownie.
After taste testing both brownies, neither of us could tell a difference. Both brownies were incredibly delicious and oh so addicting. I think Erin mentioned that between her and her husband, most of the brownies were gone the next day! Yeah... so were mine. They were THAT good.
Make sure to visit Erin's blog Texanerin Baking for her healthier version of these brownies!
Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies
Ingredients
Brownies
- ½ cup + 2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 6oz dark chocolate
- 4oz unsalted butter
- ½ teaspoon espresso powder
- ¾ cup sugar
- ¼ cup homemade brown sugar (Recipe Here)
- 2 eggs + 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Rapsberry Cheesecake Topping
- 8oz cream cheese, softened
- ⅓ cup sugar
- 1 egg
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup frozen berries, thawed
- 1 tablespoon homemade brown sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F degrees or 180 C degrees and line a 8x8 baking pan with parchment paper.
- In a small bowl, make the brown sugar & set aside. (See recipe link above)
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, and salt.
- In a heat-proof glass bowl, melt the chocolate either in your microwave or a double boiler and set aside to cool slightly.
- Whisk in the sugars until smooth.
- Pour in the melted butter and whisk until combined.
- Add the eggs, one at a time and whisk until incorporated. Mix in the vanilla extract.
- Pour the chocolate/sugar mixture into the flour mixture and fold together until no more flour is visible.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread out evenly.
- In another bowl, mix together the softened cream cheese, ⅓ cup sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth.
- Gently spread the cream cheese evenly over the chocolate batter.
- In a small bowl, sprinkle the 1 tablespoon sugar over the berries and mix to combine. Break up the berries until it resembles a jam consistency.
- Spoon dollops of raspberry over the cream cheese mixture. Using a knife, swirl the raspberry into the cream cheese.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the edges are golden and the top is firm to the touch.
- Allow to cool in the pan completely before cutting into square and serving.
A Berlin Giveaway! -CLOSED-
As a fun treat for our readers, since Erin and I had such a good time together baking... we've put together a prize package of some fun baking related goodies that are exclusive to Berlin! To win all these great prizes, simply fill out the Rafflecopter widget below.
Contest open to those with a USA mailing address. Contest ends Thursday, Feb. 6th at 11:00pm PST and a winner will be chosen Friday, Feb. 7th. Winner will have 24 hours to respond to our email before a new winner will be chosen.
The Prizes:
Have you ever heard of the Ampelmann? He's the character on all the stop lights in East Berlin. He's pretty famous here. So, we're giving you a set of Ampelmann cookie cutters!
The Brandenburg Gate and the TV Tower are two iconic landmarks in Berlin. Everyone who visits this great city goes to see them. And now, you can enjoy these landmarks in cookie form with the Brandenburg Gate and TV Tower cookie cutters!
Lindt is a Swiss chocolate that I know is sold world-wide. But, I had never seen a Lindt store until I was in Berlin. Nothing but delicious Lindt chocolates and other confections. And when I say other confections, I mean these grinders I scored at the store in Berlin. One is chocolate & sugar and the other is chocolate & espresso. Can you imagine the possibilities for these? Recently, I used the espresso grinder on top of espresso truffles. So good. You'll get one of each!
Ritter Sport is a 100 year old chocolate company based out of Germany. Ritter recently opened a store in Berlin where you can have a bar of chocolate handmade for you with your favorite mix-ins. You will get two hand made bars from the Ritter store with the following mix-ins: Milk Chocolate, Biscuit Bits & Mini Marshmallows AND Dark Chocolate, Strawberry Pieces & Hazlenut. So yum!
Finally, Viba is a German company that makes nougat bars that, according to Erin, everyone she knows in the USA is always asking for her to send them! So, You'll get 4 Praline dark nougat Bars and a 3-pack of Classic nougat Bars!
I've never been to Germany but I would to go someday and visit my relatives there, check out the food scene, see the sights, all that good stuff!
Awesome, I love this blog post!!
I vacationed in southern Germany with my husband, and I loved it!! We are keeping our fingers crossed that our family will be moved to Berlin very soon!
Christy - I didn't know there was Army in Berlin!!!!! Let me know and we'll come visit!
Munich.
I've never been to Germany, so I would love to go anywhere!
Yum! These look so tasty!
Oh my gosh! These look amazing! I'm on a really strict diet right now with bodybuilding, but maybe I can find a way to make these with protein powder and stevia haha. Lovely photos too, by the way!
Bridget - let me know if you do that! Did you click over to Erin's recipe of these brownies? She uses coconut oil and whole wheat flour. Maybe you can use hers and sub stevia and add the protein! Let me know how it works out!
Hello! Thank you for posting this wonderful recipe! I have read the ingredients and method several times, and nowhere did I see what to do with the 4 oz of butter! So here is what I did:
1. First off, I doubled the recipe, as I wanted to make enough to go around a bunch of hungry Marines:-)
2. I melted the butter and incorporated it to the chocolate-sugar mixture, then added the eggs.
3. Brownies were baked in two 8X8 pans.
4. After the 25 minute mark, they were still extremely runny.
5. I finally pulled them out after a total of 45-50 minutes (I think), when the cheesecake edges started to show a bit of color.
6. After cooling, I sliced into bite sizes. It was VERY ooey and gooey. **note, do not slice while warm; see below**
7. After an overnight visit to the refrigerator, I pulled 2 squares out and tried one. They were EVEN MORE AMAZING once they had a chance to solidify, and it was a very fudgey texture! This would have been a good time to cut them 🙂
8. One thing I would love to see is the kind of dark chocolate you use. Is it semi-sweet, 60%, 70%, or unsweetened? That would help alleviate any confusion for future bakers.
I will definitely try this recipe again, just a single batch next time, haha! I appreciate all the hard work and effort it took for you to create this recipe, and thank you for sharing!
~Heather
Oh Heather - thanks for pointing out my omission of butter in the instructions. Typically you add the butter and sugar together at the same time before the eggs... so good call on your part to do that! I have updated the recipe. As for the time in the oven, I was baking these in a Berlin in a German oven... so that will probably account for the difference in time needed to bake. The great thing about these brownies is that you can bake them to whatever consistency you want... which seems like what you did!! YAY! As for the chocolate, dark chocolate to me typically means anything over about 60% cocoa. Typically I use 70% Lindt chocolate in my baking. I'm not sure exactly what percentage this chocolate was, Erin supplied it and I really didn't ask. Ooops! 🙂 Thanks so much for the comment... I really appreciate the feedback! xxoo Betsy