Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies #CookingForACure

Get ready to see a whole lot of pink today because it's officially national breast cancer awareness month and a bunch of food bloggers have teamed up to bring you pink-a-licious recipes, myself included!

Last year, my contribution to this wonderful event hosted by Rebecca of  Sugar & Soul, were these raspberry glazed chocolate donuts. Clearly, I didn't stray far from that flavor combination this year. Why would I? It's amazing!


My brother's exact words after tasting these were "These are friggin' delicious, what the crap!". Yup, that about sums these bad boys up. Raspberries and chocolate are just meant to be together forever.

But other than being great with chocolate, raspberries are so great alone for creating a wonderful pinkish hue to desserts. It's all naturale. I was honestly a little tempted to add a hint of pink food coloring to the cheesecake batter since I had read reviews of the cheesecake browning and losing the pink color, but I just added more puree, covered the pan with a baking sheet during the entire baking time, and hoped for the best!


The cheesecake did slightly brown around the edges but the inner pieces thankfully stayed pink. Feel free to add some food coloring though if that's what floats your boat, the brownies will be just as phenomenal whatever shade of pink they are!

Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies

Yield: 24 brownies

Ingredients:

For the brownies:
1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter
8 oz. semisweet chocolate chips
1 and 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
pinch of vanilla powder (or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

For the raspberry cheesecake layer:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg yolk
1/3 cup raspberry puree (plus more for swirling, if you desire)

Directions:

Spray an 11x7 inch glass baking dish with non-stick spray, line with parchment paper, and spray again. Set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Over a double boiler, melt together butter and chocolate chips until smooth. Set aside for a few minutes to cool.

To a medium-sized bowl, add sugar and vanilla. Pour in cooled butter/chocolate mixture and whisk together until well-combined. Add in eggs, one at a time, whisking until well-incorporated after each addition. Stir in flour and salt.

Pour the brownie batter into prepared baking dish, leaving about 1/4 cup for swirling in later.

In another medium-sized bowl, using an electric hand mixer, beat together cream cheese and sugar until creamy and smooth, and no lumps remain. Beat in egg yolk just until incorporated. Beat in raspberry puree.

Dollop cheesecake batter over the brownie batter in the pan. Then, dollop the reserved 1/4 cup brownie batter over the cheesecake. Use a knife to swirl the two together and create a marble effect. (Optionally, you can swirl in some additional fresh raspberry puree.)

Bake in preheated oven for 45-50 minutes, or until cheesecake is set and doesn't jiggle. Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate for 4 hours before cutting into squares and serving.

Slightly adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction