Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies

After having my eyes opened to the wonders of pumpkin in baked goods I began to pay attention to all the pumpkin recipes that fall was inspiring. Especially this one. I had made "Zebra brownies" before with brownie mix and cream cheese and this looked like a super charged version.

I doubled and modified the recipe slightly, so here is what I did:

Ingredients
Brownie Batter
1 1/2 cup butter, melted
2 cups sugar
2 tbsp pure vanilla extract
4 eggs
1 cup bread flour
1 cup dark chocolate cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 tsp cinnamon

Cheesecake Batter
12 oz cream cheese, softened
2 egg
2/3 cup sugar
4 tbsp flour
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp each ground ginger

Directions
PREHEAT oven to 350F. Grease a ~7.5" X ~11" baking pan.

BEAT together melted butter, sugar, and vanilla, then beat in eggs one at a time.

COMBINE dry ingredients and then gradually stir into butter mixture.

In separate bowl, BEAT together cheesecake batter ingredients.

SPREAD about 2/3 of chocolate batter into prepared pan, and spoon cheesecake batter over. Dollop remaining brownie batter over cheesecake batter. Swirl the batters together by running a butter knife back and forth through the pan.

Bake for 50 minutes, or until center is set. Cool completely, chill for 24 hours before cutting and serving. Keep refrigerated.

My Thoughts
1. For having doubled the recipe, my pan was too small. Not only did it barely fit all the batter, but the center was still way gooey, even after chilling. A 9 X 13 pan would have been much better.

2. I don't know if it's the dark chocolate cococa powder or what, but these brownies had the same ooey goeeyness that the Raspberry Chocolate Cake that I made had. Not bad, but not my thing.

3. Despite all that, these were a HUGE hit. Everybody that tried them loved them and people thought that they were very fancy. For some reason pumpkin + chocolate throws people for a loop, add the cheesecake and it's crowd pleaser for sure.