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These raspberry cream cheese brownies are divine. A perfect combination of flavors.
Over the years, I’ve done the food and cooking for a lot of church events, especially luncheons and dinners for the women’s group. Several years ago, I did the menu for a women’s meeting and we decided to do a dessert bar. I worked hard coming up with the perfect dessert menu for the event and I did a lot of experimenting too. We decided we didn’t want to have to deal with utensils so we wanted all the desserts to be finger foods, things you could just pick up and eat. These yummy Key Lime Bars definitely made the cut out of all the recipes I tested and so did this recipe for raspberry cream cheese brownies. I knew that chocolate had to be part of the dessert menu.  What would a church event for women be without chocolate?!?
A member of my food committee for the event shared this yummy recipe with me. Not only did it make the cut but it was definitely one of the most popular items on the dessert bar. You know it’s a good one when you get lots of requests for the recipe.  Believe it or not I’m not a fan of a lot of chocolate. I like my chocolate combined with other things and the combination of cheese cake, raspberries and chocolate in these bar cookies is perfection.
How to make Raspberry Cream Cheese Brownies
- These bars start with a brownie base and then are topped with a cheesecake like mixture.
- Let your cream cheese sit out for a few hours to make sure it is nice and soft before mixing. You don’t want any lumps in your cream cheese!
- Top your brownie base with the cream cheese mixture and then add the remaining 1/3 cup of brownie mixture on top by the spoonful. Take a knife and swirl through the brownie mixture and the cream cheese.
- Add your raspberries on top and gently push them into the mixture.
- Allow to cool before cutting and if there are any brownies left at the end of the day, refrigerate them overnight because of the cream cheese.
Can I use frozen raspberries?
Yes! I’ve used fresh and frozen raspberries and they both worked fine, just make sure to thaw and drain them if they were frozen.
What is the easiest way to cleanly cut brownies?
- Â Allow brownies to totally cool to room temperature or chill in the refrigerator.
- Use a disposable plastic knife, the kind you just throw away. A friend of mine shared this tip with me a few years ago and it works!
- If the knife picks up any crumbs while cutting just wipe them off before your next cut.
Other favorite bar cookies:
Raspberry Cream Cheese Brownie Recipe
Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies
Ingredients
- 1 C flour
- 2 C sugar
- 1 cup butter
- 7 oz dark chocolate
- 5 oz raspberries frozen or fresh
- 14 oz. cream cheese
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 5 eggs
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Combine butter with 1 cup sugar and mix
- Add 3 eggs one at a time
- Melt the chocolate and mix it in with the butter and sugar
- Gently fold in 1 cup of flour
- Butter a 9 x 13 baking pan and line with parchment paper
- Put the cream cheese in a big bowl, add 2 eggs, 1 cup sugar and 1 tsp vanilla
- Mix until it is smooth
- Spread 2/3 of the brownie mix on the bottom of the pan
- Pour the cream cheese on top
- Add spoonsfuls of remaining brownie mix on top of cream cheese and marble it together with a knife
- Sprinkle raspberries on top and push them into the cream cheese
- Bake for 40-45 minutes
- Let the brownies cool completely before cutting them into squares
Nutrition Facts:
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Becca says
I tried the different flavour for my testing, which comprised of the originals, a white chocolate and strawberry version and a mixed chocolate and both fruit version; the mixed was the most popular, which really surprised me. Basically for my next development. I did the original brownie, adding in the white chocolate and strawberries, but I feel the strawberries are too much like you said. And then I tried this basic recipe of brownie without the creamcheese, except with my changes, with a low fat cheesecake actually on top of the brownie. The scoring was close, but I chose the cheesecake on top of this brownie mix, as I can then flavour the cheesecake for my next development. Ie: A ginger and chocolate cheesecake with the brownie base and a caramel cheesecake with this base, these are amoung my ideas. Possibly a summer fruits aswell might work well with the base. I feel if anyone wanted to try this recipe with white chocolate and strawberries, it does work well; however it has to be them alone, it doesn’t work with other fruits and is much sweeter than this recipe. I do love this recipe though and will definetly keep it at home 🙂
Becca says
I made these for my food technology at school and they were my most popular product 🙂 was wondering, would they work with white chocolate? and strawberries? I’ve tried once and they were okay, much sweeter though. What do you think?
Leigh Anne says
Becca, I am not a huge fan of strawerries afte they have been baked so personally I don’t th ink I would care for it but white chocolate and raspberries is a favorite combination of mine! Let me know if you give it a try.
Erin says
I’m making both the lime bars and these raspberry cheesecake brownies for a church event next weekend. Do you know if they freeze well? I’ve got a lot of baking to do, and would love to do a little each day! Also…what other bars did you decide to do for your event last year? Your recipes always save the day! (making the spinach chicken salad for RS broadcast this month…). Thanks!
Stacie says
I can understand Emily G’s questions. I, too, looked for DARK chocolate in the baking aisle. I finally had to get them in the CHIP version (60% bittersweet), because I couldn’t find baking chocolate that specifically stated “dark”, and I wasn’t sure if the “unsweetened” baking chocolate that I have is the same or not — or if it’s more along the MILK variety.
Leigh Anne says
Our store does carry dark baking chocolate (the type in the squares) Maybe it’s a regional thing?? I would use semi sweet if I couldn’t find dark.
Stephanie Summers says
I tried this recipe and it was very good. I need to work on my marbling skills because the batch that I made were definitely not as pretty as yours. It didn’t bother me too much because they still tasted very good. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
Karen says
I’ve made these twice and they have been a HUGE hit. The only problem I have is that I just can’t seem to get them to look as great as yours do. The brownie mix sinks to the bottom when it bakes so I don’t have the “sandwich” look that you do. How do you do this?
Leigh Anne says
Karen,
Not sure why that is happening for you. After everythiing is in the pan (except the raspberries) I just use a knife to gently swirl everything together. Mine didn’t look just like the photo from the original blog where the recipe came from either! I’m glad they tasted good though!!
Valerie M. says
These look totally yummers! I love raspberries. (Found you in Make and Takes)
Cindy says
Ok…I made these again for my family only this time I used fresh raspberries. I thought they were better this time because the raspberries were sweeter. Wonderful recipe!