Cream Cheese Brownies are a delicious mix of cheesecake and brownies, they’re also crazy easy; from cocoa powder, cream cheese, sugar and butter.
I’ve made some great chocolate desserts you may have tried, including Easy Chocolate Cake, Peanut Butter Brownies and Cookie Dough Brownies, and now I’ve whipped up a recipe for Cream Cheese Brownies.
CREAM CHEESE BROWNIES
You may not immediately think of cream cheese when you think of brownie ingredients, but cream cheese is not just for making cheesecake anymore. This rich, fudgy brownie recipe is sure to be a big hit. The cream cheese makes them creamy and pairs perfectly with the chocolatey goodness, as well as keeping them from drying out in the oven.
PS if you love fun brownies you have to try my Fudge Iced Brownies, they’re exactly like the cafeteria brownies we were all nostalgic about as kids, with awesome cocoa icing.
Homemade Cream Cheese Brownies are really easy to make and they keep really well, so you can make them ahead of time and enjoy them later. They are absolutely delicious and make a great holiday snack for your next get together.
When cooking your brownies, a good baking hack to remember is the toothpick test. Once the Cream Cheese Brownies come out of the oven, take an ordinary toothpick and insert it into the middle of the brownies. When you pull it out, check to see if the toothpick has batter on it or not. If it doesn’t, it means that the brownies are cooked all the way through and ready to set on a wire rack to cool. If it comes out covered in batter it means that they need to bake a little bit longer.
HOW TO MAKE CREAM CHEESE BROWNIES
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Butter and cocoa powder the bottom and sides of the baking pan.
- In a large bowl add the melted butter and sugar.
- Whisk until sugar is dissolved and the butter mixture has cooled.
- Add in the vanilla and eggs and whisk until well combined.
- Sift together the flour, baking soda, cocoa, and salt and add to the large wet mixture.
- Whisk until just combined and pour all but one cup of the batter into the baking pan.
- Stir together sour cream, sugar, cream cheese, and 2 tablespoons of flour.
- Add the cream cheese filling to the pan.
- Add remaining brownie batter on top in spoonfuls around the pan.
- Create a marbling effect by swirling the batter with a knife.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes.
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CREAM CHEESE BROWNIE VARIETIES
- Chocolate: If you don’t want to use unsweetened chocolate for your Cream Cheese Brownies, you can experiment with semisweet chocolate, white chocolate or dark chocolate. Changing the level of chocolate in your cocoa powder can radically change the flavor without changing anything else in the recipe.
- Toppings and add-ins: You can stir some chocolate chips or pieces of fudge into the batter if you want a chunkier, heartier brownie. Make sure you chop the fudge down into small, bite sized pieces and stir them in thoroughly.
- Frosting: Cream Cheese Brownies are amazing with a little frosting on top. You should try my recipes for Peanut Butter Frosting, Cream Cheese Frosting and Rich Chocolate Frosting.
- Ice Cream: Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream is delicious when served next to a piping hot Cream Cheese Brownie fresh from the oven. Plus, your dinner guests will be impressed when you tell them you made both the brownies and ice cream from scratch.
HOW LONG ARE CREAM CHEESE BROWNIES GOOD?
- Serve: Cream Cheese Brownies can last about 2 days uncovered at room temperature. If you want to extend the shelf life, wrap them up in parchment paper or aluminum foil and they’ll last up to 3 days without going really stale.
- Store: If you refrigerate your brownies wrapped in aluminum foil or plastic wrap, they can last up to 4 days.
- Freeze: You can freeze Cream Cheese Brownies for up to 6 months, if you keep them in an airtight container. The uncooked batter can last up to 10 months if it is frozen.
Ingredients
Brownie Batter
- 16 tablespoons unsalted butter , melted
- 2 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 2/3 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
Cream Cheese Filling
- 8 ounces cream cheese , room temperature
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Butter and cocoa powder the bottom and sides of a 9x13" baking pan.
- In a large bowl whisk together the melted butter and sugar then add in the eggs and vanilla until well combined.
- Sift together the flour, baking soda, cocoa, and salt.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, whisking until just combined, then add it to your baking pan, reserving just one cup of batter.
- Whisk together cream cheese (make sure cream cheese is room temperature), sour cream, sugar, flour and vanilla until smooth.
- Dot the cream cheese mixture with a spoon onto the brownie batter then dot the remaining brownie batter on top.
- Swirl the batters together with a knife and bake for 25-30 minutes.
Nutrition
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Made this recipe two days ago. I made it in an 8 inch square tin. This receipe was exactly what I was looking for. The brownie batter is super light becuase there’s no melted chocolate to make it thick and fudgy (I find that some receipes end up too dense even with a cocoa powder and cooking chocolate hybrid). I made it lighter by creaming the butter and sugar (I didn’t melt the butter). The cream cheese and sour cream mixture was plenty gooey and moist for the texture of the brownie. Overall a really easy recipe to make a deliciously moist and light brownie
I would love to try this. But can you please suggest a substitute for sour cream in this recipe?
I am the worse baker in our family but this recipe is beyond delish and made me look like a pro.
Wow, this looks delicious~ but I’ve been wondering why the measurements for the butter (16 tbsp/ 8 tbsp), and egg sizes (4/ 2) are completely different for the US/ metric measurements? Is there a particular reason for the difference?
I wish I knew that too, it’s been something I’ve been trying to fix, the conversions are automatic in the widget so I don’t control them.
This is my second time making these and it fit perfectly in my 9 x 13 pan. I baked it for 25 minutes and it was done! My family loves these brownies!
Thanks for coming back to let me know, Gloria.
Yum yum yum! Very moist. I made this recipe by starting with the base of a boxed brownie mix that I am very familiar with. I know how it fits in my pan and the usual baking time. I took the cheesecake portion of this recipe and added it to the top, dotted with brownie mix. I also added chocolate chips, which I usually do when I make brownies. With the additional cheesecake batter, my recipe took seven minutes longer to bake than usual. Thanks for and inspiring post and your recipe.
The suggested time of 25-30 minutes was way off – mine was closer to 45-50
When you click for the metric measurements rather the US customary the tablespoons of butter and the amount of eggs half for the brownie mix, however the tablespoons stay the same for the quantities in the cheesecake mix. Can you please advise? Thanks
I am so sorry, I am just seeing this tonight. I am sure the recipe has long been cooked/or not but I still want to try to help.
Karen, there was an error with the conversion originally but I tried it again and it seems like it was fixed. Hope this is still helpful!
no pan size but 16 pieces led me to believe it would be 9×9 pan. but too much batter for that size. They’ve been in the oven 25 minutes and I still have chocolate soup.
I’m so sorry I just saw this comment. The post was updated a while ago to reflect the 9×13 pan but I am still very very sorry your brownies were ruined. I hope once they finished they were still tasty.
Man, glad I made the recipe before I read the comments… mine came out great. Had to cook a little longer than I thought but that’s not a big deal. I put them in fridge overnight and they were absolutely delicious the next day.
I’m so glad you enjoyed them, Courtney.
mine are in the oven in a 9×13 glass pan on 350 the middle doesn’t seem to be cooking after the 30min, so I”m watching them every 5 mins just afraid the bottom will be burnt before the middle the cooked..
however they smell great!!
although tasty, I used too small of a pan, and the brownie overflowed all over the bottom of my oven, and now my whole house smells of burnt brownies. ??
Oh no!
I just now read all the comments…………. Used common sense on pan size. I considered 9×13 but decided I wanted thicker and did 9×9. Recipe was easy to follow and the cream cheese mixture was a lot but spread it out then topped with remaining brownie batter and swirled in easily. They were awesome and topped with whipped cream for added calories. After all we all need added calories.
Also whisking is normally not the method for mixing cream cheese since it is very thick. I used my hand mixer and it was fine. Just an FYI for people who may not know the difference.
Okay, I was a little sceptical due to the recent comments but man these brownies are delicious! I substituted ricotta for the sour cream and it turned out so good. I used a 9×13 glass baking dish and I didn’t butter or dust the pan with cacao. I just used bakers joy spray. I think next time I use a metal 9×13 pan with a completely flat bottom to prevent the sides from baking up higher than the middle. I’ll definitely be making this recipe again!
Yay!! I’m so glad you decided to give them a try, Ashley.
I was wondering what size pan to use… it is not listed in the recipe!
Was hoping it was 9×13 and it is according to comments made!!?!!
I just made it and did it for 30 min but still really wet in middle. Is that the correct time?
Ovens may vary. Hope it turned out ok for you.
Hi, Sabrina,
I’ve made these twice now, I think once before and one just now after you’ve updated the recipe, and they were fantastic the first time! I have to take some of the blame for this last batch because I didn’t let the cream cheese soften enough 🙂 If you still have the old ingredient proportions somewhere, though, would you mind listing them for me? The first time I made these, I did notice that the amount of brownie batter wasn’t quite enough to fill a 9×13, but the thicker consistency was great so that the cream cheese mix didn’t sink. I also remember the flavor being a bit richer/sweeter. I’m hoping I can still make it a keeper, though! Thank you so much for your hard work on this recipe!
Hi Anjag, I don’t think I made a lot of changes to this recipe, but if you google way back time machine and put in this link you can see screencaps from the past? Maybe the recipe is in there?
Made these, they were disappointing. Brownies were more cake than brownie, and the cheesecake part wasn’t very good by cheesecake standards, and did not pair well with brownies. 2/3 of the batch is still sitting on my kitchen counter 4 days later, a good dessert in our family would have been completely gone yesterday.
I’m sorry that it didn’t live up to your expectations. I have gone back in and adjusted the ingredients after retesting, if you decide to give it another try.
…looks like a great recipe, but you don’t say which size pan to use, and how much butter and cocoa to coat the pan with….????
You’ll use a 9×13 pan to make these brownies.
Are you sure on the amounts listed? My batter was super thick so the cream cheese did not swirl into the mix. Please let me know, it looks wonderful!
I had to retest and have adjusted the amounts. Thanks for your patience.
I have no sour cream can I use sour milk or light cream .
Greek yogurt would be a better substitute.
Please include pan size when providing a recipe. I assumed it was an 8” since most recipes call for that. Needless to say these will be very thick brownies. The batter seems good and looking forward to trying them.
Your cream cheese brownie recipe, I believe, has the wrong pan size. First, it didn’t have a pan size, then I read where it was for a 9×13. I made them this morning. The batter would never fill a 9×13 barely filled a 9 inch pan which I used. Also the cream cheese mixture was more than the batter. I was truly disappointed in this recipe. It is in the oven now. I will see how it turns out. Was making them for a party.
I’ve retested it again and have adjusted the recipe card.
Brownie batter is not enough for a 9 X 13 pan. I used 9 X 9 and the cream cheese mix is way to much for that size of a pan. Haven’t tried them yet, still in the oven but had to change plans half way through recipe.
Ok, I went back to testing this recipe and made a few ingredient adjustments. You should be using a 9×13 pan but with the adjustments, it’ll be enough batter. I’m so sorry for the delay.
The correct sized baking dish is omitted from this recipe!!!!
My apologies, it’s going to be a 9×13 baking pan. Hope this helps! 🙂
This is one of our favorite ways to eat brownies! It’s so good!
These are so good!! The perfect combination of chocolate and cheesecake and so easy to make.
These brownies were so delicious – I could have had the whole pan!
These are so good. The swirls of cheesecake take them over the top 🙂
These were SO incredibly good!! I can’t even wait to make them again. The kids LOVED them! YAY!!
Looks really good & I’m going to bake these….but——– I notice in the directions you state spraying a ” muffin tin ” and the picture clearly shows a flat pan or 9 x 13 pan.
which one are we we to use ?
So sorry about that! Not enough coffee before I did the final review. It’s a 9×13 pan. Thanks for catching that, I’ll update now.
Are the measurements for the brownie batter correct? My batter was extremely thick. Also, when I reserved a cup, I didn’t have enough to cover the bottom of a 9 x 13 balking dish (not even a thin layer). I checked my measurements several times.
I did some additional tested and have adjusted the measurements. Thanks for letting me know, Lisa.