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Hi Bold Bakers!
Cream cheese brownies — enough said! There should never be a reason to choose between ooey-gooey fudgy brownies or a creamy, custardy cheesecake again. The best part is, my cream cheese brownie recipe couldn’t be easier to make, and you probably have all the ingredients you’ll need already in your pantry.
No cream cheese? No problem! You can always make my tried and true Best-Ever Brownie Recipe to get your chocolate fix, or you can make your own cream cheese right at home with only two (Yes! Two!) ingredients with my Homemade Cream Cheese!
There are few better combinations of food than rich bittersweet chocolate and cool, creamy cream cheese. They’re both absolutely delicious on their own, but together they really shine — these beautiful, but so easy to make, cream cheese brownies are sure to make the list of your go-to recipes.
What are Cream Cheese Brownies?
My cream cheese brownies are rich chocolatey brownies with a simple three-ingredient cream cheese swirl throughout. And you can get even more creative with this recipe and make it your own by adding walnuts or chocolate chips — the saying less is more doesn’t apply when it comes to brownies around here!
What Kind of Cream Cheese Do I Need?
Any traditional plain cream cheese will work for this recipe, as will a batch of homemade cream cheese. What you want to be sure of, however, is that you allow your cream cheese to soften before you attempt to make the cream cheese filling, so all the ingredients can easily whisk together.
Obviously, you’ll want to stay away from lox or scallion flavored cream cheeses!
What You Need to Make Cream Cheese Brownies
You only need basic equipment you probably already have in your kitchen to make these delicious brownies, including:
- An 13″ x 9 ” baking pan
- Bowls and whisks for mixing
- Microwave and oven
- All your ingredients, including softened cream cheese and semi-sweet baking chocolate
How to make Cream Cheese Brownies
These brownies couldn’t be simpler to make and you only have to do 10 super easy steps to whip up a batch.
For the cream cheese filling:
- Whisk softened cream cheese, granulated sugar, all-purpose flour and egg together.
For the brownies:
- Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.
- Melt chocolate, sugar and water in microwave. (Keep an eye on it, as your microwave wattage may vary from mine.)
- In a separate bowl, combine the eggs, oil and vanilla. Stir in the melted chocolate.
- Add the flour mix and combine.
- Lastly fold in the chocolate chips.
Now for the magic:
- Pour your brownie batter into a buttered and parchment-lined baking pan.
- Drizzle on half of your cream cheese filling, swirl with a knife. Sprinkle over some extra chocolate chips.
- Bake at 350°F on the center rack for 35-40 minutes.
Gemma’s Pro Tips For Cream Cheese Brownies
- Use bittersweet chocolate (70%) so you get a lovely balance of rich chocolate and a little sweetness.
- When chopping the baking chocolate, a sharp, heavy chef’s knife will do the trick, but using a serrated knife will require less force.
- That 1/2 tsp of salt is everything when it comes to the depth of flavor.
- Don’t overcook your brownies! Brownies continue to cook even after you take them out of the oven. You’ll know your brownies are ready to move from oven to counter when they feel firm around the edges, but still soft in the middle.
- Let the cream cheese brownies cool completely before cutting.
How to Store Cream Cheese Brownies
These brownies can be stored in an airtight container on the counter for 4 days, or they can be refrigerated for up to a week. Good news — they’re absolutely delicious when they’re slightly warmed… and it certainly couldn’t hurt to add some vanilla ice cream on top, and as long as we’re going for it, some chocolate syrup!
Make More Brownies!
And don’t forget to buy a copy of the Bigger Bolder Baking cookbook for loads more recipes!
Try These Recipes!
Ultimate Cream Cheese Brownies Recipe
Ingredients
Cream Cheese Swirl
- 1/2 cup (4oz/115g) cream cheese, room temperature
- 1 large egg
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
Brownie Batter
- 1 1/2 cups (7 1/2oz/213g) all-purpose flour
- 2/3 cup ( 2 2/3oz/76g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 1/2 cups (20oz/565g) sugar
- 2/3 cup (4oz/115g) bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped
- 1/2 cup (4floz/115ml) water
- 4 eggs*, room temperature
- 1 cup (8floz/225ml) flavorless oil (veg, canola, sunflower)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup (6oz/170g) semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
Cream Cheese Swirl
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the cream cheese, egg, sugar and flour. Place in the fridge while you make the brownie batter.
Brownie Batter
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and butter and line a 13" x 9" baking pan. Set aside.
- In a large bowl sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Mix well and set aside.
- In a medium microwavable bowl, combine the sugar, bittersweet chocolate and water. Gently microwave for roughly 2 minutes or until the chocolate has melted. Set aside to cool.
- Into the cooled chocolate mixture whisk in the eggs, oil and vanilla until smooth.
- Next, add the dry ingredients to the chocolate mixture and stir until there are no more streaks of flour. Take care not to over mix. Lastly, fold in the chocolate chips.
- Transfer the batter to your prepared baking pan. Smooth the top with a spatula.
- Drizzle over the cream cheese mixture and swirl it through the batter with a knife. Lastly scatter over a few additional chocolate chips on top.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the brownies are set. Take care not to over-bake as you want them to be fudgy.
- Once cooled, remove from the pan and cut into squares. Enjoy slightly warmed with vanilla ice-cream!
- Cover and store in the fridge for up to 4 days. They also freeze beautifully for up to 4 weeks.
Hi Gemma, this is the first brownie recipe I´ve tried that turned out great. The texture and the taste are amazing! Thank you for the recipe! I had to make one tiny little chance in the recipe and that is the amount of sugar. I´m using a scale and when I was weighing out the sugar l was thinking to myself: 565 grams of sugar?! NO WAY! I ended up using about 300 grams. Even then the brownies turned out sweet enough for a sugar junkie like me. But otherwise, like l said, those brownies are delicious. Finished up two… Read more »
Hello gemma do you have a video for this cream brownies. Thanks.
Hi
Why do my brownies sink? I made the cheesecake brownie and the skewer came completely clean but the brownie sunk after it came out of the oven.
Gemma….looks good but I love cakey type brownie. Would should I add or omit to make that please…ty
Hi Gemma, can I use this recipe and add red food coloring to make it red velvet?
I’m not seeing a reference for the asterisk in Brownie Batter (eggs).
A few things are unclear. Why do we need to line and then butter the pan for instance? Are you meaning to say that after lining with parchment that we should still butter the parchment? This does not make sense to me. I followed your instructions to the letter. I used block cream cheese. There aren’t any instructions other than to combine the ingredients. Does this need to happen in a particular order? The mixture looks curdled or like cottage cheese. I added more cream cheese in an attempt to get a better consistency, but its a mess. Not at… Read more »
I made these brownies – actually, as one baker suggested, I used your best ever brownie recipe – and they were delicious – but the cream cheese just dissolved into the brownie mixture when it baked; I had anticipated distinct patches of cream cheese that I could taste –I even added extra cream cheese because I LOVE cream cheese – but alas. What did I do wrong?
Hi Gemma, the brownie recipe for this cream cheese brownie (sans the cream cheese) is very different from your ultimate brownie recipe. Is it possible to use your ultimate brownie recipe and use the cream cheese recipe for this one and combine them together?
substitute for 1 egg?