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Black Bottom Brownies

Black bottom brownie with chocolate chips on a plate.

When we moved to New York in 2010, I was forced to whittle down my cookbook collection. Believe me, losing 3000 square feet of living space will make you whittle down a lot of things. I spent a lot of time and thought considering what books would make the cut.

Black Bottom Brownies combine rich brownies and sweet cheesecake for a delicious treat! - Bake or Break

My collection is about 85% baking books. One of my favorite kinds of baking books is bakery cookbooks. To me, those are just the best. I’m pretty sure all of those made the cut. An old favorite of mine is The Sweet Melissa Baking Book. From that book, I share with you these brownies.

For all of you brownie and cheesecake fans, these will give you the best of both worlds. The bottom layer is a divine dark-chocolate brownie. That’s topped off with a dense cheesecake layer sprinkled with chocolate chips.

These are tall, thick, dense, delicious bars. This is the kind of brownie that can be a great casual snack or a perfect ending to a big, fancy meal. They are more than capable of holding their own for any dessert course.

Black Bottom Brownies

Yield 24 brownies
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 40 minutes

Black Bottom Brownies combine two favorite desserts in one: brownies and cheesecake! Dark-chocolate brownies are topped off with a dense cheesecake layer, sprinkled with chocolate chips!

Black bottom brownie with chocolate chips on a plate.

Ingredients

For the brownies:

  • 6 ounces (170g) unsweetened chocolate
  • 1 cup (226g) unsalted butter
  • 1 & 2/3 cups (200g) all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 4 large eggs
  • 2 large egg yolks
  • 2 cups (400g) granulated sugar
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

For the filling:

  • 16 ounces (454g) cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 1 & 1/2 cups (300g) granulated sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 6 large eggs
  • 1 & 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 cups (340g) semisweet chocolate chips

Instructions

To make the brownies:

  1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Lightly butter a 9″x 13″ baking pan. Line with parchment paper or aluminum foil.
  2. Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler or in the microwave. Set aside to cool.
  3. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
  4. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla. Pour the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture, whisking to combine. Add the flour mixture and stir just until combined.
  5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Spread evenly.

To make the filling:

  1. Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese, sugar, and salt until light and fluffy (about 5 minutes). Add the eggs, 2 at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla.
  2. Pour the cheesecake mixture over the brownie layer. Sprinkle evenly with chocolate chips.
  3. Bake for 1 hour & 15 minutes, or until lightly golden. Cool completely on a wire rack before cutting into bars. Store the brownies in the refrigerator. Serve cold or at room temperature.

Notes

Recipe slightly adapted from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book.

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    37 Comments on “Black Bottom Brownies”

  1. They are cooling now. My house smells wonderful. Don’t think I’ll wait until they get cool to eat one!

  2. If we can have cupcakes, we can have brownies – and what beautiful brownies they make 😀

  3. Delicious! Look forward to baking these. I was in the group, Sweet Melissa Sundays for a short time. Never got around to trying these…but, will soon.

    ~Carmen

  4. These brownies look like complete heaven. I can’t imagine having to cut down on my cookbook collection so completely feel your pain 🙁

  5. These look great. Its funny that they’re called black bottom brownies when the bottom just is the brownie. I love bakery cookbooks too, so beautiful and an insight into delicious treats.

  6. These look fantastic! I was *just* looking for brownies I could make without having cocoa powder in the house.

  7. Cheesecake brownies…one of my very favorite things in the world. Love this!

  8. Hi there – I wanted to love this recipe, but made them today and it came out very cakey. The brownie layer was dry and the cheesecake layer was super fluffy. Any suggestions? Thanks from a fellow baker! p.s. glad to see you posting more often 🙂

    • I just baked these yesterday, and I agree. I know how NOT to overbake brownies, so they weren’t overbaked. I guess I just prefer chewy, fudgy brownies. These were definitely more cake-like. I’m guessing a dozen eggs may have something to do with that. LOL!

  9. Hi, Sarah! There are a lot of eggs in those brownies, so they are cakey. You can see in my pictures that the brownie layer is very dense, making it more of a crust. As for the cheesecake layer, it’s a very thick, fluffy thing. How fluffy is too fluffy? If you want, shoot me an email at bakeorbreak at gmail dot com, and we can talk more about it.

  10. Wow! All I can say is Yum! They look amazing. Of course I love cheesecake and chocolate, so yeah. How do you get it so your reply to the comments show up in pink, I like that.

  11. Hi Jennifer!
    After refrigerating the brownies, they tasted much better 🙂 I think the key is definitely serving them cold! My chocolate chips still sank thru the cheesecake layer, but they are delicious! Thanks!

  12. I made them today. The outside brownies are delicious. But, the center brownies were undercooked. Is there a temp I could test them at to be sure they are done before removing them?

  13. Thanks! Yeah, I should have thought of that. 😉

  14. Hi Jennifer, what did you do so the chocolate chips didn’t sink to the bottom?

    • Mariella, I didn’t do anything to prevent that. I think if your filling is thick enough and not overmixed, it shouldn’t be a problem. Some people like to toss chocolate chips in a little bit of flour to prevent sinking. But, I think that, aesthetically, I might not recommend that for this recipe.

    • I used mini semi sweet chips, and they’re all still on top after baking. 🙂

  15. Can i cut the recipe to half? How long should i cook it then? Thanks

    • Renee, you can half the recipe and use an 8-inch square pan. I’ve never done that, so I can’t give you a definite answer on baking time. I would start checking it around 55-60 minutes.

  16. I just subscribed to your email list!

  17. Has anyone ever tried to freeze these? I accidentally made them for a party that isn’t for a week! Ooops! I know I could eat the whole pan right now, but that would not be a good idea!

  18. Annika, I think these will freeze just fine as long as they’re tightly wrapped and sealed.

  19. hi,my brownies rised a little too much in the oven and it all mixed.do you know what happend? thankyou

  20. Butter the pan then put parchment paper down? Sounds kinda strange.

  21. These did not turn out as expected.  I baked at the temp and time suggested, the cream cheese mixture got crunchy on the top, the chocolate chips sunk underneath the cream cheese and the brownie part was overcooked. Lots of ingredients waisted!

    • I’m sorry you had troubles, Sue! If you didn’t change anything at all about the recipe, then my usual suggestions are to check your oven’s temperature accuracy and make sure your ingredients are fresh and measured accurately.

  22. Hi, 6 ounces are 180 gr? How many ml is a cup?-200ml?Thank you!

    • Hi, Nicole. 6 ounces by weight is 180g, and 1 cup by volume is 237ml. Changing measurements from volume to weight is more complicated. To avoid confusion, I’ve added metric weight equivalents to this recipe. I hope that helps!

  23. Thank you for sharing your recipe. I am a big fan of black bottom cupcakes, and this looked perfect. I have to say I’m a little disappointed that the brownie layer is more like cake than a chewy brownie, but everyone has their own taste in brownies. A dozen eggs is a LOT, so I’m sure that had something to do with it. My husband is gluten-free, so my daughter and I will be sharing with our neighbors and friends. Thanks again!

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