I needed a recipe for something portable and grain free to take to my grandmother’s for Thanksgiving next week. This fits the bill nicely! You all know I love chocolate so the brownies are a given. I had a cup of pumpkin puree in the freezer just begging to be used and I also had some kefir cream cheese on hand. This recipe isn’t raw so it kind of defeats the purpose of using kefir cheese but that is what I had so I used it vs. going out and buying some cream cheese. Either works fine.

Ingredients

For the brownies:

• ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp sea salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 cup maple sugar or rapadura
• 1 ½ cup homemade chocolate or bittersweet chocolate pieces (buy a brand without soy lecithin)
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
• ½ cup boiling hot water
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

For the pumpkin cheesecake topping:

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 2/3 cup maple sugar or Rapadura
• 2 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1 cup pumpkin puree

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 13X9-inch baking dish.

Make the brownies: In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients – cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a food processor, combine bittersweet chocolate and boiling water. Continue processing and add in maple sugar and butter chunks one by one until butter and chocolate are melted and mixture is smooth. Add in the eggs and vanilla and then the cocoa powder mixture. Transfer batter to the buttered baking dish.

Make the cheesecake topping: In an electric mixer, cream together cream cheese and maple sugar until fluffy. Beat in rest of ingredients except the pumpkin puree.

Gently fold in the pumpkin pure and spread cream cheese mixture over the brownie mixture. Bake for 45-50 minutes and cool completely before serving.

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