Pumpkin Swirl Brownies

I voted today! – Did you?

I’m interested to see the results. Arizona has quite a few propositions on the ballot this election so that part should be interesting!


Did anyone dress up for Halloween? This year I decided to make my costume, so I started a few weeks early to make sure that I got it done on time. After much deliberation, I decided to be a peacock! I sewed both a skirt and corset for my costume, and then basically glued a bunch of peacock feathers to it. I think it came out pretty well! Lance was Indiana Jones – his costume looked pretty good too!


It turns out that Tori Spelling was also a peacock for Halloween – who knew it would be such a popular costume :) Besides..I think mine came out better ;)


Ace Ventura won the costume contest at the place we went for Halloween; his costume was hilarious so I had to get a picture!


I didn’t want to dress up again to hand out candy on Sunday so Hillary and I decided to wear matching outfits to be Siamese twins – no one really asked why we were wearing matching clothes though, which made it much less funny.


Not that we need any more sweets around our house with all of the left over candy – but these pumpkin swirl brownies are really really good. And now a staple for my fall baking :)

I like these basic brownies because I can make them with ingredients that I always have on hand. I don’t need chocolate chips, chunks or anything special. Plus they are super easy to make! You really don’t ever need a boxed mix for brownies, this will do the trick! It’s really easy to add things to spice it up too. I added a pumpkin mixture that I found from Betty Crocker to make these great for fall!



Pumpkin Swirl Brownies
Ingredients:
Brownies:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Pumpkin Filling:
3 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1 egg
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F°

Grease an 8 inch square pan.

To prepare brownies:
In a large saucepan, melt 1/2 cup butter. Remove from heat, and stir in sugar, eggs, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Then beat in cocoa, flour, salt, and baking powder until combined. Set aside

*If making brownies without pumpkin filling, spread all of the batter into prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes.

Prepare filling:
In a medium size bowl combine cream cheese, pumpkin, egg, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg with an electric mixer until well combined.

Pour half of the brownie batter into the prepared pan. Spoon pumpkin mixture over the batter. Top with remaining half of brownie mixture. To achieve marble effect, run a knife through the batter a few times to swirl.

Bake for 40 to 25 min or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted into brownies. Let cool completely before cutting.