Healthy brownies baked with a raspberry-cream cheese swirl. These oat flour based treats are naturally gluten- and refined-sugar free. Vegan option.
This might be somewhat of a surprising thing to see here, considering I’m not a fan of goat cheese. But Jack is (that’s an understatement)… and literally this is all of his favorite things packed into one decadent dessert. Months ago, I saw this recipe on The Kitchn, and I immediately knew I’d surprise him with it for his birthday.
Of course I’m not going to sit by and watch him eat a pan of brownies all by himself. So I made two versions, a (non-dairy) cream cheese version for me, and this goat cheese version for him. (This was easy to split up without much extra work).
I made a few other healthier alterations – I used maple syrup instead of sugar, oat flour instead of all-purpose, and I used vegan versions of butter and cream cheese. I used a couple of eggs, but you could easily sub those out and this would be vegan. And this happens to already be gluten free!
adapted from The Kitchn
Raspberry & Goat Cheese Brownies
- 1 cup raspberries (I used frozen), lightly mashed
- 5 tablespoons butter (I use vegan Earth Balance butter)
- 5 ounces bittersweet chocolate
- ¼ cup almond milk
- ½ cup oat flour
- ⅛ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup maple syrup
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 2 eggs or flax eggs, beaten
- 4 ounces room-temperature tofutti cream cheese or regular cream cheese
- 1-2 ounces room-temperature goat cheese
- 1 tablespoon room-temperature butter
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla
- Preheat the oven to 350.
- Set the raspberries aside (especially if they’re frozen) to thaw at room temperature while you assemble everything else.
- Make a make-shift double boiler by placing a glass bowl over a saucepan with simmering water. Make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t actually touch the water. Melt the butter and chocolate, stirring so the chocolate doesn’t burn on the bottom. When the chocolate is melted, remove from heat. Stir in the milk. Let the mixture cool to almost room temperature before adding the eggs (unless you’re not adding the eggs, then proceed).
- In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- Into the chocolate bowl, stir in the maple syrup and vanilla. Stir in (already beaten) eggs. Then add in the dry mixture, stirring until just combined.
- Make the raspberry cheese swirl: Whisk (strongly by hand or with a mixer) together the ingredients for the cheese layer – cream cheese, goat cheese, butter, maple syrup, and vanilla - until smooth. As I mentioned above, I stirred this up without the goat cheese, divided it in half, and only added goat cheese to one half.
- Into an 8×8 greased pan (or 2 smaller pans – I used two 5×7 pans), pour the brownie batter. Spoon the cheese mixture on top (doesn’t have to be an even layer). Gently crush the raspberries with your hands and add them (with juice) on top of the cheese layer. Take a knife and swirl the layers in the pan.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes, depending on the size of your pan and thickness of your brownies.
This looks SO good, thanks for sharing! I’ve mentioned this post on my blog today!
This sounds awesome. Thank you for the recipe. Do you make your own oat flour? I was thinking I could just grind oatmeal in my coffee grinder.
I don’t but I’ve heard from many people that you can do just that (or pulse it in a high speed food processor).
Wow, thanks for the lightning fast reply! May I ask one more question – for the flax eggs, since you call for two real eggs, should I double the recipe? I just found out that I’m allergic/intolerant to just about everything so I’m just starting to try new things like this.
Your blog is absolutely gorgeous, BTW. I love the white on white, and I loved your blog about Boots in Spokane, which I will definitely visit if I’m every in Washington again.
thanks! Yea I would try 2 tablespoons of flax seed, and start with 4 tablespoons of water… add a tiny bit more water at the end if you think the batter is way too thick (although this batter is on the thick side).
Hallelujah! You have no idea how happy I am to have found this recipe. I have a child who is allergic to pretty much every grain except oats. You have just made his bday party preparations a hit for everyone… including the bday boy. 🙂
can you use a box of storebought brownie mix for this as well?
sure… you can just put the cream/goat cheese mixture & raspberries on top. Bake it according to your package directions.
These look amazing and I love goats cheese.. i’m going to try them this weekend!
I made these over the weekend exactly as the directions stated with one slight addition (I added just a microscoop of organic stevia powder to the raspberries). They turned out delicious except I had to turn up the oven to 375 and bake for about 10 minutes longer than your directions (8 X 8 glass pan). Even so, they were so delicious, moist and everything I could want in a brownie. I am normally a paleo follower but I did use the oat flour because it was only a 1/2 cup which isn’t that much. I am wondering how these would turn out with almond or coconut flour so that would be my next task. I will be making these again and again! My husband and I polished off the whole pan in one day (we skipped dinner)! This is such a great recipe! Thanks!
Oops, forgot to mention that even at room temp the cheese did not swirl like what you show above. I will melt at a low temperature next time so I can get a great swirl effect.
I got lucky with this swirl – I made 2 pans at the same time and the one not pictured wasn’t nearly as pretty as this one turned out… Swirling is stressful because you only get one shot 🙂
I confess that I became moderately obsessed with the idea of this recipe for days after you posted it. Sadly my version did not look nearly as lovely as yours did (you have such a beautiful and simple aesthetic), but they tasted wonderful. I took more than a few shortcuts (like using brownie mix) but can’t wait to make them again using some of your tips. Thanks for sharing–
Warmly, Stephanie H.
The colorful visual created by the raspberry goat cheese swirl is amazing!
What a flavorful combination for a brownie..
And I love it that it can be made vegan..
OK, this sounds so incredibly delicious….I need to try it! 🙂
YES YES YES! Love this recipe. First of all, it is so gorgeous. But secondly, it is not too heavy that I feel guilty for eating it afterwords. Thanks for sharing!
Your photos are so incredibly beautiful, I want to eat everything you post! Planning on making the cauliflower pizza this weekend, maybe these can be dessert? 🙂
These brownies look incredible! Chocolate + raspberries + goat cheese? An AMAZING combo! I have made some similar brownies but not gf – definitely need to try these for when I need a gf option!
All that photo needs is a fork so I can dive in. I love goat cheese and never thought to add it to brownies… with raspberries… This is genius. I appreciate your oat flour and natural sweetener substitutions, sometimes that can get so tricky!
Oh wow! What a brilliant birthday dessert! 🙂 Do you cater for birthdays? Mine is in two months. *hehe* I am intrigued by the chocolate/goat cheese combo. And adding raspberry to anything immediately makes it that much better.
Without trying to sound super redundant – beautiful photo 🙂
Have a fabulous weekend!
If I made these, I’d have to eat them all myself, since my spouse is the one who hates goat cheese at our house…oh no! I guess I’d better get cracking so I can eat that whole pan of beautiful brownies. 🙂
These are just gorgeous and full of stunning flavours.
Ohmegoodness. These look absolutely delectable. And perfect for my current raspberry addiction!. You’re totally enabling me…
These look ammmmmmmazing and I know my boyfriend would die for them. He LOVES goat cheese too.
I know I would LOVE these. So beautiful…and the flavor combo sounds incredible 🙂
Gorgeous swirl! What sensational flavours. I’m definitely a fan of goat cheese.