These are my go-to brownies for any occasion. Here's my trick: after all the baking is done, I refrigerate the brownies for several hours, even overnight. Then I take them out, let them sit on the counter for an hour, then cut them. The brownies should be served between room temp and chilled: too warm and they are gooey, too chilled and they are hard as a rock. I haven't adjusted the ingredients at all. These are not brownies you can make in a jiffy, but they are really good.

I've made a few adjustments when making this for the first time, and that was just adding an extra egg to the batter and white chocolate chips! Everyone loved them, but if you're looking for something a bit more firm, as they say, take out a bit of the butter. It was firm enough when it cooled down a bit, but it's literally like trying to lift up a warm cheese cake slice.

I made these for a picnic and they were so gooey that everyone thought they were not fully cooked. I baked them for another 30 minutes and they were still too wet. Yuck. I made them again and took out a stick of butter, added an egg, and doubled the cream cheese portion of the recipe (since the cream cheese in the original was so thin). They were SO much better, but I think 1.5 cream cheese would be better. Mine had about 50% brownie and 50% cream cheese, but I think 66% to 33% would be better.

Delicious! Made this for the first time today for my son's speedskating potluck banquet, and we all love them! I made the recipe exactly as stated, except the base needed an extra 10 minutes, and the topping needed an extra 5 minutes, otherwise, wonderful! The base is more like a chocolate cookie base, so cook it until it is really set in the center, and you will have success!

I really didn't like this recipe. I followed the one that was published in the 2009 holiday amagazine (which has a picture of the criss-cross pattern on the top), and the brownie dough was impossible to pipe on (really thick), and the recipe barely made any cheesecake batter to cover the entire brownie bottom. This recipe needs to be revisited by the Martha editors.

Make me a liar, They need to be baked much longer than the recipe calls for and they need much less butter. Following the instructions exactly, they were practically raw when cut, even after cooling. They are a bit greasy and very buttery. They do taste good though, and could be great with some adjustments.

Why don't my comments come out?

I made these this past weekend and I must admit the cooking process took a little longer than expected. I prepared (baked and cooled) the brownie mixture the night before and placed in the fridge over night. The next day I let the brownie mixture come to room temp and then I went on to complete the cheesecake part. If you want less gooey brownies just bake it a little longer. The middle should be firm and not soft. I ended up baking mine with the cheesecake topping for about an hour and the b

These are so yummy!!!

This recipe is very similar to Russischer Zupfkuchen - a poplular German "cheesecake" sort of dessert. I can't wait to try it!