Desperate Housewife Bars

What is a Desperate Housewife Bar? Long story short, they are the most delicious bar-shaped food in the history of humanity. They come from this adorbs little restaurant in my hometown called the Rocky Mountain Cafe. When I was home, my home friends and I decided it was necessary that we try to emulate the recipe!

So, we made something up using different recipes for the brownie base, raspberry cheesecake middle, and chocolate ganache layer. And it was a DELICIOUS success.

This was our prototype

For the brownie base, we used the Fry's Cocoa brownie recipe:
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter
1 cup cocoa, Fry's 
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
Melt butter in a pot on the stove on a medium-high and then stir in the cocoa and sugar. Once all have dissolved together, remove from heat and add the other ingredients. Pour it all into a greased 9 x 13 casserole dish or baking pan, and set aside to make the cheesecake mixture.

We ended up not using the whole base mixture because we were worried it might be too tall, but I would say for next time we would dump it all in. 


For the raspberry cheesecake layer, we used this recipe:
16 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract


Mix all of that with an electric mixer until thoroughly blended, then pour on top of the brownie mix. Then, sprinkle fresh or frozen raspberries throughout the cheesecake layer. 

Bake this at 350 degrees F for about 30-45 minutes; you might just have to watch it and wait until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

While that is baking, make some chocolate ganache to top. We made some from this recipe, but doubled it:

1/2 cup whipping cream

3 oz chopped dark chocolate


Bring cream to a boil in a pot on the stove, and then pour hot cream over chocolate in a bowl and let sit until everything is melted. 


When the cheesecake brownie part is fully cooled, top it with the ganache, and then place in the refrigerator until fully set. 

You're welcome.