I've made this recipe for years. Found it originally in the food section of the Washington Post newspaper. There's nothing better than Chocolate and Raspberries! I've renamed the recipe Triple Chocolate Dream Bars, because I substitute White Chocolate for the Vanilla chips. And I use whipping cream instead of milk. The secret to spreading the cream cheese layer cleanly is to make sure the cream cheese is softened well before beating with the whipping cream, and to beat until smooth and very creamy, almost fluffy. Then you add the warm melted white chocolate and continue beating until very smooth, almost fluffy! That's key. Also, do not add more preserves than the recipe calls for. Spread 12 oz preserves over the cake after cooling for 5 minutes (when the cake is still warm) Then allowing the cake to cool completely before spreading on the chocolate cream cheese mixture allows the preserves to set a little. Carefully place blobs of the fluffy cream cheese mixture over the preserves layer and carefully spread to connect the blobs. Last bit of advice is to add 1-2 tbls of cream to the semi-sweet chocolate chips blended with butter. It makes the drizzle mixture smooth, shiny, and much easier to drizzle. As written, the mixture would be suitable for piping (as in her photograph) I drizzle mine lengthwise first, then crosswise for a really pretty design on top. With my suggestions for improvement, this recipe should earn the full 5 stars! Enjoy~

Great combination of tastes but once again I thought it was too messy. I think that the best idea would be to mix the raspberry jam in with the white frosting. Changes the consistency of the dish but makes it much easier to decorate. This would also change the color from white and brown to pink and brown obviously.

These are fabulous!!! DH says they are the best 'brownies' he's ever eaten! This is what I did to avoid the messy mingling of the preserves and cream cheese mixture: I pressed a little more than half of the cake mixture into a 13 x 9" glass baking dish, spread preserves over it and then gently pressed the rest of the crumbly cake mixture on top and baked at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. It came out perfect. I let it cool and then made the vanilla chip/cr cheese topping and it spread easily. I had to swirl the melted choc. w/ the vanilla b/c it didn't cooperate very well and I couldn't drizzle it. It looked like a pricey bakery item like this! This tastes like the best dessert ever! You won't regret making it!

I, too, have trouble with presentation for this recipe. It tastes good, but the raspberry jam and cream cheese topping did get mixed up, even though I chilled the bars between layers. Also, the chocolate "drizzle" never really smoothed out, so it didn't drizzle all that great - might have been alright to just melt the chips without the butter, would have drizzled better, I think. Next time I'll leave the butter out of the drizzle, and I also might try to layer the raspbery jam between two layers of cake instead of just on top of one layer, that way it won't mix with the cream cheese topping. With just a few modifications to personal preference, this recipe is a keeper!

This recipe has potential but, as submitted, I only give 3 stars. You need 2 12-oz jars of raspberry jam or there is very little raspberry flavor. I had a hard time getting the crust mixture to be crumbly but it still worked out ok. I also chilled in the freezer for 30 minutes after I spread the jam so the vanilla mixture wouldn't mix with the jam. I had to thin the chocolate chip/butter mixture with hot water so it would drizzle. I will make again but with changes.

The toppings got mixed together but they didn't last long. One of the best cookies I've ever made, and I've made thousands.

I love these bars. If you love raspberry and chocolate together these are a great treat. They are not great for presentation though. The cheese gets tangled with the jam and you end up with pink swirls. Although once covered with the chocolate drizzle it looks much better. They are worth the effort. They are yummy!