Friday, January 25, 2013

Red Velvet Cream Cheese Swirl Brownies

Valentine's Day is coming! Are you excited? Are you a lover or hater of this love oozing day? 

I personally am a fan of the day, BUT I wasn't always. Before my boyfriend and I started dating I was most certainly not a lover of Valentine's. He actually made his move on Valentine's day of 2009 with two single roses and a "Happy Valentine's Day" and it was the cutest, sweetest thing ever! He nabbed me right then and there! Sorry I'm having a cheese fest here. 

Seriously though I wish I had made more of the holiday before then and wasn't always such a negative Nancy about it. You don't have to be in a relationship to enjoy spreading the love. Do something nice for your Mom or Grandma or even a complete stranger! And really, who says it has to be only on February 14th that we express our love and kindness? 

In fact, you can start spreading the love right now by making someone special these deliciously decadent brownies! That's what I did as a surprise for my Dad last night. Which he didn't end up having one since he went to bed so early...so I sneaked one into his lunch for work today. I bet he was surprised when he went to lunch today! See that? I'm spreading the love!


This recipe was adapted from Culinary Concoctions By Peabody's recipe for "Red Velvet Swirl Brownies", which she adapted originally from Sunny Anderson, host of “Cooking for Real”.

Red Velvet Cream Cheese Swirl Brownies

For the brownies:

1/2 cup (1 stick) Salted Butter, melted
1 cup Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
1/4 cup Cocoa Powder
1/8 tsp Salt
1 Tbsp Red Food Coloring (I used Wilton's Icing Colors in "Red Red")
1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
2 Eggs
3/4 cup Flour

For the cream cheese swirl:

1 (8oz. package) Cream Cheese, softened
1/4 cup Sugar
1 Egg
1/2 tsp Vanilla

1) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Butter or grease an 8 x 8 in pan.

2) In a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer add the butter and sugar. Mix until just combined. Add the vanilla, cocoa powder, salt, food coloring and vinegar one at a time and mix between adding each ingredient until just combined.

3) Pre-whisk the eggs in a separate bowl then mix into the other ingredients. Then using a rubber spatula gently fold in the flour until just combined. Add the batter into the pan, reserving about 1/4 cup of the batter that will be used on the top of the brownies to swirl with the cream cheese layer.

4) To make the cream cheese layer, in a medium sized bowl cream together the softened cream cheese, sugar, egg and vanilla. It will look a little like runny frosting. 

5) Spread the cream cheese mixture over the brownie batter that is all ready in the pan. Dollop the extra brownie batter on top of the cream cheese layer then, using a knife or toothpick, swirl the layers together. Swirl as much as you like until you get the desired level of "swirl". 

6) Bake for 30 minutes, remove from oven and let cool entirely before cutting. 


I drool a little every time I look at these. They're fudgey, creamy, rich and a perfect treat to give to someone you love or care about. Is it me or does the swirl in the left brownie look like a heart? It's love!





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4 comments:

  1. My birthday is valentine's so I always get spoiled, but I am thinking I sure want some of these brownies. Make a batch for the hubby and I can share. Great looking brownies, thanks for the recipe to try.

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    1. That's so fun to have your birthday on Valentine's! I hope you have a very happy birthday! And that the brownies turned out delicious!!

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  2. Hi Bethany_D I hope you don't mind we adapted our recipe from yours and shared the adapted version of the recipe with our community. We couldn't get a really good photo so we used one of your photos. If you have a problem with this we will remove the photo. We have also provided you a back link to your site because we adapted the recipe from yours and used your photo. Let us know if you have an issue with this. Here is our URL (http://recipesharingcommunity.blogspot.ca/2013/04/red-velvet-cheesecake-swirl-brownies.html) We always make sure we have permission before we share with our social communities. Thanks Brad

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    1. Hi Brad, That's totally fine. Thank you for asking for permission. I'm happy that the recipe is getting more exposure. I appreciate it!

      Bethany

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