Valentine's Recipe: Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

With about 2 and a half weeks to Valentine's Day, I've got serious chocolate fever.  Every Valentine's Day (especially the ones when I didn't have a Valentine...), I would always make it a point to treat myself to a very generous amount of chocolate and sugar-filled treats.  

So when I was on Pinterest yesterday and saw this recipe for Marbled Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies, I of course had to print it out and pass it on!  This recipe is compliments of Jessica from The Novice Chef blog who posts all sorts of wonderful deserts and recipes with very helpful photos of the baking process. 

Marbled Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

Yield: 16 hearts

ingredients:

Red Velvet Layer:
3 1/4 cups flour
2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3 large eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon red food coloring
2 teaspoons white vinegar
2 tablespoons milk

Cheesecake Layer:
2 8oz packages cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla

directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13 x 18 jelly roll pan with butter or spray with Baker's Joy.

Whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, salt, and baking powder in a large  bowl.  Set aside and in a medium bowl whisk together eggs, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, red food coloring, and white vinegar. 

Mix together dry and wet ingredients until they are completely combined.  Jessica from The Novice Chef advises that the batter will be very thick (which is exactly what you want!).  

Remove 3/4 cup of the batter and place it in a medium bowl.  Whisk in 2 tablespoons of mlik into this batter and set aside the 3/4 cup of batter. 

Pour remaining batter into prepared jelly roll pan.  Smooth out the batter to reach all edges using a spatula. 

Using your stand mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar until fluffy for about 2 minutes.  Add eggs and vanilla, combining them until there are no lumps.  Pour the cream cheese mixture on top of the red velvet layer and smooth mixture until it reaches all edges. 

Drop spoonfuls of the remaining red velvet batter (that you mixed with milk) onto the top of the cheesecake layer. Drag the tip of a knife through the red velvet and the cheesecake layers to create swirls.

Bake for 30 minutes, rotating half way through, or just until the center is set and it no longer jiggles. Let cool completely on a wire rack before cutting. Use a medium sized heart cookie cutter to create loving little Valentine's hearts!




--Kaitlin