Craving: Red Velvet Brownies
This weekend I temporarily lost my baking mojo. I burnt a batch of caramel, ruined shortbread and my pizza dough was a disaster. What was happening? Why did my favorite past time turn on me? …Sunday night rolled around and I felt the need to redeem myself with one last recipe for Red Velvet Cream Cheese brownies. I crossed my fingers, said a little prayer and made a batch. (Insert magic fairy dust noise here) Success! This recipe was so easy-peasy, moist and delicious and best yet, it’s safe to make when your baking mojo has decided to take the day off!
{photo by Freutcake | recipe via One for the Oven}
Red Velvet Cream Cheese Brownies
Red Velvet:
1 stick unsalted butter, (8 Tbsp) melted
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup cocoa powder
Pinch salt
1 tablespoon red food coloring
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
2 eggs
3/4 cup all purpose flour
Cream Cheese:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter an 8 x 8 inch pan. {I used glass}
Brownie layer: Add melted butter to a large bowl and add sugar, vanilla, cocoa powder, salt, food coloring, and vinegar, mixing after each addition. Whisk the eggs into the cocoa mix. Mix in the flour until lightly combined. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan, saving 1/3 to 1/4 cup of the batter for the cream cheese layer.
Cream cheese layer: Blend together cream cheese, sugar, egg, and vanilla in a medium mixing bowl. Spread the cream cheese on top of the brownie batter in the pan. Put the remaining cocoa batter over the cream cheese layer. Using the tip of a knife, swirl through the cream cheese mixture to create a swirl pattern. Bake the brownies for 30 minutes. Remove to a cooling rack and allow them to cool completely before cutting.
To store: wrap remaining brownies in saran wrap and keep in fridge.
Thanks for reading my post! I would love for you to come back and to comment often…it makes me feel loved. Also, sign up for my email list (on the top right) so that I can send you daily inspiration and recipes. Hope to hear from you soon! – Leah
Lucky me, I just started the damn clean program today. So these are going into my ridiculously long list of “things to eat in 20 days”.
Wow 20 days! Good luck MG!
Oh Freutcake!
I am going to make these today to serve with my champagne toast for my Birthday tomorrow! Thanks for posting such a great inspiration! Sounds like Heaven!
Kisses!
Michele
Happy Birthday Michele! xoxo
Oh cream cheese heaven! What a tasty and beautiful dessert
wooooo
Did you use liquid or gel food coloring for these? I’m planning to make these for the Dexter premiere this Sunday and I want to make sure I get a super vibrant red like your lovely brownies!
Hi Amy! I used liquid red food coloring and they turned out very red! Also, try not to “swirl” them too much when you run your knife through because this will mix the batter and cream cheese and make a muddy looking brownie. Hope you enjoy them and have fun!
They are a little too cake like and not enough brownie like for our family
So sorry to hear that! They were very fudgy when I made them.
This may be a completeyly noob question… When you say melted butter, do you mean softened outside the fridge for a bit or completely melted in the microwave? I never know which one to do…
Hi Kelsey, you can either melt butter in the microwave in a microwave safe bowl or melt over low in a small sauce pan. Either way works fine. If you use the microwave check after 30 seconds and stir.
I would love to make these. Did you use self rising, all purpose or cake flour. Looking forward to a reply so that I can bake them. Yummy!
Hi Tammy, thanks for the question! I used all-purpose flour for this recipe.
These brownies look amazing. I can’t wait to try this recipe.
These look absolutely fab! I will put these on my never ending dessert recipe list;)
I can’t wait to try this.
I can’t wait to try this recipe love red velvet cake also.
I makecram cheese brownis all the time never thought about red velvet. this is going to be a great addition to my collection
I’ve been dying to make red velvet brownies lately!
Can’t wait to try these…the cream cheese swirl looks amazing!
The secret to the big, beautiful “swirls” is to not over mix the layers when you run your knife through. Hope you enjoy the recipe!
I’m not a fan of brownies, but Red Velvet is our family’s favorite. I’m going to make these for Thanksgiving!!! Thanks for sharing
Mmmmm that has my name written all over it and that would be so pretty to make for Christmas.
Hi Cat! You’re right..these would be perfect for Christmas!
I’d like this recipe better without the eggs,there’s virtually no use for the eggs.
I am not sure how it would work but this website gives great ideas for egg substitutes in brownie recipes if you are not able to use eggs! http://chefinyou.com/egg-substitutes-cooking/
Would these work just as well in a 9×13 pan or would the middle not cook as well? How long should I cook them for?
I wouldn’t use a pan larger than 8×8. These are a layered brownie and the amount of batter is perfect for an 8×8. It would be too thin in a larger pan. Hope that helps!
What if I double the ingredients?
I am not sure how doubling this recipe would work, please let me know how it turns out!
i doubled the recipe and cooked it for 45 minutes. came out PERFECT!!!! thanks for the fabulous recipe, the bars were so pretty and so delicious!
Yay! Thank you so much for testing that out! Plus…who wouldn’t want a double batch of red velvet brownies! The more the merrier.
Have a great weekend.
These look wonderful!
Made these two days ago for my mom’s birthday, and they so were amazing I had to come back and rave about them. They were better than I had dared hope. Thank you so much for sharing the recipe.
CJ,
Happy Birthday to your Mom. Thank you so much for the sweet comment! I am so glad that you and your Mom liked them.
shouldn’t the sugar in the cream cheese mixture be confectioners sugar?
Hi Kaylee- In this recipe the sugar used in the cream cheese mixture is just regular granulated sugar.
Just made these. They were great! I didn’t read these comments til I’d finished, but next time I’ll know to be more careful when making the swirls to make them bigger (mine ended up being a little muddy looking) but they still tasted delicious!
So glad you liked them!
Thanks for coming back and leaving a comment.
Could you use just a brownie mix and add the red food coloring? Would they turn out the same?
No, I wouldn’t use brownie mix. Red Velvet really doesn’t have that much chocolate in it. In fact this recipe only calls for 1/4 cup of cocoa powder and brownie mix is much more chocolatey.
Ah, very true! Can’t wait to try these! Thank you!
Hope you like them!
I made these last night and they didn’t work! There was soon much butter – when you say a stick do you mean a pound or a half pound stick?
Kate- One stick of butter should only be 4 OZ. or 1/2 cup, 8 Tbsp.
I know this sounds crazy but in some places you don’t buy sticks of butter the way we do in the states… packaging can be different… I wonder if that is what happened to the previous reply…
These look absolutely DIVINE! I am going to make them for a work holiday party. I’m sure they will be delicious!
Hi!
I stumbled upon this recipe, and I decided to try it out for my Christmas dinner.
I added green food colouring to the cream cheese mix, and not only are they festive, but they are delicious! Thanks so much for putting this recipe online!
What a great idea! Thanks for coming back and sharing.
Merry Christmas to you and your family.
I made these for thanksgiving….they turned out amazing..thank you, they were a big hit!!
I can’t wait to try these, I think they will be a hit at the New Years Eve party this weekend! YAY!
My sister made these for our family Christmas… There are no words to describe how amazing they were!! Thanks for sharing this sinful recipe!
Oh good! Thanks so much for coming back and letting me know that you liked them.
Oh dear god these look good! Definitely giving these a shot, i baked for the first time around thanks giving (pumpkin chocolate chip brownies) and they came out a bit more like a really rich cake than a brownie, maybe trying these will help me fix that
this was amazing
thank you so much.
i think i overcooked them, they came out mostly correctly (though they were a bit darker than they look in this pic), but they didn’t taste very sweet, definitely think i overcooked them :’(
Aw, sorry to hear that!
These look delicious! I want to make them tonight. How many does this batch serve? Theres roughly 30 people going, is this enough?
Hi Sarah, this only make one square 8×8″ which I usually cut 4×4 so it makes 16 small brownie squares. Because it is rich you can cut them rather small. If you are serving 30 people you will want to make two batches!
I am planning on making these this weekend, they look so good! However, I don’t have apple cider vinegar. Can I substitute white vinegar or something else?
Yes, you can substitute the same amount of white vinegar.
I made dinner for my roomates JUST so I could use this recipe! These brownies are AMAZING!!!! So moist and fudgy! My pregnant roomie loves red velvet so it was a special treat to her! We all loved them!
I just tried this recipe and did it by the book… And it turned out like a cake.
Greetings from Enid Jones Photography! Thanks for sharing! I think this is going to be made soon! Oh and thank you for being honest! I am not an AMAZING baker….but I think I do a good job. When I come to sites where the food is ALWAYS as it should be….amazing….It makes me want to just order stuff instead of make it. But knowing even the amazing ones out there have down days…makes me feel a little more confident to keep going!
Hope your Baking Mojo stays around though! Good stuff!
these were so yummy:) i made them for a friends wake and they were great, cream cheese with red velvet is a perfect combo.i hope you dont mind that ive blogged about them! (with a link to you of course) thanks for the recipe! great pic too!
So sorry to hear that you had to make them for a friends wake however I’m glad you enjoyed them! And yes, I love that you blogged about them. Thank you for sharing the love.