I love Red Velvet desserts! I made Red Velvet Whoopie Pies for our Christmas baking a few years back and everyone wants me to make them again! So whether it’s Red Velvet Cake, Red Velvet Cupcakes, Red Velvet Cookies or Brownies, Red Velvet Truffles, Red Velvet Whoopie Pies, or Red Velvet Pie, I love it all! So what about Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies? Yum, even the name sounds amazing.
This is a fabulous, spectacular dessert your whole family will love. It has a delicious chocolate, red velvet layer and a cream cheese filling swirled into the batter. It bakes up beautifully and is one of those recipes that actually delivers in taste what it looks like in appearance. This is a wonderful dessert to serve during the holidays or Valentine’s Day, other special occasions, or just because! We love this recipe and we think you will enjoy it, too.
Last spring I saw a picture of these decadent, luscious-looking Red Velvet Cheesecake Bars and knew I just had to have the recipe. When I decided to start my own food blog I wanted to include this recipe from Sweet Peas Kitchen. I am so grateful that Christina made this recipe and shared it on Pinterest with all her fans. If you like baking you will LOVE her blog. It’s filled with all kinds of goodies with beautiful presentation. Her original source for the recipe was Baking Bites. That blog has a lot of great looking recipes, too. I am deeply grateful to Baking Bites for creation of the original recipe.
When I served this at a large church social this past Sunday everybody loved it. It’s got great flavor and it’s really not all that difficult to put together. I made a few changes, the main one being doubling the ingredients for a larger pan. I don’t waste my time with a 9″ square pan. If I’m going to take the time to bake, I’m going to get at least 2 dozen of something or more! Most of the time when I double recipes for 9″ pans I usually put them into a 9×13″ pan. However, on this occasion I decided to make it in a 10×15″ cookie sheet instead. It made 48 bars.
Here’s a plate of these delicious goodies.
Here’s another look.
This close up will enable you to see the texture.
Here’s what I did.
Line your cookie sheet with parchment paper or foil to enable the brownies to come out of the pan easier. Spray the paper with Baker’s Joy cooking spray.
Coarsely chop dark chocolate bars. The next time I make this I’m going to use Ghiardelli’s semi-sweet chocolate baking bars instead.
Place butter and chocolate in mixing bowl and melt in microwave.
Stir chocolate and butter together. You can also melt this on top of the stove over a low heat.
Here the chocolate ingredients have been stirred together.
In another bowl add sugar.
Add eggs.
Add real vanilla extract rather than imitation.
Add salt. I like to add the leavening ingredients during this step in any recipe to ensure they get incorporated with the mixer evenly. Since I never use the mixer to stir in flour (since it toughens cakes and cookies) adding salt, baking soda, baking powder or cream of tartar at this stage makes sure the entire batch is raised rather than certain spots raising and other spots not so much.
Add red food coloring. I ended up using a full ounce of food coloring even though that is almost three times the original recipe because it just didn’t seem quite red enough.
Here’s a look at all those ingredients mixed.
Stir chocolate mixture into red mixture.
Now the mixture is a dark reddish brown in color.
Add Flour.
Here’s what the mixture looks like after adding flour.
Pour Red Velvet Chocolate mixture into prepared cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Soften cream cheese in bowl.
Add eggs.
Add pure vanilla extract (not imitation vanilla).
Add sugar. I increased the sugar substantially here since it was low (in both this portion and the chocolate portion) and to counterbalance the dark chocolate in the recipe.
Mix cream cheese ingredients with electric mixer until smooth.
Dollop the cream cheese mixture over top of the brownie mixture.
Because the cream cheese mixture seemed to seep all over the top rather than stay in place I went ahead and smoothed the cream cheese mixture completely over the top.
Insert a knife into the two batters and swirl the layers gently together and marbleize like this.
I cut the bars into 6 rows by 8 rows or 48 bars.
Here’s a look at these spectacular and decadent brownies.
Here’s a close up of this luscious dessert.
Here’s the recipe.
RED VELVET CHEESECAKE BROWNIES
(Recipe adapted from SweetPeasKitchen, source: Baking Bites)
1 cup butter
4-oz. dark chocolate, coarsely chopped (I’m going to use Ghiardelli’s semi-sweet chocolate bars next time)
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
2 tsp. real vanilla extract
1-oz. red food coloring
1 1/3 cups UNBLEACHED all purpose flour
½ tsp. Kosher salt
2 8-oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
1 ½ cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. real vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350°. Put a long piece of parchment paper or foil in the bottom a 10×15” cookie sheet, letting the parchment extend up two sides of the pan and overhang slightly on both ends. (This will make it easy to remove the bars from the pan after they have baked.) Spray the parchment or foil with Baker’s Joy cooking spray. In a small, heatproof bowl, melt butter and chocolate together. Stir until combined. You can also melt butter and chocolate in small saucepan over low heat on the stove. Set aside to cool for a few minutes. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, salt, and red food coloring. Add chocolate mixture and stir until smooth. Add flour and stir just until combined. Do not use a mixer to add in the flour or brownies can become tough. Pour into prepared pan and spread evenly. To prepare cheesecake mixture, beat cream cheese, sugar, egg and vanilla extract in a medium bowl until smooth. Spread the cream cheese mixture over top of the brownie layer. Swirl the two layers together gently with a knife or spatula. Place the pan in the middle of the oven so the cream cheese layer doesn’t brown during baking. If you are cooking multiple pans at once you may have to tent some foil over the top pans to prevent the cream cheese layer from getting too brown. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until brownies and cheesecake are set. To test for doneness, insert a toothpick into the center of the pan and see if it comes out clean. Remove brownies from oven. Let brownies cool completely in pan on a cooling rack before lifting out the parchment paper to remove the brownies. Makes 48.
Here’s a plate of these wonderful treats.
This is a great dessert for Valentine’s Day, Christmas and holiday parties, or other special occasions. Guys, this is a great dessert to make for your sweetheart on her birthday – and it’s not too difficult!
One final close up picture of this fantastic, delightful brownie.
You may also like these Red Velvet recipes:
I just made these tonight and they are cooling as we speak. I was worried since I had not seen posts from others who had made these and how they turned out but I wanted to make these for my boyfriend on Valentine’s Day. I did just half the recipe to see how it would turn out so if it did not work I would have ingredients to use for another recipe but this did turn out well and was easy. The little piece I tasted was delicious!!! I used Baker’s Brand baking chocolate and used a cookie sheet as recommended. I reserved about 1/2 cup of the brownie mix to add on top of the two mixtures and swirl. I think I could have used a slight more cream cheese for spreading but once I swirled them it came out amazing. I was not sure if the red food color would show but it did. All in all, great recipe and easy to make especially late at night. This is definitely a great recipe to make!
Yes, it’s a recipe really worth making often! I’m so glad you liked it.
Sent from my iPhone
I am going to add to my original comment as I brought some in for my co workers and both loved them. I plan on passing more around. I even grabbed a few small pieces for myself too and I am a diet so that sucks because I want more. Thanks for the recipe.
You are so welcome. I hope you try lots of stuff from my blog!
Sent from my iPhone
Red Velvet my favorite !
They really are fabulous!
How amazing! I want one NOW! Yum.
Yep, these would be great for you to put on your holiday baking schedule! Wonderful brownie.
See, there you go with all those beautiful, tempting pictures again
They are beautiful. Surprise your honey with these for his birthday!
Sent from my iPhone
Teresa, these look so scrumptious!
I think you will love these!
Sent from my iPhone
Your brownies look lovely, but can you explain the reasoning behind red velvet? I assume from the recipe that it is chocolate flavored, and certainly the food coloring doesn’t add any taste. Is it just the look that people are crazy about? It’s not common where I live, except now that it’s been introduced via the internet to kitchens everywhere. Please help me understand!
I am not sure. I first heard about Red Velvet cake in the 80s when I got a recipe from a friend. I know it’s been around longer than that. I think it’s based on the beauty of it, but I would have to research the history to know more. I’ll check it out and get back to you.
People always talk about having the “original” recipe from the Waldorf Astoria in New York. Here’s the most interesting link that I found: http://www.gilttaste.com/stories/2290-the-unknown-history-of-red-velvet-cake