Red Velvet Cheesecake Swirl Brownies

Okay, so confession time.

I am not a big fan of Cream cheese.

Thats huge! Right?! I'm sure some of you are even appalled by the fact.

But hey! we gotta live with who we are, accept ourselves with all our faults n shortcomings and do the same for our friends.

So anyhoo.....

After my perfectly Fudgy Brownies, I've been wanting to make red velvet brownies for quite some time. I don't know what it is about them that really excites me! Maybe its the texture, maybe its the red colour and not to mention the gorgeous chocolate-y taste but red velvet has, very sneakily I might add, made its way up to the top of my fave dessert flavours.

And these brownies, my brownies, do have the perfect flaky crust with a fudge like dense texture. Beautiful gorgeous little bites of heaven.

And I thought to myself, this would be a great chance to use Cream cheese for a change. Those gorgeous swirly images on pinterest might have helped me a little. *wink wink*

So here's my take on the Red Velvet Cheesecake Swirl Brownies! *whew* Thats quite a mouthful to say!

The recipe is as follows

Serves: 16, 2" pieces

Time taken: 1 hour (incl baking time)

Complexity: ***

You'll need

1 cup butter

2/3 cup flour

2/3 cup brown sugar

3 eggs

1 tbsp vanilla

1 tbsp red food colouring

2 heaped tbsp cocoa powder

Pinch of love

For Cheesecake topping

1 cup cream cheese at room temperature

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup sugar

Method

First, grease your baking pan. I use a square baking pan so its easier to cut down the brownie.

Preheat your oven to 180C or 350F.

In a bowl or a food processor, add the stick of butter and sugar to cream together. I realized after adding them both, that I hadn't changed my blade attachment but trust me, everything works out!

When the butter n sugar are both creamed well enough,

Add in the eggs and a splash of vanilla. Whisk till its all mixed well. Don't let it incorporate a lot of air otherwise the brownies won't be as fudgy.

Next goes in the heaped tbsps of cocoa powder. Give it a whizz.

See how the cocoa powder has gone off n is adhering to the sides

Take care to scrap off the sides so the batter comes together nice and evenly.

Add in the red food colouring.

Next goes in the flour.

The batter's all ready now. Rich, thick, luscious and creamy and RED! (try and ignore the angry red scrapped off batter on the attachement)

For the cheesecake topping, take the cream cheese, add in the egg, sugar and vanilla in a bowl.

Take a whisk or spatula and combine till the consistency becomes like a pancake batter

I line my baking pan with parchment paper, makes it for a easier clean up. Transfer 2/3rds of the red velvet brownie batter in the pan. Spread it out with a spatula. Reserve the other 1/3rd.

Top this with the cheesecake batter. Spread that as evenly as possible.

With a spoon, transfer little lumps of brownie batter on top of the cheesecake mix. I realise this looks a little weird, but trust me.

Now take a tooth pick or a paring knife and swirl it round and about in those lumps. Refrain from overdoing it otherwise the pattern n colours won't be distinctly visible. Tell me this isn't gorgeous! All set to go in the oven to bake for 25-30 mins until the tooth pick comes out moist but clean.

This is it! Freshly baked out of the oven! Smells like heaven!! The aroma of chocolate mixed up with cheese.... yumminess!!

How pretty, if I can say so myself!!

The flaky crust is sheer perfection. The texture so dense.... like velvet itself.

Cut it up in the half and then those halves in halves and you have 16 pcs of this decadent swirly cheesecake chocolatey brownies! A scoop of icecream on top maybe?!

Indulge!