Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies (Recipe)

In honour of my sister's birthday, I decided to make her a special treat. I combined all of her favourite things...red velvet, cheesecake and brownies...into one delicious dessert! What can be better than this? Not much! In the end, they were a big hit and my sister was thrilled with her personally-tailored surprise. The brownies were rich and decadent and sinfully delicious. They also paired quite nice with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream!

To experience the taste of heaven in your mouth, simply follow these easy directions:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 2 oz chocolate, coarsely chopped (dark or semi-sweet)
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 tsp red food colouring
• 2/3 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 tsp of vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter the bottom and sides of a 8 inch metal baking pan. Put a long piece of parchment paper in the bottom of the pan, letting the parchment extend up two sides of the pan and overhang slightly on both ends. (This will make it a lot easy to remove the bars from the pan after they have baked.) Butter the parchment.
2. In a small, heatproof bowl, melt butter and chocolate together. Stir until combined and very smooth. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs, vanilla extract and red food colouring. Add chocolate mixture and stir until smooth. Add flour and salt and stir until just combined and no streaks of dry ingredients remain.
4. Pour into prepared pan and spread into an even layer.
5. To prepare cheesecake mixture, beat cream cheese, sugar, egg and vanilla extract in a medium bowl until smooth. Distribute the cheesecake mixture in 8 dollops over the batter in the pan. Swirl in with a knife or spatula.
6. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until brownies and cheesecake are set. A knife inserted into the cheesecake mixture should come out clean and the edges will be lightly browned.
7. Let cool completely in pan on a cooling rack before lifting out the parchment paper to remove the brownies.

Yields: 9 large brownies

Verdict: Melt-in-your-mouth delicious (they would also make a great treat for Valentine's Day)

Prep Time: 25 minutes

Bake Time: 35-40 minutes

Rating: 9/10