Red Velvet Brownies

As Valentine’s Day approaches, I’ve started to put some thought into some special treats for those I love.  This is a recipe for a very moist, dense brownie that could be used at Christmas or at Valentine’s Day, but are good any time of the year. I love the dense chocolate flavor combined with the sweet/salty cream cheese frosting.  I made these over the weekend for our Superbowl meal, which is not so much a meal as 4 + hours of grazing!  I think you’ll enjoy these too.

Brownie Ingredients:

1 (4 oz. bar) bittersweet baking chocolate

3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks)

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 (1 oz.) bottle red food coloring

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/8 teaspoon salt

Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients:

1 (8 oz. pkg.) cream cheese, softened

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions for Brownies:

Line bottom and sides of a 8 or 9 inch baking pan with foil and spray with cooking spray.  Allow some foil to extend over the edges to enable you to lift the brownies out of the pan once they are baked.

Chop the chocolate into smaller pieces and microwave the chocolate and butter together in a bowl for 1 1/2-2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds until melted and smooth.

Whisk in the sugar.

Add eggs one at a time, blending well after each addition.

Stir in red food coloring, baking powder, salt, and vanilla and stir until well blended.

Stir in the flour and combine til all is incorporated.

Pour mixture into prepared pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry, not wet (there will be a few moist crumbs, but it shouldn’t be wet).

Allow brownies to cool in the pan completely.  Once cool, lift them out of the pan with the foil, and peel the foil back from the edges to ice.

Directions for Frosting:

Beat cream cheese and butter together until creamy.

Gradually beat in the powdered sugar and salt.

Stir in vanilla and ice cooled brownies.

 You can add white chocolate curls if you’d like, by grating a bar of white baking chocolate with a carrot peeler.

Cut brownies into 16 pieces.  Enjoy!