Day 264 – Red Velvet Cream Cheese Brownies

Hello Yearlings!

I have been on a long and thorough journey to find the perfect the brownie for some time and I genuinely believe that I have found it. I love brownies, they’re practically the perfect desert. I have a very long-standing illicit relationship with chocolate and I’m not ashamed of a single part of it. Chocolate is basically the greatest thing ever, it’s for sure one of the major food groups.

I’m not sure if I’ve ever mentioned it, as I imagine most people already probably know, but “red velvet” is actually just chocolate cake with a lot of red food coloring added for effect. Also, as anyone who has seen Steel Magnolia’s can tell you, it’s a huge staple of southern cuisine. If you can’t make a decent red velvet cake then they might as well go ahead and run you out of town on a log. Which is an actual thing; look it up. You could totally skip the “red” part of this if you’re allergic to food dyes and just have some delicious cheesecake brownies.

I found the recipe for these here, but I’ve re-posted it below for convenience.

Mix together all of your wet ingredients for the cake with a spatula, then fold in the flour until just combined and pour into the bottom of a parchment lined 8″ x 8″ pan that you’ve sprayed with a bit of cooking spray.

Then in a separate bowl, mix together your cheesecake filling ingredients with an electric mixer and spoon it onto your cake, creating a separate layer. Then use a spoon to swirl your cake and cheesecake filling together until you get the marbling that you’re looking for.

Bake at 350 F for 30 minutes.

Ingredients:

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted, plus more for greasing pan
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon red food coloring
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon white vinegar
2 eggs
3/4 cup all-purpose flour

For the cheesecake filling:
1 (8-oz.) package cream cheese, softened
3 Tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg yolk

Holy hot damn y’all, these might legitimately be the best brownies I’ve ever made in the whole of my life. I thought about bringing them to work, but I was worried that I would need a special permit to carry them around town, they are that dangerous. I’m surprised too, because normally I like my brownies a lot drier with lots of chewy edge pieces, but these are so dense and moist and delicious that I practically don’t know what to do with myself. They might be too much power for one woman to have.

Lots of Love,

Maya

Day 140 – Death By Chocolate Brownies (From Sally’s Baking Addiction)

Hello Yearlings!

As you might remember from one of my earlier posts I am on a quest to find the perfect chocolate brownie. My first attempt was great, but a little too much like dense chocolate fudge than actual brownie, which isn’t my favorite but Alex loves them. Upon scouring the internet for more recipes I’ve stumbled upon what I think might actually be the perfect in-between to meet both of our brownie needs. I found this recipe on Sally’s Baking Addiction, and you can find the original recipe here. I will also list it below.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Melt your chocolate and butter in a sauce pan over medium heat then set aside to cool for ten minutes in a separate bowl. Once it’s cooled mix in your sugar, water, vanilla and each of the eggs one at a time. 

Fold in flour, cocoa powder and salt. Mix everything thoroughly.

Pour batter into prepared baking dish I used 13×9 because it was what I had but it made them just a little bit too thin, and cook for 35 minutes.

Allow to cool fully in pan, then take out and cut.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (115g) salted butter*

8 ounces (228g) coarsely chopped quality semi-sweet chocolate*

3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar

1/4 cup (50g) packed light brown sugar

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons (80g) all-purpose flour (measure this accurately)

2 Tablespoons (11g) unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

These came out fantastic. They’re satiate that part of me that just deeply craves chocolate and if I had had any chocolate chips in the house wheneverI made these I would have thrown them in. Sadly I was out, but I think it was good regardless. I actually rounded the flour up to a full cup to give them more of a cake-y texture and that was perfect.

Lots of Love,

Maya

Day 57 – Adventures in Brownie Making

Hello Yearlings!

Have you ever just awoken from a dead sleep with a very intense desire to go into your kitchen before the start of your day and bake up a batch of brownies. Me either! My boyfriend on the other hand, felt an overwhelming need to make brownies BEFORE THE SUN WAS UP! I’m still not convinced he wasn’t sleep walking the entire thing. Sadly, because I was out of my wits, there aren’t a lot of pictures of this one but I can give you the recipe.

Melt your butter and your chocolate in a sauce pan over medium heat until combined. Whisking occasionally . Also preheat your oven to 350. 

Combine your eggs and sugar and mix on high with a hand mixer for at least five minutes or until the mixture becomes white.

Mix your chocolate/butter mixture into the eggs and then add the flour and salt stirring until just combined. Then place everything into an 8in foil lined baking pan.

Spread everything out to the corners as best you can, this is a very thick batter and it doesn’t move well on its own.

Then just bake at 350 for 20 or so minutes, take it out and let it cool then turn your back for two minutes so your boyfriend and roommate can sneak in and steal a piece. 

Ingredients:

1 stick butter

2 Ounces unsweetened (100% cocoa) chocolate

2/3 cup cake flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

These brownies are basically fudge with a lightly cakey texture. They’re actually not my favorite, I prefer cake like brownies but the boyfriend likes fudge, and it is the great divide within our house. It’s ok though, I love to always try out new baking recipes, especially when I know that they will be eaten and enjoyed. It’s also a very easy and direct recipe and I really prefer it when my baking recipes don’t call for special equipment. It’s even better when you can make them successfully on an incredibly foggy brain that’s just woken up.

Lots of Love,

Maya