Hi guys! I'm Laura Vitale and on this episode of Laura in the kitchen I want to share with
you my Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies. They are like a brownie layer, like a red velvet
brownie layer with a cheesecake type layer on top. They are out-of-this-world delicious.
Definitely a treat that once in a while are worth having. The ingredients you'll need
are few. Its just kind of basic ingredients. Starting with some granulated sugar, some
unsalted butter that has been softened at room temperature, flour - all purpose flour,
cocoa powder, salt, red food coloring, there's a drop of distilled white vinegar, vanilla
extract, eggs and then you'll need some cream cheese another egg and some more sugar, for
the cream cheese layer. Okay, let's get started. The first thing I am going to do, I'm going
to make this in my standing mixer. I have got my oven preheated to 350. I have got an
8x8 inch baking pan lined with parchment, sprayed with non-stick spray. So we are pretty
much ready to rock and roll. Want to just put my butter and sugar and I'm going to cream
that together really well, because I want that to kind of get as incorporated as I can
get it and then that's - I mean, I already have everything pretty much prepped. But I
am going to wait for that to get nice and combined and then we'll add in the next ingredient.
Just going to add my vanilla and eggs and get those combined. Just going to keep my
eye on that, I want to make sure that it gets combined really really well. And scrape the
bowl with a spatula, if you need to, because sometimes it gets stuck to the sides of the
bowl and you don't want that to happen. I am going to add my cocoa powder and I am going
to do this because I want each ingredient I am going to add to get really well incorporated.
I am just going to scrape the sides of my bowl really quickly and sometimes when you
are making a batter like a brownie batter the cocoa doesn't get mixed in as well as
I like it to, so I am going to add that in now and you're going to - just kind of let
that go in between each one and I am also going to add in my salt and some red food
coloring. You need the red food coloring because you're making red velvet brownies! So you
know - use the one that you like. I want that to be nice and red. You can add your favorite
food coloring, I am also going to add in the drop of distilled white vinegar. And now,
look how red and luscious that looks! A Scrapeemaroo!!! That just means give it a good scrape. I crack
myself up. Okay and add in the flour, alright. Bring this back up and let that get nicely
incorporated. I am just going to tidy up a little tiny bit because we need to be ready
to make our cheesecake-y kind of thing "topping" to put on top of this. I am going to reserve
like a quarter cup of my batter, not much. And then I am going to take the rest, now
obviously you will do a much better job of cutting your parchment paper to fit, than
I did. I am not the best at it, because honestly, you know - if you know me then you know my
patience - huh you know its just not one of the things that I was blessed with. I have
patience with a lot of things, but with tedious things, just not - not my thing. And my husband
luckily totally gets it, because he's the same way. I am going to spread my batter evenly
in my little baking pan here. If you don't want to use the food coloring, by all means
leave it out. But you know this is red velvet after all and I like to use some food coloring.
You could also use, maybe some beet juice or something like that to give it like a natural
red color. But then, you had have to change up the recipe a bit because that'll be adding
a lot too much moisture. And to be honest, I have never done it so I wouldn't even know
where to start. Okay! This looks good, doesn't have to be too perfect. Set this aside. I
am going to set this back here and we're going to get going on making our "cheesecake" kind
of thing to spread on top of this. I have got some cream cheese, you want to make sure
its softened at room temperature - really important. Otherwise this isn't going to work
because it would not cream. And I just like to take my spatula and just work it for like
a few seconds just to get it loosened up a bit. Just going to add my sugar, egg and vanilla.
You need a little splash of vanilla. I am going to switch to my whisk here, just to
combine everything together really nicely and whisk that egg in. Then I'll probably
just end up switching back to my whisk anyway so. Okie-dokie. Just going to pour this all
over the top of my red velvet base and then kind of - oops, go ahead and get these as
even now as you can. Now these are something people go absolutely crazy for anytime I make
them, I mean its red velvet, its brownie and its got like a cheesecake kind of thing on
top of it. I mean how can that be anything but fabulous. Make sure you serve this to
people you really like, because they will stick around. Then I am just going to take
the remaining batter, dollop that on top. And then you just take a butter knife and
you just swirl the batter back and forth. Now another one of my not-so-blessed-things
have been my swirling - is my swirling abilities. They are not the best. But hey, this is as
good as its going to get. But the end of the day if it tastes delicious, isn't that what
matters? Pop this into the oven pre-heated at 350F for around 30 minutes or until they
are completely cooked, then cool them and we'll serve them and slice them. My brownies
were in the oven for about 35 minutes and I have let them cool pretty much completely.
Did you see the beauty of that - parchment paper because you can lift them right out.
And now you can cut them - I mean it does look beautiful right? Even though I am kind
of challenged in that department, I am making things look good when it comes to swirling.
But I am pretty sure that, that looks gorgeous. Just going to cut them like so, I'll get 16
pieces out of this. You can make them smaller if you want to, of course. But, I mean - I
don't want to do my own horn or anything - toot toot. But they look pretty bomb and they are
so good. I just want to place these on, I mean look how beautiful they look. You can
see that the cheesecake top, the cheesecake topping has still a little give to it, the
red velvet brownie part down there is moist and it is soft. Its not going to be dense
and chewy or fudgy but it is just like the perfect texture for what we are going for.
I am just going to give one of these a bite. I am not going to take too big of a bite,
because I do have plans for dinner. I have got people coming over for dinner and I don't
want to be piggish and be like, oh! I ate all your dessert. So dynamite. You can taste
that cheesecake, nothing is really sweet at all. Its just they're just incredible. These
are - must be on your next must-make desserts list because these are really really delicious.
They don't take very long to make at all, easy to put together, very impressive if I
do say so myself. Laurainthekitchen.com will have you covered with the recipe. If you have
any requests for future episodes make sure that you leave them down below because I always
read your comments. I hope you have enjoyed spending time with me guys and I'll see you
next time. Bye bye!