Red Velvet Brownies with Chocolate Swirls

Excuse me. But how cute are these? I love how romantic these chocolate swirl brownies turned out, which makes them absolutely incredible to serve for Valentine's Day this week. I made them this past weekend to prepare this post for you all, and boy was my boyfriend ecstatic. The brownies are nice and moist (sorry, but that is the perfect word), and the chocolate swirls give them a crave-able texture. Plus they are bright red (which made them hard to photograph), and who can be mad at bright red brownies? I would take these over red roses any day.

Red Velvet Brownies with Chocolate Swirls

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 egg, room temperature
• 1 cup brown sugar, tightly packed
• 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
• overflowing 1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 bottles of red food coloring
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Prepare an 8x8-inch baking dish by lining it with tin foil and spray it with non-stick cooking spray.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a microwave safe bowl, melt the butter until just melted. Let cool slightly before adding in the egg, as not to scramble it.

Whisk the egg, brown sugar, and vanilla extract into the butter until smooth and creamy. Whisk in the cocoa powder until smooth.

Add in the first bottle of red food coloring. Mix well until you can see the coloring changing. Add in the second bottle of food coloring teaspoon by teaspoon, mixing well between each addition until you get the desired red color you would like. 

Add the flour and the pinch of salt and mix until just combined. Be careful not to over mix.

Pour into the prepared baking dish. Set aside while you melt the chocolate chips.

Melt the chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl in 30 second increments, mixing each time before cooking again. Once the chocolate is completely melted, use a small spoon, and drizzle 4 large lines parallel to each other over the red velvet brownie mix in the baking dish. 

Then take a toothpick and pull from end to end, perpendicularly to the chocolate stripes to create a more decorative swirl design. Otherwise, just drop the chocolate by the spoonful and drag the toothpick all around to create random swirls.

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes until firm and cooked all of the way through.

Let cool overnight so that the chocolate has time to set before slicing into 16 squares and serving with a glass of cold milk or a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

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