Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies
So, on Wednesday, I decided to try out the Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies recipe that I first saw on Pinterest, which hooked me up to this lovely site. The only problem? I did some googling and realised all the recipes out there were in the US system, rather than the metric style I would have loved. So, I had to settle with some online googling for some rough conversion from the US to metric system. So, here’s the recipe in metric system, with little changes from the site I got the recipe from. Of course, I had to make some changes to the temperature and baking time, given that I am using a convectional oven.
My first attempt on Wednesday ended up with slightly burnt cheesecake brownies, because I forgot I am actually using a convectional oven. So, I made some amendments on my second attempt today. The brownies seem slightly soft this time round. While it still isn’t exactly what I want them to be, they seem much better. Well, they were definitely edible on both rounds. 
Ingredients:
125g butter
55g dark chocolate (I use Nestle’s Dark Chocolate Melts. You can actually add more chocolates if you like, just like how I did.)
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1.5 tsp red food coloring
2/3 cup all purpose/plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
250g cream cheese, room temperature (one of those Philly’s Cream Cheese block)
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1. Preheat oven to 180C (160C if using a fan forced/convectional oven). Line an 8-inch square baking pan with aluminum foil and lightly grease.
2. In a small, heatproof bowl, melt butter and chocolate together. Stir with a fork until very smooth. Set aside to cool for a few minutes. (I used the microwave for this.)
3. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs, vanilla extract and red food coloring. Add in the chocolate mixture and stir until smooth. Batter should be red. If a brighter red is desired, add an additional 1/2 tsp food coloring. Add flour and salt into the bowl and stir until everything is just combined and no streaks of dry ingredients remain.
4. Pour into prepared pan and spread into an even layer.
5. Prepare cheesecake mixture. In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, egg and vanilla extract until smooth. Drop in dollops onto prepared brownie batter. Gently swirl two batters with a butter knife.
6. Bake for 35-40 minutes (bake for around 25 – 30 minutes if using a fan forced/convectional oven), 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. Cool in the pan completely before slicing and serving, either at room temperature or chilled. Brownies can be refrigerated, covered, for several days.
Makes 16 large brownies or 24 smaller brownies
