Red Velvet Brownie Hearts

by Destri on February 8, 2010

For those of you thinking ‘not another Valentines post’ don’t worry, you can cut these into any ole shape you’d like. I think I would take red velvet brownies any time of the year! Especially with cream cheese, you just can’t go wrong.

I’m going to level with you, I was worried about these ones. In fact I even called Maria to tell her I had failed and there would be no post for her today. But I held onto hope, finished them up, and took my first bite…my friends there are no words. Then my hubby came home and first said “you made these?” then took a bite and said “mmmmm…wow….are you sure you made these?” Oh yes, they are that good.

I knew I wanted a brownie like texture when I began the thought process on these little beauties, so I did a little research and decided a stick of butter was the way to go. When I opened my fridge to grab the butter I saw my French Vanilla Coffee Creamer, then the bells started ringing.

Red Velvet Thingy-Dingy’s (ding-dong was taken)

Ingredients:

1 box of Red Velvet cake mix

1 stick salted butter, melted

2 eggs

¾ cup of French Vanilla coffee creamer

Pre-heat oven to 350°
Mix all ingredients in a large bowl until well blended
Spread batter onto a 12″ x 17″ sheet pan lined with wax paper
Bake for 13-15 minutes, do not overcook
When finished set on a cooling rack

This is where I started to worry…so don’t worry if it looks a little messy, it turns out okay!

Once cooled, turn over onto another sheet of wax paper and cut out your hearts. I used a heart that was the size of the palm of my hand excluding the fingers. This gave me 12 hearts and six finished treats. You could use a smaller cut out and get more of course, bite size would be fun.

Place the cutouts onto a plate and into the freezer while you make the filling, it will make things a little easier.

For the filling:

8 ounces of Cream Cheese

Powdered sugar

½ tsp Vanilla extract, the good stuff

Notice I didn’t put an amount for the powdered sugar. I don’t like a lot of sugar, some do, so I say just add some a cup at a time until it is as sweet as you want it. Mix all these ingredients until well blended.

Take your brownies out of the freezer spread a good amount of the filling onto one of the hearts. I put a sucker stick into the center as shown to help with the dipping part, but you don’t need to. It just helps if you have them.

Place another heart on top and smooth off they edges. Now one could stop right here. Sprinkle a little powdered sugar on top and you have yourself a delightful little dessert. But for those of us that like to take things to the next level….stick them back in the freezer for about twenty minutes. Then…

…dip it, roll it, spread it….whatever you need to do to get it covered in the melted chocolate. I am not going to lie, this was the messy part, but I did offer an opt out above! I found the easiest way was to dip the bottom in the chocolate then set onto wax paper and put a dollop on top and spread it around on the top and then let it fall off the edges to spread, just like Suzanne showed us yesterday. Fancy that…I already learned something.

You can drizzle alternating colors of chocolate on the hearts and then let them sit on the wax paper for about an hour to set. Then put them on a pretty little cake stand and stand back to admire your handy work. Aren’t they pretty?!