This idea and recipe are totally from The Novice Chef's Marbled Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies. She made incredible red velvet heart brownies marbled with cheesecake. I was so in love with hers and wanted to bake them myself. However, with St. Patrick's Day on the horizon I decided to make green velvet brownies in a shamrock shape. They turned out okay, but The Novice Chef's look much better. I can say, though, that they are DELICIOUS!! This recipe is a keeper. AND, she used the cut-out scraps to make a milkshake. Wow. She's a genius! You should definitely visit her site, she has a lot of great things going on.
Green Velvet Cheesecake Brownies
recipe and idea from The Novice Chef
Green Velvet Layer:
3 1/4 cups flour
2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3 large eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
4 tablespoons milk, divided
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons green food coloring
2 teaspoons white vinegar
Cheesecake Layer:
2 8oz. packages of cream cheese, softened
3/4 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Grease 13x18 inch jelly roll pan (I used a cookie sheet with raised sides)
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder, set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, vegetable oil, 2 tablespoons of milk, vanilla extract, green food coloring, and white vinegar.
- Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until completely combined.
- The batter will be very thick, this is the texture you want.
- Remove 3/4 of the dough and place it in a medium bowl.
- Whisk the remaining 2 tablespoons of milk into the 1/4 of dough, set aside.
- Pour remaining 3/4 of the batter into pan. Spread batter smooth with a spatula, making sure it reaches the edges of pan.
- In stand mixer or electric hand mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar until creamy.
- Add eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth with no lumps.
- Pour cream cheese mixture on top of green velvet brownie layer and spread until smooth, again, until it reaches the edges.
- Drop spoonfuls of remaining green velvet batter on top of the cheesecake layer.
- Using a knife, drag through green velvet and cheesecake to create swirls.
- Bake for 30 minutes (or until center is set and no longer jiggly), rotating pan 1/2 way through.
- Let cool completely before cutting shapes with a cutter.
As I said, these taste phenomenal, but they could have been a little cuter! I have something to aspire to, which is fine because I will make these again. I think I will use a little less green food coloring next time. I did scale it back from 1 tablespoon the red velvet called for, but I think these still turned out a little too dark. Anyway, my husband LOVED them. Since he is not a sweets eater, I'm always thrilled to find something to bake for him on special occasions.
Tomorrow, I'm going to take a break from green and make something springy and colorful. Stay tuned!
