Southern Red Velvet Swirl Bars

I actually made these early last week and have just been really lazy about posting the recipe. I love, love, love red velvet so when I saw these pop up on Baked Perfection, I knew I had to try them immediately. Luckily I had all the ingredients I needed and got right to it. They are very similar in taste to a red velvet cupcake, just more dense. I didn't get any individual pictures of the cut brownies, but here are some of them right out of the oven:



Southern Red Velvet Swirl Bars (recipe from Risa of Baked Perfection)

Red Velvet Portion:
1 stick butter, melted
1c sugar
1t vanilla
1/4c cocoa
Pinch salt
1T red food coloring
1t apple cider vinegar
2 eggs
3/4c flour

Cream Cheese Portion:
8oz cream cheese, softened
1/4c sugar
1 egg
1/2t vanilla

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease 8"x8" pan. For red velvet portion: to a large bowl, add butter, sugar, vanilla, cocoa, salt, rood coloring, and vinegar, mixing in between each ingredient. Whisk eggs in a small bowl and add them to the cocoa mixture. Fold in flour until just combined. Pour all but 1/4c into the baking pan.

For the cream cheese portion: beat cream cheese, sugar, egg and vanilla together in a large bowl. Gently spread the cream cheese layer over the red velvet layer in the pan. Place small dollops of the remaining red velvet portion on top of the cream cheese layer. Using a toothpick, swirl the two layers in a swirl design. Bake about 30 minutes. Allow to cool before serving.

Enjoy!