Eggless Red Velvet Brownies with Chocolate Swirls

I had been quite fascinated with the Red Food Colour (McCormick) that my brother had bought me during one of his visits from the US. Since then I had always wanted to try out a bake which would bring out this colour in all its splendour.

I chanced to come across a recipe while sitting at my favourite saloon having my head massaged. I love those massages...it's always followed by a good afternoon siesta! I knew I had to try out a similar bake and that's when these red velvet brownies with the chocolate swirl came to my rescue.

As is evident in these pictures the red did merge with the cocoa powder hence it is not that ravishing red! But I think I am gonna to play around with this more later on in other bakes so as to achieve the perfect red in my bakes. I am not going to try out the natural way yet with beetroot as I am wary about the after taste although those who have tried do assure me that it does not reflect in the bake and gives them the desired redness.

 So, let's bake...I chose to do an eggless bake mainly because I had to gift a neighbour as a token of my gratitude. They do keep an extra key to the house and car while I am not in station and both the Uncle and Aunty are extremely sincere and caring towards me and my family. Sift a cup of APF along with a tsp. of baking powder, half a tsp. of salt and three tbsp. of cocoa powder. After doing this bake, I think I would reduce the cocoa powder by a tbsp. so as to achieve a more prominent red in my next attempt on the same.

 In another bowl, cream about two tbsp. of unsalted butter(at room temperature) along with half a cup of granulated sugar. Add about 100 g of condensed milk and continue to beat. When they all blend in well, add a tsp. of vanilla essence.

Simultaneously set aside some melted dark chocolate( 50g) which will be later used to make the swirls. They must be thrown in as blobs into the batter randomly and with the help of a skewer or toothpick the swirls have to be made later on.

 Once the wet ingredients have been beaten, fold in the sifted flour along with a third of a cup of milk at alternate intervals(that is alternating between the sifted flour and milk). In the end add two and a half tsp. of the red colour liquid and run the beater over the folded batter for less than a minute and that's the coming together of the dry and wet ingredients.

 Once in the baking pan, the blobs of melted dark chocolate have been swirled in. Unfortunately I haven't got the swirls well, they just resemble melted chocolate at random spots.

I wanted to use my new wave loaf pan instead of the standard square pan for brownies hence the shape. Greased the pan well and the batter was poured in, followed by the blobs of warm, melted chocolate. I did throw in a tbsp. of white chocolate chips which also got lost in the bake and because of the shape of this pan.

This was baked in a pre-heated oven for around half an hour or less at 180 degrees C depending on the oven you use and if a toothpick when inserted in the baked cake comes out clean.