Red Velvet Oreo Truffle Brownies

Today is a snow day. Well, not actually snow, but freezing rain, which still means that this teacher has the day off. I decided to try and spend some time doing some things that I haven’t had a chance to do in a while. With the holidays having just past and my mother’s birthday, there hasn't been much free time. 

I wanted to bake something for my team of teachers. We have had a rough week back from our holiday break, with deaths in our community and students who aren’t ready for break to end. Plus, our Math teacher has a due date in a few weeks. It’s the perfect time for chocolate.

I pulled up my Pinterest board for all of the tasty looking brownies and bars that I wanted to make and chose to try out the recipe for Red Velvet Truffle Brownies on the Lemon Sugar Blog. I decided to make one change, and that is to the top chocolate layer. The original recipe calls for CandiQuick, but I wanted a "fudgier" feel. I chose to use a different mixture of shortening and melted chocolate chips instead.

I cut them small and brought 30 brownies to work. I came home with zero. The comments I received back was that they were just “so good,” and that they looked so rich, but were surprised that they weren’t overpowering. They were good right out of the oven, a few hours later, and right out of the fridge the next day. 
Success!

Ingredients
1 box Red Velvet cake mix
½ cup butter, melted
2 large eggs
1 (3.4 ounces) package instant vanilla pudding
⅓ cup vegetable oil
1 package Oreos
8 ounces cream cheese, cut into three or four chunks
1 bag Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Chips
2 Tbsp vegetable shortening (I recommend Crisco.)
1 bag mini chocolate chips, for garnish (Use how much you like. I ended up using only half the bag). 

Method

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

2. In a large bowl, combine cake mix, melted butter, eggs, pudding mix, vegetable oil and mix well until thoroughly combined and there are no large, dusty clumps. 

3. Spray a 9x13 pan with nonstick cooking spray.

4. Spread the red velvet batter into the pan. Use a rubber spatula to press into corners and even the top.

5. Bake the red velvet layer for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

6. Crush Oreos in the food processor until a fine dust, then add the cream cheese. When well combined, it will form a large ball. 

7. Using a rubber spatula, spread the Oreo truffle mixture on the top of the cooling baked red velvet brownies.

8. Add the milk chocolate chips and Crisco to a large saucepan and melt them together over low heat, stirring frequently so the chocolate doesn’t burn to the bottom of the pan. Pour the melted chocolate mixture over the top of the Oreo truffle layer.

9. Sprinkle the top with desired amount of mini chocolate chips while still warm, pressing them gently with the back of a wooden spoon so they don’t fall out. 

10. Cut into squares once cooled completely.