These Valentine brownies are rich and fudgy homemade brownies loaded with chocolate and M&M’s, then baked to perfection and cut into heart shapes. The perfect treat for Valentine’s Day!
Show your friends and family you love them on Valentine’s Day with dessert recipes like a heart cake, black forest cupcakes, a pink cake or some heart shaped brownies.
You can never go wrong with chocolate, especially for a special occasion. Make some easy and impressive Valentine brownies to celebrate your loved ones!
Table of Contents
Valentine Brownies Ingredients
To make these brownies, you will need unsalted butter, semisweet chocolate chips, granulated sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, all purpose flour, cocoa powder, kosher salt and Valentine’s Day M&M candies.
How Do You Make Valentine Brownies?
Preheat the oven, then line a square baking pan with parchment paper and coat with cooking spray. Place the butter and some of the chocolate chips in a bowl, then microwave to melt them. Stir them together until you have a smooth mixture. Let the chocolate and butter cool a bit, then whisk in the sugar and eggs. Next, add the vanilla extract. Mix the dry ingredients of flour, cocoa powder and salt into the wet ingredients until you have a batter. Fold the rest of the chocolate chips into the batter, then pour it into the pan. Sprinkle the M&M’s on top and bake the brownies. Let the brownies cool, then use the overhang of parchment paper to remove the slab of brownie from the pan. Use a heart cookie cutter to cut shapes out of your brownies, then serve and enjoy.
Tips For The Perfect Brownies
- The type of chocolate chips you use in this recipe makes a difference. I recommend avoiding Nestle chocolate chips, as some formulations contain additives that prevent the chocolate from melting all the way. Choose Guittard or Ghirardelli chocolate chips instead.
- Valentine brownies will stay fresh in an airtight container for up to 3 days, or up to a week in the fridge. You can also freeze your brownies for 2 months.
- It’s best to use a metal heart cookie cutter because the edge will be sharper than a plastic cutter, so your heart shapes will be more defined. I recommend a 2-inch size cutter.
- Don’t have a cookie cutter? It’s also completely fine to cut your brownies into squares!
Quick Tip
You can use either an 8 inch or 9 inch square pan. The brownies will be thicker in the 8 inch pan and cook for closer to 30 or 35 minutes.
Recipe FAQs
The difference between a chewy brownie and a fudgy brownie lies in the composition of the batter. Chewy brownies contain more egg and more flour. This Valentine brownie recipe produces fudgy brownies.
Store your brownies in an airtight container for ultimate freshness. You can place pieces of parchment paper between the brownies so that they do not stick together.
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Flavor Variations
These Valentine brownies are delicious as-is, but you can easily change up some of the ingredients to suit your tastes.
- Toppings: Add some sprinkles to the top of your brownies before they go into the oven. You can also add a drizzle of white or dark chocolate to the cooled brownies.
- Add-Ins: Feel free to add up to 1/2 cup of white chocolate chips, nuts, shredded coconut or Valentine’s sprinkles to your batter.
Heart brownies are always a welcome treat, whether it’s for Valentine’s Day, or simply to show someone you care!
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Valentine Brownies
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter cut into cubes
- 1 ¾ cups semisweet chocolate chips divided use, do not use Nestle
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 ¼ teaspoons vanilla extract
- ¾ cup all purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¾ cup Valentine's Day M&M's
- cooking spray
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8 or 9 inch square pan with parchment paper. Be sure to leave an overhang of parchment on both sides. Coat the parchment lined pan with cooking spray.
- Place the butter and 1 1/3 cups of chocolate chips into a large bowl. Microwave in 30 second increments until the butter and chocolate are just melted. Stir until smooth.
- Let the chocolate mixture cool for 5-7 minutes. Whisk in the sugar, then whisk in the eggs, one by one. Finally, whisk in the vanilla extract.
- Add the flour, cocoa powder and salt to the bowl. Stir gently until just combined.
- Fold the remaining chocolate chips into the brownie batter.
- Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan. Top with Valentine M&M's.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. If you're using an 8 inch pan, you may need to add a few more minutes to the bake time.
- Cool the brownies completely.
- Use the parchment overhang to lift the brownies out of the pan. Cut into hearts with a 2 inch heart shaped cookie cutter. Alternatively you can cut your brownies into squares. Serve.
Notes
- Nestle chocolate chips do not melt as well as other brands. I recommend using Ghirardelli or Guittard chocolate chips.
- The brownies will stay fresh in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
