American Flag Brownies

These American Flag Brownies are made from a box mix, frosted red, white, and blue, and arranged to look like an American Flag. A patriotic dessert for your Memorial Day, Flag Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day celebrations!

American Flag Brownies

I loveee frosted brownies. I used to wish my lunch box was filled with cosmic brownies in school. To eat them, I’d start by picking off all the colorful chips, and then move on to the fudgy brownie with chocolate. Yum . . .

Anyway, since my pull-apart Rainbow Cupcake Cake was a hit, and Memorial Day is right around the corner, I decided to make pull-apart American Flag Brownies.

These American Flag Brownies are made with three brownie mixes and store-bought frosting. Frosting, cutting, and arranging the brownies are a bit tedious, so I decided to stick with the easy route for baking.

Table of Contents

In this American Flag Brownie recipe post, we will cover:

1. Ingredients To Make American Flag Brownies
2. Equipment To Make American Flag Brownies
3. How To Make American Flag Brownies
4. American Flag Brownie Tips
5. Video Tutorial
6. Recipe Card

Ingredients

You will need the following ingredients to make these American Flag Brownies:

1. Brownie mix: and the mix ingredients, or substitute from-scratch brownies. 
2. Vanilla frosting: or substitute from-scratch frosting.
3. Red and blue food gel: I recommend the AmeriColor Food Coloring Kit.
4. White star sprinkles: I picked the white stars out of my Betty Crocker sprinkles.

Equipment

You will need the following kitchen equipment to make these American Flag Brownies:

1. Stand mixer: to prepare brownie mix (you can use a hand mixer and large bowl instead).
2. Measuring spoons: to measure water, oil, etc.
3. Large spatula: to scrape sides of the bowl and transfer batter to the baking pans.
4. 8×8 baking pans: to bake the brownies.
5. Parchment paper: to line the baking pans.
6. Scissors: to cut the parchment paper to line the pans.
7. Cooling rack: to cool the brownies once they are baked.
8. Mixing bowls: to color red and blue frosting.
9. Small spatulas: to frost the brownies.
10. Chef’s knife: to cut brownies into pieces.
11. Large cutting board: foundation for cutting your brownies.

How To Make American Flag Brownies

There are 5 main steps to make the American Flag Brownies:

1. Prepare The Baking Pans
2. Bake The Brownies
3. Frost The Brownies
4. Cut The Brownies
5. Arrange The Brownies like an American Flag

Each step is detailed below. You can also jump to the recipe card at the end of this post, for summarized instructions.

Step 1: Prepare Baking Pans

Start by greasing the bottom and sides of an 8×8 baking pan with butter or shortening (not nonstick cooking spray).

Next, line the greased pan with two pieces of parchment paper (as pictured below).

Note that this recipe requires three batches of brownies baked in an 8×8 baking pan.

• If you only have one 8×8 pan, it will take a bit longer, but check out other time-saving tips here.
  
• I recommend preparing only one batch of brownie batter in your stand mixer (or mixing bowl) at a time, to ensure each batch has exactly the same about of batter.
• If you have multiple 8×8 baking pans and decide to bake two batches at once, you will need to increase the baking time by a few minutes.
• I don’t recommend baking all three batches at once, because it will overcrowded your oven.

Step 2: Prepare, Bake, And Cool The Brownies

Prepare the brownie mix according to the package (or recipe) instructions.

Next, transfer the brownie batter to the prepared 8×8 baking pan and bake according to the package (or recipe) instructions.

Let the brownies cool completely in the pan on top of a cooling rack on the counter for approximately one hour (this time may vary depending on your climate).

You may also cool the brownies in the fridge to speed this process up.

Step 3: Frost The Brownies

I used three containers of 16-oz vanilla store-bought frosting to save time. You can of course you homemade frosting as well 🙂

While the brownies are cooling, prepare the frosting.

First, transfer the frosting from two containers to their own mixing bowl.

Next, add a few drops of red food gel to one bowl of frosting, and a few drops of blue food gel to the other.

Mix the food gel and frosting thoroughly.

If necessary, add more food gel until you have achieved your desired red and blue frosting.

Frost one batch of brownies with red frosting, one batch with white frosting, and one batch with blue frosting and white star sprinkles.

Step 4: Cut The Brownies

Remove the frosted brownies from the pan by holding the ends of the parchment paper and ‘pulling’ the brownies out of the pan onto a cutting board.

Cut the brownies into nine squares.

I recommend cleaning off your knife after each cut.

Yessss, this is time-consuming, but it will ensure that you don’t get any brownie crumbs in the frosting.

Repeat this step for the remaining two batches of brownies.

Step 5: Arrange The Brownies

You’ll use 24 brownies out of the 27 frosted brownies for the American flag. There will be 3 leftover blue brownies.

• 1st Row: three blue + three red brownies
• 2nd Row: three blue + three white brownies
• 3rd Row: six red brownies
• 4th Row: six white brownies

American Flag Brownie Tips

How To Save Time

Break this recipe up into multiple days by:

1. Baking the brownies the night before. Once the brownies have cooled completely, cover them tightly with plastic wrap and let them sit at room temperature.
2. Coloring the frosting the night before. Leave the color frosting covered with the lid (or plastic wrap) and let it sit at room temperature.

How To Avoid Crumbs In Your Frosting

Frost the brownies before you cut them.

Also, don’t be stingy with your frosting. If you attempt to apply a thin layer of frosting to the brownies, you are more likely to get brownie crumbs in the frosting. You should have approximately 1/4 – 1/2 cup of leftover frosting of each color.

How To Transport And Store American Flag Brownies

The best way to transport these American Flag Brownies to a barbeque or cookout is in a cake cady. They fit perfectly in this Wilton Cake Cady. A cake cady is also the easiest way to store them.

However, if you don’t need to transport these brownies, and you don’t have a cake cady, I recommend the following:

1. Arrange the brownies on your large cutting board.
2. Insert toothpicks around the edge of the brownies.
3. Cover the brownies with plastic wrap.

You may need to ‘touch up’ the brownies with additional frosting once you remove the plastic wrap and toothpicks.

The brownies will stay fresh for 2 days after they are frosted and cut.

I Want To Hear From You!

Are you happy with how your American Flag Brownies turned out? Do you have any questions not covered in this post? Ask and share your feedback in the comments section below!

Also, if you made this recipe, I’d love to see it! Tag me on Instagram at @lifestyledbysam_

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American Flag Brownies

These American Flag Brownies are a patriotic dessert for your Memorial Day, Flag Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day celebrations.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Cutting & Arranging Time 1 hour hr

Total Time 3 hours hrs

Course Dessert, Side Dish, Snack

Cuisine American

Servings 24 Brownies

Equipment

• Stand mixer (or hand mixer and large bowl)
• Measuring spoons
• Large spatula
• 8x8 baking pan
• Parchment paper
• Scissors
• Cooling rack
• Mixing bowls
• Small spatulas
• Chefs knife
• Large cutting board

Ingredients

  

• Butter or shortening to grease the baking pan
• 3 Brownie mixes and mix ingredients or substitute from-scratch brownies
• 3 16 oz White frosting or substitute from-scratch frosting
• 1-2 tbsp White star sprinkles

Instructions

 

Prepare The Baking Pans

• Grease the bottom and sides of an 8x8 baking pan with butter or shortening (not nonstick cooking spray).
• Line the pan vertically with parchment paper.
• Line the pan horizontally with parchment paper (see picture above in Step 1 of the post).

Bake The Brownies

• Bake three batches of brownies mix according to the package (or recipe) instructions.
• Let the brownies cool completely in the pan on top of a cooling rack on the counter for approximately one hour.

Frost The Brownies

• Whilte the brownies are cooling, transfer the frosting from two containers into their own mixing bowl.
• Add a few drops of red food gel to one bowl of frosting and mix thoroughly. If necessary, add more food gel until you have achieved your desired red frosting.
• Add a few drops of blue food gel to the other bowl of frosting and mix thoroughly. If necessary, add more food gel until you have achieved your desired blue frosting.
• Once the brownies have cooled, frost one batch of brownies with red frosting, one batch with white frosting, and one batch with blue frosting.
• Add white star sprinkles to the brownies with blue frosting before the frosting hardens.

Cut The Brownies

• Remove the frosted brownies from the pan by holding the ends of the parchment paper and 'pulling' the brownies out of the pan onto a cutting board.
• Cut the brownies into nine squares* (see note below).
• Repeat this step for the remaining two batches of brownies.

Arrange The Brownies like an American Flag

• You'll use 24 brownies out of the 27 frosted brownies for the American flag arrangement:
• 1st Row: three blue + three red brownies

  2nd Row: three blue + three white brownies

  3rd Row: six red brownies

  4th Row: six white brownies

Notes

* I recommend cleaning off your knife after each cut. Yes, this is time-consuming, but it will ensure that you don't get any brownie crumbs in the frosting.

Keyword American Flag, Blue, Brownies, Patriotic, Red, White