salted caramel brownies

tammy and i had another awesome cooking and baking day this past weekend.  i absolutely love when we cook and bake together.  everything just works out much better than if i’m doing it by myself.  go team!

usually it takes us forever to figure out what we are going to make but this time it was surprisingly quick.  tammy found these salted caramel brownies and a broccoli cream pesto both from smitten kitchen.  i was so excited when she suggested that we make these brownies because i also saw them on smitten kitchen recently and wanted a reason to make them.  perfecto!

these brownies are beyond decadent – the rich brownie dotted with delicious ooey gooey caramel.  however, i love that it includes a nice amount of salt in both the brownies and caramel to help ease the sweetness.  still, enjoy one with a big glass of milk and you will be in heaven.

the salted caramel brownies start with the salted caramel.  this is probably the easiest caramel i have ever made and i think it will be my go to recipe.  though, you can’t deny the greatness of this salted vanilla bean caramel or this vanilla bean caramel sauce.  still this one makes the perfect amount and comes together super quickly.  first put some sugar in a medium saucepan over medium high heat…

and allow it to melt, stirring occassionally.

until it’s a nice amber color.

remove the pot from the heat and then add the butter.  be careful it will bubble up quite a bit.

stir until the butter is mostly melted and incorporated and then add the cream and salt.

return the pot to the heat and cook for a few more minutes.

now pour the caramel onto a plate that is lined with parchment paper sprayed with a little cooking spray.

beautiful caramel – side note: on my goodness the caramel smelled so so so good!

then put the plate of caramel into the freezer for 20-30 minutes to firm up.

while the caramel is cooling, make the brownies.  start by melting unsweetened chocolate and butter in a double boiler.

once the butter and chocolate is melted and combined,

take the bowl off the heat and add the sugar…

and the eggs 1 at a time.  next add the vanilla and sugar.  mix until combined.

finally, add the flour.

the brownie batter is now ready.

once the caramel is set cut it into pieces.  tammy and i most definitely snuck in a few taste tests to make sure the caramel was just right

then stir in the caramel pieces into the brownie batter – but be sure to reserve a few so you can sprinkle them on top.

pour the batter into an 8×8 pan that is lined with parchment paper and sprayed with a little cooking spray.  then top the brownie batter with your reserved caramel pieces.

bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes.

allow the brownies to cool completely before cutting into squares.  you can speed up the cooling process by putting the brownies in the freezer which is exactly what we did because we couldn’t wait to try them out.  the smell of chocolate and caramel was killing us!  we cut the brownies into 16 squares but they could definitely be smaller because the brownies are quite intense.

time to eat!

please hop on over to smitten kitchen for the recipe.

About these ads

Posted by miki on February 21, 2013

http://heymikiheymiki.wordpress.com/2013/02/21/salted-caramel-brownies/