The Culinary Works

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Sweet and savory -- isn't it the stuff dreams are made of? I made these over the weekend and they came out perfect -- dense yet moist with a little bit of "chew" around the edges...my idea of a perfect brownie but I know taste and opinion vary here so if you have a favorite brownie recipe -- feel free to use it and to share your recipe!

Homemade caramel is very easy to make but if you want to "cheat" a bit, you can use 1 cup of prepared caramel sauce and stir in 1 to 1 1/2 tsp sea salt (to taste) to create a quick version of the salted caramel filling. The great part about the homemade caramel is there will be extra left you can store in the fridge for a few weeks for dipping apples in or over ice cream...So bake some up and enjoy the chocolate salty caramel goodness!

For Caramel:

• 1/2 C. (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1/2 C. packed brown sugar
• 1/2 C. granulated sugar
• 1/2 C. heavy whipping cream
• 1 1/2 tsp. sea salt (I have a special vanilla bean sea salt I use - yum!)

In a medium saucepan add the butter and both sugars. Melt over m edium-low h eat, stirring constantly until sugar melts. Stir in the heavy cream, and return the mixture to a boil. The caramel is going to boil pretty high up the side of the pan. This is normal. Allow the caramel to boil for 2 minutes; stirring constantly so that it doesn’t boil over or scorch the bottom of the pan. Scorched caramel = not so good! Do not be tempted to multi task during this time, watch that pot like it's a baby near a hot oven! Turn off the heat and stir in the salt. Now let the caramel and salt do it's thing and cool while you mix up your brownies.

Brownies:

• 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• pinch of sea salt
• 1/4 cup Chocolate Syrup
• Salty Caramel topping
• pinch of sea salt for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 325F.

Melt unsweetened chocolate and butter in small saucepan over low heat until smooth. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes. (You can also do this in microwave safe bowl in 30 second increments, stirring in between each 30 seconds until melted.)

In a bowl, mix together sugar, eggs, and vanilla, and mix until well combined.

Add flour, salt, chocolate syrup and the chocolate butter mixture and blend well to combine.

In a greased 8×8 pan, pour a little over half of the brownie batter and then add about 1/2 of the caramel sauce - if it doesn’t pour smoothly, just plop it in dollops on top of the batter (if you feel you need more caramel in you batter - go ahead and indulge or save the rest for straight off the spoon in the middle of the nite!). On top of the caramel, add the rest of your brownie batter - then take a knife and run it through the batter several times. Bake in oven for 30-35 minutes. Once they came out - I sprinkled a little sea salt on them (I think chopped salted peanuts would be good too!) B e careful not to over bake them. Cool in pan on rack before cutting. The brownies may appear a little shaky, due to the caramel, but they will firm up once cooled.

Glass of ice cold milk anyone?

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