Baked! Salted Caramel Brownies

 

Alton Brown, in my opinion, is one of the most talented and educated celebrity chefs in the world. For this very reason, I look to him whenever I'm curious about trying a new recipe. A few years ago, I was looking for a new brownie recipe, something rich and versatile. I came across Alton Brown's Cocoa Brownie recipe and it was love at first bite. This recipe has become one of my favorite brownie bases to use. In the past, I've used it to create cherry, walnut and dark chocolate brownies. Today, I decided to incorporate one of my favorite combinations: salted caramel. It worked out beautifully! 


Ingredients:

4 large eggs
1 cup sugar, sifted
1 cup brown sugar, sifted
8 ounces melted butter (2 sticks, unsalted)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups cocoa powder, sifted
½ cup flour, sifted
½ teaspoon kosher salt
18 soft caramels (I used Kraft brand)
18 cupcake liners
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Sea salt, for decoration



Cooking Instructions:

Brownie time! Preheat the oven to 300*F. In a small sauce pot, melt butter on medium heat and set aside. Unfortunately, your caramels are probably wrapped. This is a good time to attend to the chore know as unwrapping - pretend it's a gift! Place the caramels in a small bowl and set aside for later use.

In a medium sized bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder and salt. Use a whisk to mix the ingredients together. Set aside.

In a mixer, beat the eggs using a whisk attachment at medium speed until they are fluffy and light yellow in color. Add both sugars and vanilla with the eggs. Alternate adding the melted butter and flour mixture into the egg and sugar. Blend together until mixture is smooth.



Line a cupcake pan with liners. Pour batter into the cupcake liners (3/4 of the way). When they are all filled, place one caramel into the center of each, pressing it half way in. Place brownies in the oven for 20-30 minutes, or until done. Follow this great advice from Alton: check for doneness with the tried-and-true toothpick method: a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan should come out clean. What-a-guy! Once the brownies are out of the oven, sprinkle them gently with flakes of sea salt.

These brownies are best served warm due to the caramel center. However, they're also good room temperature, if you enjoy a chewy center. I didn't hate it. Next time, I'd like to try melting the caramel first and swirling it into the poured mixture with a toothpick.


Options are a great thing to have...
Like I said in the intro, you can also try these brownies with cherries by using 1 cup of canned or fresh cherries, chopped and pitted; walnuts by using 1 cup of chopped walnuts; or dark chocolate by using 1 cup of dark chocolate chips. All of these ingredients can be added as a final ingredient to the mix. Experiment with your own ideas and let me know how it goes!