Salted Caramel Brownies

Have you ever had the salted caramel hot chocolate at Starbucks? It is ridiculous. So good, really. We were having dinner at a friends house tonight and my contribution was to be wine and dessert. For some reason I was thinking about this sinful concoction that the master minds at Starbucks dreamed up and I thought, hey why don't I make salted caramel brownies? If you like the combination of salty and sweet, these are the brownies for you. I will be making these in the future for sure... my only recommendation may be to use store bought caramel sauce, it was a bit ambitious of me to make my own caramel sauce, having never made it before. It is a tricky little confection to say the least.   

Salted Caramel Brownies 

1 stick butter

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

1/4 cup + 2 T cocoa powder

1 cup flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

Caramel sauce (see below for recipe)

Kosher salt, to garnish

Preheat oven to 350 deg F and grease an 8x8 baking dish with cooking spray.

Melt the butter in a microwave then combine in a medium bowl with the sugar and vanilla. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well with a spoon after each addition.

Add the cocoa and beat until well blended. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and beat well. Pour the batter into the prepared dish and begin baking. 

Meanwhile make the caramel sauce (or if using store bought, heat it slightly to make it more runny to pour). Once the brownies are just about set on the top, remove them from the oven and drizzle with the caramel sauce, making whatever design and using however much you want. The brownies should be nearly cooked at this point. Return to the oven and finish baking until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. If you add the caramel too early, it may either sink into the batter, or even burn. 

As soon as you remove the cooked brownies, lightly salt the top with a few pinches of kosher salt (sea salt would be good too). Don't be too liberal, a little salt goes a long way. You just want a slight hint of salty to balance out the sweet. Serve with vanilla ice cream.  

Caramel Sauce

1 cup of sugar

6 Tbsp butter

1/2 cup whole milk (apparently heavy whipping cream works best, but I didn't have any...use heavy whipping cream if you can! My caramel was a bit runny which I attribute to not having enough fat from the whipping cream)

Heat the sugar over medium heat in a heavy-bottomed 3-quart or larger saucepan (the mixture will bubble up later). As the sugar begins to melt, stir vigorously with a wooden spoon to make sure it doesn't burn. As soon as the sugar comes to a boil, stop stirring. 

When all of the sugar crystals have melted (the liquid sugar should be dark amber in color), immediately add the butter to the pan. The mixture will bubble up considerably. Whisk until the butter has melted.

Once the butter has melted, take the pan off the heat and wait a few seconds (I waited about 5). Slowly add the cream to the pan and continue to whisk to incorporate. It will bubble up again. 

Continue to whisk until the caramel sauce is smooth. Let cool in the pan for a couple minutes, then pour into a glass container and let sit to cool to room temperature. Any unused sauce can be refrigerated for a couple of weeks; heat it up slightly when re-using as the refrigerator will make it quite viscous.