Salted Caramel Deliciousness

Have you met my friend Salted caramel?  

I become easily obsessed with things, and right now it's all about salted caramel.  

Lately, I have been focusing my taste bud efforts on Molly Moon's salted caramel ice cream.  It is seriously delicious.

I had to make an Easter dessert to take to my in-laws and I decided to introduce my family to my obsession. I googled around and found to bloggers who bake- women after my own heart.  Better yet they bake Salted caramel BROWNIES!!!!!

OMG I died just looking at the photos of brownies.  Then I sent them to Chris and his only response was "Yummmmmmmmmm."

I used both recipes to make my perfect recipe.  Thanks to the Brown Eyed Baker and She's becoming DoughMesstic for the great recipes and inspiration.

Salted Caramel Brownies

Brownies

4 ounces Ghirardelli semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped

3 ounces Ghirardelli unsweetened chocolate, chopped
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into quarters
3 tablespoons Hersey cocoa powder
3 eggs
1¼ cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
Fine sea salt

Sea Salt Caramel – adapted from Baked Cookbook

• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• 1/4 cup sour cream

1. In a small saucepan, combine the cream and the salt.  Simmer over very low heat until the salt is dissolved. set aside.

2. In a medium saucepan combine the sugar and corn syrup carefully. They will not combine well until the sugar begins to melt. Cook over high heat for 4 to 8 minutes.  Without a thermometer, just pull the sugar off the heat when it is a medium goldish brown – it will continue to cook in the heat of the pan. Better to pull it too early than too late.

3. Add the cream mixture and the vanilla to the sugar mixture almost right away after you pull it off the heat.  Whisk in the sour cream. If the caramel starts to get hard, put it back on heat so that you don't get any hard bits.  Once it is all whisked together, let the caramel cool to room temp. Transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate any leftover caramel.

4. Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease baking pan.

5. Melt the chocolates and butter in the microwave in 30-second increments, stirring after each, until melted and smooth. Whisk in the cocoa until smooth. Set aside to cool.

6. Mix together the eggs, sugar, vanilla, and salt in a medium bowl until combined, about 15 seconds. Whisk the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture; then stir in the flour until just combined. Pour about a third of the brownie mixture into the prepared pan and spread into the corners. Spoon 5-10 dollops of Salted Caramel Sauce on top of the brownie batter. Add another third of the brownie mixture and level the surface with a spatula. Again, spoon 5-10 dollops of the Salted Caramel Sauce on top of the brownie batter, then do one finally layer with the rest of the batter and caramel. With a dull butter knife, gently run it through the batter to swirl the batter just a bit (don’t do it too much or it will all mix together). Sprinkle a bit of sea salt on top.

7. Bake until slightly puffed and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a small amount of sticky crumbs, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool on a wire rack to room temperature, about 2 hours.

Yum-O

For Easter, we each had big warm/melty slices with vanilla bean ice cream on top.  It was Heaven.

I repurposed the left over brownies into "brownie bites" which make them seem almost healthy.... almost. 

If you have baking recipes you want to share with me, I will love you forever. This brownie recipe was adapted from Brown Eyed Baker and the Salted Caramel recipe was adapted from Doughmesstic.