Salted Caramel Brownies - chewy, chocolaty, sticky ...... I could go on.

Early morning start to send one kid to school, walk partner ditched so here I am, balance household still asleep.  I sit with my cup of tea and enjoy the view from my balcony and think what to make for the kids for tea.   

I pull out my collection of recipes - I collect lots and try out few - and browse through them.  There is this amazing picture of caramels that I have been wanting to try but keep putting off as I am the only one who will eat them.  The family wants chocolate - so here goes - I am going to do brownies with caramel.

Still not totally convinced as both the brownies and caramel are too sweet, I remembered the salted caramel apple pie I had done some time back.  Final decision......salted caramel chocolate brownies.

I googled for a recipe, found lots which talked of putting half the brownie mixture in a pan, topping with caramel and then covering with another layer of the brownie mix.    Too much effort for me as I had to finish this and get to work.  What I ended up doing was making the caramel, freezing it, making the brownie mix, pulling out the caramel from the freezer, scooping it out and dropping into the brownie.  This way the caramel melted and spread at random.

The salted caramel, is the same as that used in the apple pie but with less cream. 

Caramel

60 gms granulated sugar

20 ml water

30 gms butter 

1/4 tsp salt

3 tablespoons heavy cream

Brownie

85 grams chocolate, roughly chopped

115 grams butter, plus extra for greasing

200 grams granulated sugar 

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt - 

85 grams flour

Make caramel: 

• Put a piece of butter paper over a medium-sized plate. 
• Lightly butter this to make removal of the caramel easy
• Place water and sugar in a heavy bottom pan and stir with a spatula over low heat till sugar dissolves
• Add butter and stir to combine till butter has melted.
• Let mix come to a boil and cook till a golden caramel colour
• Remove from heat and add in cream.  Mix will foam over.  Using a whisk combine well
• Return to low heat and cook for 10 min till creamy consistancy reached.
• Pour the caramel onto lined and keep in your freezer. 
• Freeze until solidified, which can take anywhere from 20 to 30 min

Brownies: 

• Heat oven to 180°C. 
• Line an 8×8-inch square baking pan with paper, extending it up two sides, greasing lightly
• Over gently simmering water, melt chocolate and butter together. 
• Remove from the heat, stir until smooth and fully melted. 
• Stir in the sugar into the chocolate.  Allow to cool slightly
• Whisk in eggs, one at a time, then vanilla and salt. 
• Stir in flour with a spoon or flexible spatula but do not overbeat.
• Pour into greased dish
• When caramel is semi soft, remove it from the freezer and scoop into small bits.
• Scatter these bits of caramel on top of the brownies. 
• Bake in heated oven for 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool thoroughly before cutting.