Salted Caramel Brownies and a Forgotten Birthday!

Tags

baking, brownies, chocolate, salted caramel

I feel terrible. I actually forgot my blog’s first birthday. That’s almost as bad as forgetting my child’s birthday! Ok, maybe not that bad, but still… Other bloggers do giveaways, others bake themselves cake… I not only forgot the day (which was the 5th), I also haven’t even blogged for a whole month. Inexcusable! As a belated Happy Birthday (at least it’s still February) I baked myself some brownies. Not just any old brownies mind you. No, these are extra decadent, extra sweet, extra fattening and extra delicious. They have a layer of melty, sticky, gooey caramel oozing out of the middle. Uh huh. Yup. Caramel. To be precise, salted caramel. Even better. Check out the golden stuff trying to escape from within the chocolate sandwich of fudgy-in-some-spots, crunchy-in-other-spots, brownie layers.

And how about those shapes? Clever or what? Another idea I wish I could call my own. In fact it’s Smitten Kitchen’s, the blog that made me want to try making these. Cut the brownies with biscuit (cookie) cutters! Not only do you get great shaped brownies, you also get a whole load of bits left around the edges that need cleaning up. Unfortunately/fortunately you just can’t serve these bits to anyone. I’m sure you know where I’m going with this… (yes, I ate ALL the straggly bits myself).

After getting the initial inspiration from that blog post, I thought I would skip making caramel from scratch and try using up a bag of caramel sweets I’d had stashed away for ages. I bought the sweets after seeing a recipe somewhere for something, then promptly forgot what and where that recipe was. So the sweets have been patiently waiting their turn to be transformed into a gorgeous dessert. I did some more research and found this recipe on She Makes and Bakes. Perfect. The only change I made was to use 3 tablespoons of evaporated milk in the caramel mixture, instead of cream. I couldn’t bring myself to open a carton of cream just for a couple of spoonfuls. For some reason I don’t have the same sensitivities about plain old evaporated milk. My next mission is to research whether I can freeze it – I’ll let you know!

Salted Caramel Brownies

Ingredients

1/2 cup (115g) butter
180g dark chocolate, chopped (or chocolate chips)
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 Tbs vanilla essence
1/2 cup + 2 Tbs plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
200g milk caramel sweets (the square, quite hard ones)
3 Tbs evaporated milk (not sweetened condensed milk)
1/4 tsp + a pinch of sea salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line a baking tin with foil, leaving some foil overlapping two sides (you’ll use this to lift the brownies when cooled). My tin is 18×24.5cm (about 7×9.5″), you don’t want anything much bigger than that. Spray lightly with cooking spray.
2. Melt butter and chocolate in a bowl in the microwave, at 30 second intervals. Bring the bowl out and mix after each blast, otherwise you might end up with a huge mess in there. Have you ever seen butter explode in the microwave? Scary.
3. In a large bowl stir the sugar, eggs and vanilla with a wooden spoon. Be enthusiastic about it, until well incorporated. No, you don’t need the electric mixer for this.
4. After the chocolate mixture has cooled slightly add it to the other ingredients in the bowl, by pouring in a steady stream while stirring continuously.
5. When that is fully incorporated and the mixture looks glossy, stir in the flour and salt. Mix until you can’t see any flour.
6. Pour half the batter into the tin and bake for about 15-20 minutes, or until it starts pulling away from the sides and firms up on top. It will become a little lighter in colour as well.
7. Bring the tin out of the oven and cool for another 15 minutes or so.
8. While that is cooling, melt the caramel sweets, milk and 1/4 tsp salt in a microwave proof bowl. Again, do it in 30 second intervals because you’re always better safe than sorry. I think caramel might also have explosive properties. Mix well between blasts and keep going till it’s nice and smooth.
9. Pour the caramel over the cooled brownie layer, trying not to get right to the sides so it doesn’t run down the sides. However, it’s not the end of the world if it does.
10. Stick the remaining brownie batter in the microwave and blast for about 10 seconds, or enough so that the mixture becomes more spreadable again (it will have firmed up while waiting). Blob it around over the caramel layer in the tin, and try as best you can to spread it evenly. Get to the edges so you sort of seal the caramel in.
11. Sprinkle a pinch of sea salt on top of the batter and bake for about 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out fairly clean. With brownies you never get completely clean toothpicks, but they shouldn’t be very gooey and chocolatey either.
12. Let brownies cool in the pan. I tried to remove them after 10 minutes and the top got all cracked. When completely cool, cut with cookie cutters and clean up the remaining bits by eating them quickly before anyone sees you.

Sharing the brownie love…
Twix Caramel Brownies by Two Peas and Their Pod (these are gooooood)
Bacon Brownies by Nigella Lawson (tried and tested – you don’t even know the bacon is there)
Salted Caramel Frosted Kahlua Brownies by Tracey’s Culinary Adventures
Roasted Cherry Brownies by Tracey’s Culinary Adventures
I could go on and on…
Oh, and guess what… looking through my bookmarked recipes to create this list, I found the recipe for which I bought the caramels!
Chocolate Chip Salted Caramel Cookie Bars by Two Peas and Their Pod

A Glass of Dessert

Tags

banoffee, chocolate, dessert, pots, salted caramel

Two important things happened the day before yesterday. Number one, we had two friends over for dinner, number two, I reached the end of the third week of a “healthy eating” regime (more commonly known as a diet – an unsuccessful one). I was soo ready to enjoy a yummy dinner finished off with a much missed plate/bowl/anything full of sugary sweetness. People sometimes ask what I enjoy more, cooking or baking, sweet or savoury, main course or dessert. I wish I could say “oh I love ..[enter appropriate option].. but I can live without ..[enter other one]… Nope. For me it’s both. I love both, what can I say? I’ve heard it’s characteristic of Taurians to appreciate food. So there’s just nothing I can do really, is there?

I especially like having dinner parties; don’t get me wrong, I’ll still make an effort even if it’s for one (me!), but having people round gets me in a frizz of excitement and menu planning days before the event. This usually results in a pretty large variety of dishes, quantities to feed a small army, and at least one period of blind panic when I just know it will all be a catastrophe. I call it perfectionism; the Mister and my mum call it being psycho and promptly remove themselves from the near vicinity for fear of flying pans and a lot of bad language.

I am getting better at all this, I must say, and each time I feel more in control. I’m also becoming more realistic in terms of what I can achieve in the 3 hours between getting home from work and the estimated time of arrival of our guests. A good example of this is Friday’s meal. I decided on lasagna, since I could prepare the bolognaise and béchamel beforehand, leaving only the assembling and baking for that 3 hour interval. This would give me enough time to make side dishes and dessert! There was still, however, no way I was going to fit in making say a cheesecake. So the night before, after the bolognaise was in the slow cooker and the béchamel was ready in a tupper on the balcony (which I have been using as a huge fridge lately!), I went to bed with my iphone and looked up some recipes.

The first one I chose was for these yummy and easy looking Salted Caramel Chocolate Pots from the BBC Good Food website. They seemed ideal (minus the faffy grissini) especially since I had a can of dulce de leche waiting to be opened. “Ah, but will these be enough?” the obsessive side of my brain chirped, “surely you should provide a second option! And what will you do with the leftover caramel?” (“eat it all with a spoon while watching Law & Order” was the answer from the other side of my brain, but I ignored it). Then inspiration hit! What do I normally use caramel for? Banoffee Pie. What would be easier than that, and wouldn’t leave too many tempting leftovers? Mini Banoffee Pies. Ooh, in a martini glass! Definitely a hostess-with-the-mostess presentation, but with a minimum effort dessert.

The verdict? Top marks all round. The choc pots were great, although very rich. A layer of biscuit (cookie for my US friends) in between might have helped “break” the richness for those whose tooth is a little less sweet, but for me it was fine as is. The banoffees… well they were sublime. So much so that today I dove into my extra one completely forgetting I had put it aside to photograph it for this post. Oops.

Salted Caramel Chocolate Pots from BBC Good Food
Note: the original recipe is for 2 portions, but I doubt anyone could take so much richness in one go. I used the same quantities for 4 smaller servings, having in mind that we would also be eating the banoffees.
What you’ll need:
4 heaped Tbs dulce de leche or canned caramel (*see note at end)
½ tsp salt plus extra to sprinkle on top of the chocolate
85g dark chocolate
85g milk chocolate
100ml heavy cream
50ml milk

What you do:

• Mix caramel with the ½ tsp salt, divide between 4 small glasses and put into the fridge (or on the balcony if it’s cold enough!).
• Break the chocolate into pieces and put into a microwave safe jug. Melt it in the microwave 20 seconds at a time, on high. After each 20 second interval mix it with a spoon and make sure it’s not burning. Try not to lick the spoon. When there are only a few lumps left stop microwaving and just stir it till it’s all smooth. Leave it for a few minutes to cool slightly.
• Mix the cream and milk together, and stir it into the chocolate until incorporated. Pour mixture into the glasses over the caramel (try to get it around the edges first, then the centre). Return to the fridge. Before serving sprinkle some coarse salt on top.

Salted Caramel Chocolate Pot

Mini Banoffee Pies
What you’ll need:
6 digestive biscuits (or graham crackers if you’re in the US)
1 Tbs butter
1 large banana
Squeeze of lemon juice
150ml dulce de leche or canned caramel*
150ml heavy cream (cold)
1 tsp powdered drinking chocolate or cocoa OR some grated dark chocolate, to decorate

What you do:

• Crumble your biscuits. You can do that using the zip-lock bag and rolling pin method (I’ve never found this practical), the food processor method (shame to dirty the FP for 6 biccies) or the manual method (break into small pieces and crumble by rubbing together with your fingers). They don’t have to be completed crushed, as we aren’t making a pie base here (if the biscuit sets into a crust it might be hard to break with a spoon in a delicate glass).
• Melt the butter in the microwave and mix into the crumbs, using your hands. Spoon the crumbs into the glasses and gently press into the bottom. Chill (the glasses, not you). Do something else for a few minutes.
• Chop the banana into round pieces and squeeze some lemon juice over them. Mix the banana pieces with the caramel and spoon over the biscuit. Chill.
• Pour the cream into a bowl and whisk until it forms stiff peaks. Spoon cream over the banana/caramel mixture, or use a piping bag if you want to really show off (my need to show off ends when it means washing up fiddly kitchen gadgets or wasting a perfectly good zip-lock bag).
• Sprinkle drinking chocolate (such as Cadbury’s) or cocoa over the top. To make it even prettier grate some dark chocolate and sprinkle that instead. Chill until it’s time to serve.

*Dulce de Leche Note:
You can make your own very easily. Take a can or two of sweetened condensed milk (do NOT open), put them in a deep saucepan, fill with water making sure the cans are covered by an inch or two (depending on how deep your pan is) and bring the water to the boil. When it’s boiling turn the heat down and simmer for 2 hours. Keep checking because the water will evaporate. Top up every so often with boiling water, so the cans are submerged at all times. This is important – honestly – I’ve heard stories of the cans exploding! Turn the heat off and leave the cans to cool in the water for a while. Remove the cans from the pan and let them cool completely. Use up one can by making banoffee pie or mini pies. Leave the other in the fridge for emergencies (or for the next episode of Law & Order!).

Oops