Dark Chocolate Brownies with Caramel and Sea Salt

A friend is having a birthday so I offered to make him something. This was his request, and I think they turned out well!

Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

Brownies

1 ¼ cup brown sugar
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup flour
2/3 cup dark cocoa powder
½ t salt
½ cup butter, brought to room temperature
3 eggs, brought to room temperature
1 T water
2 t vanilla
1 cup dark or bittersweet chocolate chips

Caramel

1 cup sugar
½ t salt
¼ cup water
1 T vanilla
1/3 cup heavy cream
4 T butter, warmed a little (doesn’t need to be completely room temperature, but it will melt easier if it’s not immediately out of the fridge)
Sea Salt for sprinkling

Directions

Get an 8” or 9” square baking pan and butter and flour it or you can do what I did and just line it with aluminum foil or parchment paper and spray it with non-stick cooking spray. Set that aside.

We’ll start with the brownie batter. In a bowl whisk together the brown sugar, sugar, flour, cocoa powder and salt until well combined. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, mix together the butter, eggs, water and vanilla until well blended. Add in the dry ingredient mix and mix until well blended, then stir in the dark chocolate chips until they’re evenly distributed. Don’t pour into the prepared pan yet.

Next on to the caramel. Add the sugar, salt, water and vanilla into a saucepan. Turn the heat up to medium and stir occasionally until the sugar dissolves. Then, turn the temperature up to medium high and keep cooking and stirring occasionally until it gets that deep golden brown color of caramel. This should take another 5 minutes or so. You can eyeball it to confirm that it’s done, or if you actually have a candy thermometer, when it hits 350 degrees.

When it’s done, take it off the heat and whisk in the cream and butter. Be careful when you pour it in because it’ll spit a bit. Whisk quickly so that it doesn’t harden and continue stirring until it’s well combined.

Get your brownie batter and pour about half of it into the prepared pan. Next, get your caramel and pour about half (maybe a little more) over that. Then cover that with the remaining brownie mixture. Hang on to what’s left of the caramel – we’ll get to that soon enough.

Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes, or until the brownie portion is done.

Take the pan out of the oven and move to a wire rack. Pour the remaining caramel over the top, and sprinkle with sea salt. Let cool completely, cut up and serve!