Award Winning Salted Caramel Mocha Brownies

Guest Post...Thanks Ashley!

First Place Brownies at the 2014 Chocolate Festival Fundraiser for Planned Parenthood!!!

Salted Caramel Mocha Brownies

These brownies are a really rich, dark brownie with a hint of coffee and a dribble of caramel sauce.

The base brownie recipe is a modification of one of the easiest and most delicious brownie recipes I have ever found. It is my “go-to” brownie recipe and you can find the original recipe here at Smitten Kitchen: http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2012/08/my-favorite-brownies/

My modified recipe and caramel topping:

Brownies:

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, roughly chopped
1 stick unsalted butter
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder

1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 heaping teaspoon flaky sea salt
2/3 cup all-purpose flour

Heat oven to 350F and grease an 8x8 baking pan (or line with foil for extra easy clean-up).  Melt the chocolate and butter together in a large sauce pot over a double boiler, add espresso power to chocolate mixture and stir until well-combined.  Let the chocolate mixture cool just slightly and then mix in sugar. Mix in eggs one at a time. Add vanilla and sea salt; mix well.  Finally, stir in the flour.  Bake for 20-30 minutes (or until toothpick inserted in center comes out mostly clean with a few moist crumbs).

Cut brownies into squares or hearts like I did for The Chocolate Festival. Bonus: You can eat the scraps if you cut them into hearts. J

Caramel Topping:

Note: If you have a caramel sauce recipe you already use and like, go ahead and use that one. I like this version because there is no gelatin involved, there is just a little bit of corn syrup, and the light brown sugar gives the caramel a really lovely flavor.  Also, I do not add any more salt to the caramel sauce because the brownies are very salty already and sea salt will be used to garnish the brownies at the end.

1 cup heavy cream

½ cup packed light brown sugar

1 tablespoon light corn syrup

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Heat heavy cream, brown sugar, and corn syrup in a medium sized pot until boil.  Be sure to stir the mixture until the sugar is completely dissolved and then you will want to stop stirring and just let the caramel do its thing.  Once the mixture is brought to a boil and the sugar is all dissolved, insert a candy thermometer.  Continue to boil the caramel sauce until the candy thermometer reaches 215F. Heating to 215 will make the caramel sauce soft enough to chew but hard enough to allow you to drizzle it over the brownies. If you want a softer caramel “glaze” remove the caramel mixture from heat closer to 210F or 212F.

Once the caramel mixture reaches 215F (or whatever temperature you decide based on the desired consistency of the caramel sauce), remove from heat and quickly stir in vanilla.  I let the caramel sauce cool just slightly until it began to thicken and then with kitchen mitts (the sauce will still be hot!) and a heavy duty pastry bag, I piped caramel sauce on my heart-shaped brownies in a crisscross pattern.  Any leftover caramel sauce can be stored in the fridge and used to top ice cream! Once decorated with caramel sauce, sprinkle sea salt on top of the brownies and enjoy!