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!
