Sinful Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate Brownies

I finally made something I pinned on Pinterest.  And it was every bit as divine as it there appears:

Photo Credit as indicated.  Pinterest Link.

The original recipe is actually for "Chocolate Caramel Brownies" but I was craving salted caramel, super-dark brownies so I basically used Trader Joe's "Fleur de Sel" (salted) caramels and the darkest chocolate I could get my hand on to make these.  Here's the recipe with my alterations.  Please note that I actually halved the original recipe to make just one 8x8 pan - these are insanely rich and there's no way we could have handled a full pan of them.

Sinful Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate Brownies
Makes One 8x8 Inch Pan of Brownies

INGREDIENTS:

For the brownies:
1 stick butter
1 cup ultra dark chocolate chips (Ghiradelli 60% or E. Guittard 63% Extra Dark Chocolate Chips)
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 tbsp vanilla
1/2 + 1/8 cup flour (original recipe calls for 1 1/4 cup and I halved that; I estimated with the 1/8 cup)
1/4 tsp salt (I added, but will consider omitting next time because the caramel is quite salty)
3/4 cup pecans, chopped (optional - I did on half my pan and LOVED)
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips (or whatever you have, really - I used Ghiradelli mini semisweet chips)
For the caramel filling:
7 ounces Trader Joe's "Fleur de Sel" caramel candies, unwrapped (box was 10 oz; I used 21 out of 28 caramels)
1/8 cup heavy cream

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line an 8x8 square baking dish with aluminum foil.  Grease generously with room temp butter or cooking spray (I used butter).  Don't worry if the foil breaks a little (turned out fine for me).
2. In a saucepan on the stovetop, melt butter and 1 cup dark chocolate chips.  Stir as they melt to avoid burning. Remove from heat and stir in sugar, eggs, and vanilla until well-mixed.  Add flour and salt and stir until just mixed.  
3. Spread about half of the brownie dough in the prepared pan.  Bake for 18 minutes.  Cool for 20.
4. As you cool, toast the chopped pecans by stirring frequently in a saucepan over medium heat, until they are fragrant.
5. Make the caramel filling by, once again in a saucepan on low-medium heat, stirring the caramels and heavy cream constantly as they heat.  The mixture will eventually become uniform, even if it takes 5-10 minutes.
6. Pour caramel over baked brownies.
7. Add toasted pecans (if adding).
8. Drop remaining brownie dough in spoonfuls over the caramel and spread as evenly as you can.  Doesn't have to be perfect.  Sprinkle with remaining semisweet chocolate chips.
9. Bake 20 minutes.  Cool completely.  Okay to store in refrigerator but best flavor at room temp.

Caramel filling poured.

Ready to bake.

Final Product:  Too gooey to cut!  (try chilling completely)

Enjoy!

Black Magic Brownies

If you're a lover of intense, deep, decadent, rich chocolate, please try this recipe.  I promise you'll be glad you did.  As a friend once noted, they're almost too intense to technically be brownies, and would more aptly be named "black"ies.  Whatever the name, give these a whirl.  They're perfect any time you have a chocolate craving, but are particularly appropriate around Halloween when all things dark get their time to shine.

These are tiny 1" squares on a tiny plate.  Tiny, intense brownies.

I adapted this recipe from Allrecipe's Best Brownies, by making a few minor changes and one major one:  Using just half of the powdered sugar called for in the icing.  PLEASE trust me and do cut that sugar in half, if you use the Allrecipe's version.  If you don't, the icing ends up stiffer, slightly dry, and overly sweet.  While that was apparently good enough to earn 4.5 stars out of 4,100 Allrecipe reviews, that single significant change takes it to a full five star recipe, in my opinion.

Ingredients:

1 stick butter (or better:  Smart Balance)
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt, slightly rounded (i.e., slightly more salt)
1/4 tsp baking powder

3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup powdered/confectioners sugar
splash or two of cream

Directions:

Grease and flour a square pan (8x8 or 9x9).  A pie pan also works if you don't have a square one.  Preheat oven to 350.  Melt stick of butter in small pot on stove.  Take off heat.  Add sugar, eggs, and vanilla.  Stir until consistent.  Add flour, cocoa, salt, and baking powder.  Stir until consistent again and pour into pan.

Bake for 25-30 minutes.  Do NOT overcook.  If tiny air pockets have appeared all over the top surface, it's done.  Cool at least 30 minutes before icing, but don't worry about cooling completely.  If the icing melts into the brownies, heck, why not; these are even better the next day, after the icing and brownie have somewhat merged into one.  Top with sprinkles if desired.  For a chocolate souffle effect, serve microwaved with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream on top.

The very close up close-up.

Enjoy.  Tell yourself it's healthy because to get this kind of satisfaction from regular brownies, you'd have to eat five times as much ;)  Then proceed to eat that much anyway, and melt away into total euphoric bliss.

These cookies, I believe, will one day usher in world peace.

"The cookie debate is over.  O-ver."  Those words, written about these cookies by Hillary's colleague at the A.P. who wrote a food column with his NYC chef wife, ring in my ears every time I go to make the Best Cookies Ever.

If you really, truly dislike dark chocolate, these cookies may not be for you.  If not, make no mistake:  These cookies are for you.

And they're easy.  REALLY easy.  Easier than chocolate chip cookies, really.  The only potential issue is getting your hands on some Dutch processed cocoa powder.  It used to be right there in the baking section of every grocery store, but now I only ever see natural or a blend.  Using a blend works all right, but these cookies are worth the investment of an order to Amazon.com for some dutch processed good stuff.

These cookies are known as "Korova cookies" and originated in a famous Parisian patisserie.  I've tweaked the recipe a bit over the years, and the following is my version:

Ingredients:

1 stick unsalted plus 3 tbsp salted butter, room temp
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp fine sea salt, rounded.  Not piled high, but softly rounded.
1 tsp vanilla

1 1/4 cup flour
1/3 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small bits (I usually take a hammer to a bar of Ghiradelli 70% cacao, but lately I've become lazy and I use the 60% cacao chocolate chips - either can be found in the baking section of any grocery store ... the actual bar IS better, if you have a hammer).

Instructions:

(1) Sift the flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda together.  If you're feeling lazy, you can just run a whisk through it. 

(2) Beat butter until light and fluffy.  Add sugars, sea salt, and vanilla.

(3) Add dry ingredients to wet, and mix until just combined.  Add the chocolate bits and don't mix much more.

(4) Divide dough in half and form into two logs, about 1 to 1.5 inches thick, like so:

(5) Refrigerate at least an hour.  If you go much more than that, let it soften a bit.

(6) Slice dough about 1/2 an inch thick.  The cookies will fall apart a little, but just form them back into circles as best you can.  Bake on cookie sheet lined with wax paper at 325 degrees for ten minutes.

(7) Enjoy your little slices of heaven.

Starting a Book Club! (aka, Girl Time Please!)

If there's one thing that mommies (and medical wives) don't get enough of, it's girl time.  My mommy friends are always resolving to get together more often, but the reality is we usually only get around to it when someone is having a baby shower, or someone's child is having a birthday party.  Such events can't really count as "girl time" since everybody is still chasing kids and otherwise parenting!

As for me, if Mark happens to be available to watch Matthew that means he's home, and I don't want to miss a minute of him. 

What to do? 

I think we've found a solution.   A few friends and I decided to start a book club.  We're meeting once a month, mainly at my house on Monday evenings at 7:00.  It may seem like an odd time, but it works well for my working-mommy friends who don't have to give up any of their weekend time with their babies, and it works well for me because Mark isn't usually home until after 9:00 anyway.  Can it still count as girl time when I'm hosting and doing M's bedtime routine?  It'll have to!

We had our first meeting last night and it was a blast.  We picked a Valentine's Day theme (since it's February) and the ladies - did I switch from the term "mommies" to the term "ladies"?  Success! - went all out on the food.  Incidentally, if you're reading this and you live in our area, you are welcome to join us!  We're reading "Firefly Lane" by Kristin Hannah for next month's meeting.

I believe a fun escape was had by all, and I was really impressed that everyone pushed for monthly meetings (I had suggested either monthly, every 6 weeks, or every other month).  Even though next month I'll be watching a friend's MS-stricken father for nine days and then out of town another fifteen, these ladies found a way to make it work so we could have it sooner.  (Moms can do anything, don't you think?)

Hopefully this will kill two resolutions with one stone:  More girl time, and more fiction reading.  It's so easy for me to spend M's naptimes at the computer, reading nothing but facebook status updates.  I *love* reading them and I'll press the "more" button on the "most recent" (not just "top news") until I'm back to where I left off.  Reading all the status updates of 469 friends takes a LOT of time!  I'm resolved to be more balanced in my reading, and make time for books once again. 

Some highlights from book club and two worthy recipes:

I've always loved this recipe, from "My French Kitchen."  Chocolate pots-de-creme.  All you do is take 9 ounces of bittersweet chocolate and melt in saucepan (I used Ghiradelli 60% cacao chips from the baking section).  If you keep an eye on it and stir, you don't need to bother with a double boiler.  In another saucepan you heat 3 cups of heavy (whipping) cream until it reaches a simmer.  Combine the two slowly, stirring and heating through until all is uniform (it'll happen, give it time).  Spoon into ramekins (or espresso cups) and decorate as desired (I whipped the remaining cream and the cookies are Trader Joe's Meyer Lemon Thins).  Chill at least 2 hours.  A complete indulgence, but sometimes life calls for those.

On the lighter, but equally tasty side, Kelly made "Fresh Pineapple Trifles with Orange Coconut Cream" from Epicurious.com  Amazing and they went really well with the more-indulgent chocolate dessert (because everyone who needs two desserts knows:  they've gotta mesh well).

The tea set was my grandmother's.  I was so excited to finally use it!

Three of the five attendees, Kelly, Jen, and Susan.  Our new friend Connie was also in attendance!

Jen brought homemade artisan-quality bread - SO good - and Trader Joe's English Cheddar with Caramelized Onions, which I cannot recommend enough.  And Susan introduced me to another new favorite, bread, bleu cheese, and honey!  I loooove mixing salty and sweet and this was simply amazing!  Connie brought red wine, which one can never have enough of :)



Thanks ladies for a great time!  Here's to more girl time and reading more books!