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Thursday, June 10, 2010

Salted Caramel Brownies (Another sweet and salty duo!!)


Last year I was the Sports Editor of my school newspaper with my friend Rachel.  However, sports is not favorite thing to write about and mostly wrote sports features such as athletes going on spring break and a team dinner article.  So this year I applied to be the features editor and along with the other articles, I am going to be writing a CookTeen feature where I will show new recipes!  For the June issue I decided on Sweet and Salty! (Hence the salted brownie)

The type of sweet and salty in my recipe collection varies from kettle corn to tarts and cookies.  The one thing missing--a brownie! So here it is: The Caramel Salted Brownie

Ingredients for the brownies: unsweetened chocolate, butter, sugar, eggs,  all-purpose flour

Grab some, by some I mean 6 oz worth, yummmy (unsweetened) chocolate and chop it all up

In a glass mixing bowl (or double broiler if your fancy like that) add the butter

and chocolate

PAUSE: Crack the 3 eggs in a smallish mixing bowl and give them a whisk, set aside

Begin melting the chocolate and butter

Smooth and shiny like a bald man's head.  Sorry if that caused you to no want to make these.  Please don't let my word vomit prevent you from making these delicious babooshkas

Once all melty, dump in the 2 cups of sugar

and mix it all up

Until it looks like that! Now remove from heat

Here's for the difficult part--well I wouldn't say "difficult" but rather stressful.  Adding eggs to anything hot causes me to bug out minorly.

So I took a wooden spoonful and stired it into the beaten eggs

Then I just added a little bit at a time and stirred super quickly--hence the lack of photos
Mix "gently"

Then pour in the flour and once again--mix it all up

Pour into a greased 13 x 9 baking dish and bake at 325 for 25-30 minutes
....
Taaa Daa!

Now is will power time--allow to cool completely! 
Confession: I nibbled on the sides a bit because it just smelled so delish
Stare closely into the lower left corner of the pan...

I woke up Saturday morning super excited to make the caramel (oh and slightly nervous!) What if it burns? GAH!

Anyways I survived and the caramel survived! Phew...

Ingredients: sugar, water, light corn syrup, heavy cream, butter (the unsalted kind) and salt

To begin, in a medium saucepan combine the sugar

light corn syrup

and the water

you can give it a stir to make everything all happy

Bring to a boil...this is an early stage

almost at the boil

now there we go--bubbly boil :) boil for about 6 minutes, or until it turns an amber color

Some amber is spotted!

oh yeah..I turned down the heat so I had more control over the caramel

Side note: measured the salt and heavy cream out ahead of time to make my life easier when the sugar mixture was done

Once it reaches pretty amber, pour in the cream, salt and butter

bubble bubble toil and trouble

oh baby baby

Dont forget the butter! Or is that only something I would do?

Stir stir stir stir

smooth and salty ;)
Now let that sit a bit, it doesn't have to be COMPLETELY cool because I am impatient but pretty cool is good enough

all the deliciousness and all the potential

pool of heaven forming

keep going...covering the entire brownie is ideal :)

NOW wait for it to set up a bit before cutting

I am not gonna lie--extremely difficult and messy to cut
Have a paper towel handy, you will need it!


Now Mr. Brownie, cammy and I went on a little adventure in my front yard...
and because food and flowers make me happy


actually, toss in some sunshine, and I am a pretty smiley camper!
Take notice to the pool of caramel forming, its a delicious pool of salty sweet-ness
Delicious!!!!!!!!

ACT's saturday! Last time! Wish me luck!!!

With love and cupcakes,
CookTeen

Recipe:
BROWNIES (adapted from The Pioneer Woman)
Ingredients:

6 ounces, weight Unsweetened Chocolate, Chopped
¾ cups Unsalted Butter, Cut Into Pieces
2 cups Sugar
3 whole Eggs
1 cup All-purpose Flour



Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a 9-by-13-inch pan with butter or baking spray.
In the top of a double boiler over medium heat, melt chocolate and butter, stirring until melted. Add sugar and stir gently until combined. Remove from heat.
In a separate bowl, gently whisk the eggs. Add a small splash of eggs to chocolate mixture, stirring immediately (but still gently). Drizzle in the rest of the eggs, stirring constantly.
Add flour and stir until combined. Pour batter into greased baking pan and spread to even out the surface.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, then remove from oven to cool completely in the pan.


SALTED CARAMEL SAUCE: (adapted from Food and Wine)
Ingredients:
1 cup sugar

1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
3/4 cup heavy cream
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt

In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, water and corn syrup and bring to a boil. Using a wet pastry brush, wash down any crystals on the side of the pan. Boil over high heat until a deep amber caramel forms, about 6 minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat and carefully whisk in the cream, butter and salt. Let the caramel cool and then pour over brownies.  Let set then cut brownies.  Brownies store in an airtight container for 3-4 days.

2 comments:

  1. Hi! I'm a teenage food blogger too =)
    I'm going to be a reporter for features (hopefully) next year and I'm aiming to sneak a couple of food related articles and recipes into the school magazine ;) You're brownies look so rich and delicious! Am appreciating the step-by-step photos. Hope you did well on your ACTs!

    ReplyDelete
  2. This was so good! It took me two tries to make the caramel properly, but the second time it was so good. Good job, I enjoy all your recipes :).

    ReplyDelete

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