Knock You Naked Brownies

You may or may not know about my dessert obsession. Much like the Lindt chocolatiers, I dream in chocolate. I literally woke up one morning and decided I needed to make brownies with caramel in the middle. This was shortly after a disappointing experience with stuffed french toast that wasn't actually stuffed - I wanted something to be stuffed properly. So I stuffed some brownies. With caramel. Totally normal.

Side note: Do you say car-mel or care-a-mel? I am a car-mel person, but I am secretly envious of those who say care-a-mel. I feel like the care-a-mels are SO fancy and elegant. I'm not that fancy. I'm just a regular girl who made gobs of brownies for a Super Bowl party.

I saved some of the brownies before taking them to the party. I'm currently staring at the last one. I want to eat it but I don't want them all to be gone. Such are the problems of fat-minded people. 

I found this recipe from the Pioneer Woman. I love her. I don't think she's made a single thing that doesn't look good to me. She made these brownies. I made these brownies. I would marry anyone who made me these brownies.

Don't judge me, but the ingredients are a little strange. You'll need a german chocolate cake mix, evaporated milk, chocolate chips, melted butter, chopped pecans, and caramels.

Start with the cake mix. If you're not a cake mix person, do not jump to decisions too soon. I promise it tastes nothing like a boxed cake.

Mix 1 cup chopped pecans, 1/3 c. evaporated milk, and 1/2 c. melted butter with the cake mix. Use a spoon and your hulk muscles, because this batter is about to get THICK.

Stir. Stir. Stir. It's a lot more difficult than it looks.

Smush it all down. You'll need to create two pieces - one for the top, one for the bottom of the brownies.

Just cut the batter in half and take out one piece. This is half the batter. I know, it's a revelation. I teach fractions to 4th graders.

However, this picture may look confusing. I made a double recipe. Hence, I needed 4 pieces. Don't think about them.

Smush one piece on the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan. Use your hands and press until it covers the entire pan.

Bake for about 8 minutes to set a solid foundation for the caramel.

While you're mixing the batter, have a double boiler going to melt the caramels. You'll need about 60 caramels and 1/2 c. of the evaporated milk.

This took me a while to do. This is about half-way there. Don't give up. Keep stirring. Keep melting. Keep eating the spare caramels.

Admire the smooth, creamy caramel sauce. Enjoy the satisfaction that you were able to finally melt those suckers down.

While the caramels are melting, press the remaining portion of the dough into a piece the size of your pan. Let this sit for just a minute or two.

Pour the caramel sauce over the baked brownie layer. Spread it out so that every portion is covered.

Sprinkle with 1 c. chocolate chips.

Here's what proved to be the most difficult part of baking these - transferring that top layer of brownies on top of the caramel sauce. Mine kept falling apart. I tried to piece it together on top of the caramel, but it didn't work so well. I just rested on the fact that no one will complain that they don't look perfect. Plus, I covered them with powdered sugar so perfection wasn't necessary.

This batch worked a bit better, but still not perfect.

Now, here's the worst part. Bake them for 20-25 min more. But, when they're done, you may not eat them right away. You have to let them cool in order for the caramel to set. I had mine rest on the counter for 20 minutes, then placed them in the freezer for an hour and it worked perfectly.

Dust with powdered sugar. I like to think of it as crack powder. Anything with powdered sugar is highly addictive. People will sell organs for it. Add powdered sugar.

Then use your hulk muscles and cut the brownies.

Perfection. Chocolatey, caramely, nutty, chewy, perfection.