The (adapted) Baked Brownie (with caramel and sea salt!)

Hello and welcome to the new year! This will be a great recipe to start with if any of your resolutions included "enjoying yourself" or "having a good quality of life" or "enjoying what you eat". Let's face it, people, it's not going to work to try to starve yourself of things like homemade brownies. Just consume in moderation and don't forget to move your body a little! Dance around the kitchen at how good these are!

Again, this is not completely my recipe, it's adapted from The Baked Brownie, and I added caramel and sea salt to the mix. The Baked Brownie recipe is available everywhere all over online if you want to take a look at "the real thing". This is pretty darn close.

Here are all of the ingredients- pretty simple, and none of the ingredients I used were special (no fancy chocolate or cocoa, no espresso powder).

Here's your butter and chocolate about to go into the microwave. Breaking up this much chocolate is really fun!

Melt butter and chocolate completely. You don't need to keep microwaving once the butter is all melted and the chocolate halfway there- just keep whisking and it will all melt out smooth.

Add your sugars. This is one of the few brownie recipes that uses brown sugar- I'll have to try this with other recipes!

Crack those eggs in and add that vanilla.

Mix until well incorporated but no more- don't overdo it.

Add all those dry ingredients on top!

Then fold them in gently until just incorporated and no more.

Pour your batter in the pan, add the caramel and sea salt, top with the rest of the batter, sprinkle a little more sea salt on top, then into the oven they go!

The Baked Brownie (with caramel and sea salt)
-11 oz. dark chocolate (I used Safeway (the store) brand)
-1 cup butter
-1 teaspoon instant coffee
-1 1/2 cups sugar
-1/2 cup brown sugar
-5 eggs
-2 teaspoons vanilla
-1 1/4 cups flour
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-2 tablespoons cocoa
-caramel sauce for drizzling, homemade or store bought
-sea salt for sprinkling
Melt the butter and chocolate together, either in the microwave (what I did) or in a double boiler. Whisk in the instant coffee. Add sugars and mix well.
Crack in eggs and add vanilla and whisk together well, but do not over beat or the texture will be more cakey than fudgey.
Add the dry ingredients and use a rubber spatula to fold them in until only slight traces of the dry ingredients remain- you want to keep this batter light.
Pour 2/3 of the batter into a greased (and parchment lined if you have it) 9x13'' or 8x8'' pan. Drizzle with a good amount of caramel sauce (just go by what seems good!) and sprinkle with roughly cracked sea salt. Top with the rest of the batter, then sprinkle a little more sea salt on top.
Bake at 350 F for 30-35 minutes for 9x13'', and 40-45 minutes for 8x8''.

The brownies should come out looking like this- crackly top, just starting to pull away at the edges.

And here's a look up close at all that fabulous. Anything with this much chocolate has to be good and these do not disappoint! They are fudgey and chocolatey and fantastic with a perfect crackly crunch crust. yum!

Savor it!
love, rue