Dark Chocolate Fudge Brownies with Salted Caramel

Holidays, regular days, Friday nights, or Monday mornings… is there not a good time for chewy brownies?

Especially fudgy, dark chocolate brownies, drizzled with warm salted caramel sauce.

I first saw Christine Ha on an episode of Master Chef, Season 3.  I, along with every viewer/judge/contestant, was blown away by her amazing-ness.  She reigned triumphant over 30,000 cooks to win the whole show.

Christine also happens to be blind.  Her story is immensely inspirational, to say the least…

When I turned the pages of Christine’s gorgeous cookbook, I was in awe of the painstaking yet passionate way she has re-learned how to cook, without her sight.  Doubtless, her other senses (taste buds!) are much more refined.

I knew the recipes in Christine’s cookbook would be solid.  When I saw these dark chocolate fudge brownies, I earmarked it in a nanosecond.

Not only are these brownies super easy, they are spot-on with the deep flavor of dark chocolate.  And wonderfully thick and fudgy.  Just my type.

Definitely use good quality unsweetened chocolate for these babies.  Because we all know the brownies will taste like the chocolate they were made from.

I’ve already shared my all-time favorite ooey gooey Triple Chocolate Brownies (wayyy better than any box!), so with this new dark chocolate version, I decided to drizzle with this warm salted caramel sauce.

Which, by the way, is so terrific that I wonder why I ever bought jarred caramel sauce in my life.  Don’t have to buy jarred when you can make your own this easily.  And, it keeps extremely well in your own jar in the fridge.

I’ll speak from experience:  This tasty salted caramel sauce is not only great over these chewy dark chocolate fudge brownies, but the sauce is perfect over ice-cream…sliced apples…popcorn…cheesecake…and anything else you want to smother it on!

Enjoy!

Dark Chocolate Fudge Brownies with Caramel

5 from 2 ratings

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These dark chocolate brownies are dense, rich, fudgy, and the perfect sweetness. The salted caramel drizzle is optional, but it's not 🙂 This caramel sauce is also perfect for ice-cream, popcorn, apple slices, etc. You do need an instant-read thermometer for the caramel.

Servings: 12 -16

Author: Amy Dong

Ingredients  

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For the Brownies:

• 1 cup 2 sticks salted butter, softened
• 4 oz good quality, unsweetened chocolate
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 4 large eggs, lightly beaten, room temp
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup bittersweet, or semisweet chocolate chips

For the Salted Caramel Sauce:

• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 12 TB unsalted butter, sliced into pieces, and softened
• 1 cup of heavy cream
• 1 TB flaky sea salt, you can use kosher salt if you can't find the flaky salt

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350F, and lightly grease a 13x9 baking pan. Set aside.
• In a large, heavy saucepan, melt butter and chocolate over low heat. Stir frequently until smooth and combined. Remove from heat and stir in sugar until combined. Add eggs and vanilla. Whisk by hand to combine thoroughly.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, and baking powder. Using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, add dry mixture to the wet mixture gradually, folding together until just combine. Do not over-mix, as little lumps remaining are fine. Fold in chocolate chips.
• Transfer brownie batter to prepared pan. Bake 27-30 minutes, or just until a toothpick inserted in center comes out with few crumbs attached. Do not bake until toothpick comes out totally clean, or it might be over-baked. Cool completely before cutting.
• For the Salted Caramel Sauce: In a heavy saucepan, place sugar in even layer. Heat sugar over medium-high, whisking frequently. Once it starts melting, whisk continuously as it cooks, until all clumps are melted down. Turn heat down to medium, insert thermometer into the melted sugar, and continue stirring until melted sugar turns red-brown. The minute your thermometer reads 350F, add all the butter (caramel may bubble up aggressively when you do this.) Whisk butter/caramel until completely melted. Immediately remove pan from heat, carefully pour in the cream, and whisk until a smooth sauce forms. Whisk in the flaky salt. Let sauce cool until it's manageable before transferring to a jar. Drizzle desired amount of caramel sauce over cut brownies. Save rest of sauce in fridge for future use on anything you like!

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Course: Dessert

Source:  Chew Out Loud, adapted from Recipes from My Home Kitchen.  Salted caramel sauce from Brown Eyed Baker.