Salted Caramel Brownies

I recently failed at making brownies. I tried to make them healthier. I failed. Then I figured, "why on Earth should I try to make brownies healthy?!" Brownies are one sweet that are at their best when chock full of butter, sugar, chocolate, and (in this case) salted caramel sauce.

This recipe comes from a friend of a friend. I only modified* it because I do not have a 13x9 inch pan. This recipe works great for either an 8x8 or a 9x9.

Salted Caramel Brownies

Salted Caramel Sauce

1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp water

1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp sea salt (fluer de sel)
2 tbsp sour cream

Bring the sugar and water to a boil. Boil for about 6-8 minutes until an even, deep amber color. Caramel goes from brown to black in a hot second, so be watchful. Add the cream. It will sputter and seize and be all kinds of angry. Whisk away until everything calms down. Add the salt and whisk. Add the sour cream and whisk until smooth, slightly salty, and slightly tangy. This is the most delicious caramel sauce. Ever.

Brownies

1/2 cup butter, cut into 8 pieces
1 cup ghiradelli dark chocolate chips (roughly half of a bag)

2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp dark cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs plus 1 egg yolk

Mise-en-freaking-place

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8x8 or a 9x9 pan. Line the pan with parchment paper, buttering the paper afterwards.

In a large metal bowl over simmering water, melt the butter and chocolate chips together. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and cocoa powder.

Once the butter and chocolate is melted, add in the vanilla and the sugars. Stir until combined and cooled down. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing by hand until incorporated. Be careful not to over mix. Add the flour mixture and fold it in, again being careful to mix only until combined.

The mixture will be rather gloppy. Pour half the batter into the prepared pan. Smooth out the batter. Pour about 3/4 of the caramel over the batter, swirling it into the batter. Add the rest of the brownie batter and do the best you can with it. The caramel will peek out, so stir until you're satisfied. These guys are meant to be messy, but they'll bake up just fine.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes for the 8x8 pan, rotating the pan halfway through. If you use the 9x9 pan, I would reduce the cooking time by at least 5 minutes. As always, check the brownies for doneness sooner rather than later. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out with a few moist crumbs attached.

Top the brownies with the remaining caramel and a sprinkling of extra sea salt. Cool completely before cutting and serving.



*To make the recipe as it was originally double everything. The flour would actually become 1 1/4 cups, though, you would use 5 eggs, and you would want to use the entire bag of the chocolate chips.

Building My Repertoire

So far, I've made two original cupcakes: the Limey Bastard Cupcakes and the Banana/Brown Butter Cupcakes. This week, I'm adding a S'mores Cupcake to the list.

Now, I'm aware that this is not an uncommon concept in a cupcake. However, I've always been disappointed with the execution. Usually, it's a chocolate cupcake rolled in graham cracker crumbs (or a graham cracker crust for the adventurous) with a marshmallow frosting. The frosting, at least, makes sense to me. A 7-minute or Swiss Meringue frosting is pillowy soft and very much like a marshmallow. That's clearly the best place for the marshmallow component. However, I've always wondered why no one makes a purely graham cupcake. After all, there is graham flour, and graham crackers can easily be crushed into flour.

I found a couple graham cupcake recipes, but they were either inaccessible or used with completely different fillings and toppings. I decided on Vanilla Garlic's Graham Cupcake to start with. I've made some alterations and decided the best filling is, without a doubt, a simple semi-sweet chocolate ganache. Sure, I love bittersweet as much as the next guy, but I only ever make s'mores with semi-sweet chocolate.



S'mores Cupcakes

Graham Cracker Cupcake

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
6 tbsp granulated sugar + 2 tbsp honey
3 eggs

1 cup milk

1 cup flour
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs*
1 tsp baking soda**
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

1-2 graham crackers, crumbled but coarse

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and prepare a 12-cup muffin tin by lining the cups with cupcake liners.

First, crush the graham crackers until they are fine and powdery (a food processor works wonders here, but they can be crushed by hand as well). Measure out 1 1/2 cup. Sift the graham cracker flour, all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.

Next, in a stand mixer, beat the butter until creamy. Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour. Scoop into the prepared cupcake cups. Top batter with crumbled, coarse graham cracker crumbs. Bake at 350 for 18 - 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Because of the graham crackers and the honey, these cupcakes will get a bit darker than you might expect.

*2 packages totaling about 16 rectangular graham crackers will give you enough for the crumbs and the crumbled ones
**Note to self: the original recipe had this, but without any acid in the rest of the recipe, I'm not sure it does anything...

Chocolate Ganache

1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp fresh brewed coffee

Heat the cream until it's near a boil. Pour over the chocolate chips and let it sit for a minute or two. Stir or whisk until the chocolate is melted. Stir in the vanilla and coffee. Cool to room temperature and refrigerate until ready to use.

Marshmallow Frosting

3 egg whites
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
pinch of salt
2 tsp vanilla extract

Combine the sugar, egg whites, and cream of tartar in the bowl of a mixer, set over simmering water. Whisk for about 5 minutes until the egg whites are hot. The mixture should loosen up and be fairly white. Place mixer bowl in mixer and beat whites for about 5-7 minutes until stiff, glossy peaks form. Add vanilla and mix again. Use frosting immediately; it begins to harden after it has been exposed to air for a bit. Not harden in a bad way, but the texture definitely changes.

Assembly
Core out the cupcake, fill with the ganache and drop the frosting on top in large, luscious mounds. The frosting is delicious, it's amazing, and it's fat free. Yay frosting!

Building a Better Cupcake

I got mixed reviews from the lemon cupcakes with the lemon mousse filling and white-chocolate cream cheese frosting (from the post below). The filling and the frosting were great, but the cupcakes missed the mark. So what I just got through doing was modifying the wedding cake recipe for 12 cupcakes. It was actually very easy, and the results are much closer to a cupcake version of the wedding cake than I could have hoped!

Wedding Cake Cupcakes

1 3/4 cups cake flour
1 3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tbsp orange juice concentrate
1 tbsp vanilla

3 egg whites
1/8 tsp cream of tartar

1/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar, divided
1/4 cup canola oil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-cup cupcake tin with muffin liners.

Sift the dry ingredients together 3 times.

In a separate bowl combine the buttermilk, oj concentrate, and vanilla.

In a stand mixer whip the egg whites and cream of tartar until medium peaks form. Transfer to another bowl.

In the mixer, cream the butter and 2/3 cup sugar. Add the oil followed by the remaining sugar, making sure to scrape down the bowl a few times as necessary. Add the dry ingredients in three additions alternately with the wet in two additions, scraping down the bowl as necessary. Finally, fold in the egg whites in 3 additions using the first fold to lighten the batter.

Fill cupcake cups about 2/3 full, and bake for 30 - 35 minutes. The cupcakes should be beginning to get golden brown all over, and they should pass the toothpick test.



Fill with the mousse from below, top with the frosting, and enjoy! These work much better chilled than the lemon cupcakes, and the lemon flavor is more subdued.