Salted Caramel Brownies
I first fell in love with salted caramel back on a chilly January day this past winter. It was a Friday. The night before, my Chief Culinary Consultant and I went to a Pens/Caps game (we won’t discuss the result), and he was in town and off the next day. So we did what we do best – we went shopping. We were making our way around town when we passed a cupcake shop and I’m pretty sure I was adamant about stopping in. And so we did. We got a variety of cupcakes and busted into a couple once we got back in the car and saved some for later. As it turns out, we weren’t very impressed for all of the hype that the shop gets. The cupcakes themselves were quite dry, but wow the buttercream was the stuff baker dream are made of. Smooth, creamy, not too buttery or too sugary; melt-in-your-mouth frosting perfection. And lucky for me one of the varieties I chose was salted caramel. I don’t even think I finished the actual cupcake part, but rather ate all of the frosting off the top. Salted caramel and I had made a love connection. When we hit up Georgetown Cupcake a few weeks ago, I immediately went for the salted caramel there as well, and fell in love all over again.
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Somehow it took me until now to actually make salted caramel instead of traipsing around eating it in the form of frosting. Not that there is anything at all wrong with that though. Right? I couldn’t wait to make it but wanted to do something different with it than frosting since that was the only way I had eaten it so far. I saw a link on Two Peas and Their Pod to The Pioneer’s Woman’s Salted Caramel Brownies. They looked delicious, but I wasn’t sold on using gelatin to make a caramel layer set, so I brainstormed some alternatives. I finally decided that the brownies would be simply marvelous with a swirl of salted caramel, similar to how cream cheese brownies are made. And my sun could rise and set around cream cheese brownies. This turned out to be a fabulous experiment, and a recipe that gets a gold star. The brownies are rich, chocolatey, creamy and salty all in one beautiful bite.
And if that weren’t enough, there’s more good news. You won’t use the entire batch of salted caramel for these brownies, so you will have some leftover to dip apples and pretzels in, drizzle on ice cream, take a bath in… hey, whatever you want! Just enjoy it!
Two years ago: Zebra Cake
Salted Caramel Brownies
Ingredients
For the Brownies:
- 5 ounces (141.75 g) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
- 2 ounces (56.7 g) unsweetened chocolate, chopped
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into quarters, (1 stick )
- 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 3 eggs
- 1¼ cups (250 g) granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) salt
- 1 cup (125 g) all-purpose flour
For the Salted Caramel Sauce:
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- ⅔ cup (158.67 ml) heavy cream, at room temperature
- Fine sea salt, for topping brownies
Instructions
- 1. Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray an 8-inch square baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Line the pan with overlapping pieces of foil and spray the foil.
- 2. In a 3-quart saucepan, heat the sugar over medium-high heat, whisking as the sugar begins to melt. Some of the sugar will harden into clumps, but that's okay - it will melt eventually - just keep whisking. Continue to cook the sugar until it reaches a dark amber color. At that point, whisk in the salt, and then add the butter all at once and whisk until it is completely incorporated into the sugar. Remove the pan from the heat and pour in the heavy cream (it will foam up when first added). Continue to whisk until it forms a smooth sauce. Allow to cool for 10-15 minutes before using in the brownies. The leftover sauce can be stored, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. (You'll probably need to warm it up a bit straight from the refrigerator.)
- 3. In a medium heatproof bowl set over a pan of almost-simmering water, melt the chocolates and butter, stirring occasionally until smooth. (Or, melt in the microwave on 50% power for 30-second increments, stirring after each, until melted and smooth.) Whisk in the cocoa until smooth. Set aside to cool.
- 4. Whisk together the eggs, sugar, vanilla, and salt in a medium bowl until combined, about 15 seconds. Whisk the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture; then stir in the flour until just combined. Pour about half of the brownie mixture into the prepared pan and spread into the corners. Spoon 9 dollops of Salted Caramel Sauce on top of the brownie batter. Top with the remaining brownie mixture, spread into the corners and level the surface with a spatula. Again, spoon 9 dollops of the Salted Caramel Sauce on top of the brownie batter. With a dull butter knife, gently run it through the batter to swirl the batter just a bit (don't do it too much or it will all mix together). Sprinkle a bit of sea salt on top.
- 5. Bake until slightly puffed and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a small amount of sticky crumbs, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool on a wire rack to room temperature, about 2 hours. Remove the brownies from the pan using the foil handles and transfer to a cutting board. Cut into squares. Brownies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature.
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Hi Michelle! I absolutely adore these brownies and so do many of my coworkers. One likes them so much that she asked me to make them for her wedding reception this Friday!
My question: if I want to make a 6 or 8-inch cake made with this batter, how long do you think I should bake it? I want to put this mini cake at the top of my “brownie tier.” Thanks!
Hi Kelly, Oh you are so sweet to do that! If you use a 6-inch pan you’ll need to halve the recipe; if you use an 8-inch pan you’ll need to use about 3/4 of the batter. Baking time will need to be trial and error, as I’ve never tried to convert this to a cake so I don’t have a definite time.
I just made these for the second time today! I did reduce the sugar in the brownies by 1/4th of a cup and used 4tbsp of butter rather than 6tbsp in the caramel sauce because it was a bit too sweet before. These are delish! I’m taking them to my friend’s “Fourth of July” party.
I was recently searching for a salted caramel sauce recipe and found this one. I decided to give it a try since it was less fussy than others…no monitoring with a candy thermometer, no added water to cook off. It’s direct and to the point…essentially just melt the sugar and stir in the dairy. It all comes together very quickly. While I haven’t made the full brownie recipe, I have made the sauce twice. First time I made the mistake of waiting until the sugar was a bit too dark. Resulting sauce had a hint of bitter but not unpleasant. Think of the “burnt sugar” flavor of a creme brulee. Second time I didn’t let the sugar get as dark, and it was perfect. This stuff is good on everything!
One alteration that I made the second time…I added a tiny dribble of light corn syrup to the sugar…to prevent crystallization. I don’t know if it helped but it certainly didn’t hurt. I was also out of unsalted butter both times, so I used salted and cut back a smidge on the added salt.
Yummy! I may have to attempt this one. I found some video for caramel brownies here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcgJtl1iehM which may be a little easier for me. But I’m adding this one to the list!
Loved the idea behind this recipe – salted caramel incorporated into a brownie? Yum! And your pictures of them look divine… but unfortunately as some other commenters pointed out, this method of making caramel is unlike any that I have heard or used myself, and it failed miserably. I will definitely try these again using my own caramel recipe, but I’m very disappointed that I wasted the time/ingredients on something that failed so badly!
I want o try these for gifting to neighbors and would want to make in advance and freeze. What would happen if these were frozen? would the caramel, when back at room temperature taste the way it should or would it be hardened and never the same again?
I think you could freeze these and that they would thaw well.
So I need help! This is the first time baking these. I did the foil wrong but everything else i did right. The only problem I had was the middle did not cook but they came out a little burned. Where did I go wrong? Help!!! Lol
Found your recipe two nights ago, read it before I went to sleep. Dreamt about it. Woke up and tried your recipe. Simple and wonderfully delicious. Used brown sugar instead. The brownies are still moist and the salted caramel on top and in the middle is a lovely contrast to the chocolate taste :-D. Thanks!!
What did I do wrong? When I added the butter to the sugar in the pan, the sugar essentially hardened into chunks and didn’t blend with the butter at all! Help!
Hi Jo, Oh no, I’m sorry you had some trouble. It sounds like your sugar mixture got too hot.
I made the mistake of using brown sugar for the caramel sauce and burned it :( I was so excited! I’ll try again once I have white sugar! I also tried subbing milk/butter for heavy whipping cream. Can’t wait to try again! Even though the house smells like burned marshmallow now! Lol they just look sooo good!
Hi! Thank you for sharing this recipe. It was to die for!! I was a little intimidated with making the caramel but it turned out great. I made sure to take the melted sugar off the burner right when it start to smoke/steam a little and was a dark amber (I was afraid it would burn). I then put in the salt and butter and it did separate like cookie dough but I put it back on the burner and kept whisking. It wasn’t completely smooth when I took it off the burner again and added the cream. But I kept whisking and it smoothed out. I put it in the fridge while I made the brownie batter so I could “dollop” it on later. I also used parchment paper to line the pan and the brownies lifted out with no resistance. Thanks again!!
oh no! as soon s i poured my cream in the caramel sauce turned into a hard lump. any ideas?
These brownies are FANTASTIC! I followed the recipe by the book and they turned out perfect! I had always had problems with brownies, they were either undercooked or too hard, but I found THE recipe. I strongly recommend it!
So glad I found your site! I will be making these for a second time tonight, as requested, for a birthday treat!! Thanks for sharing! Have a great weekend!
I’ve made these brownies as my first ‘from scratch’ brownies ever. They taste delicious however the top seemed to crack and they also got stuck on the foil even though I used oil on the foil. Brownies were baked on lower middle part of oven. So I have few questions: 1/ How to make them not crack from the top 2/ How to make them not stick to the foil – just more oil? 3/ How to make the caramel thicker that it would look nice as on the photos? Anyway, they are delicious!!
Hi Dana, As you can see from the photos, mine are also cracked on top, which is due to the addition of the caramel. You can try using parchment instead of foil if you’re having trouble with sticking. If you would like your caramel thicker, make it ahead of time and refrigerate it so that it thickens before you use it.
Hey BEB!!
i was your recipes two days ago.. made the Baked brownies and it was fabulous..
so i tried the salted brownies today
its just out of the oven.. my caramel was also not dollapabe .. so the top of the brownie jsut out of the oven looks a little bubbly..
may be i shoudl wait for it to cool down and see how it behaves. thanks anyway
Hi there. Just came across these and can’t wait to try making them. Have you had success with freezing them? Thanks!
Hi Mea, Yes, I have! I wrap them individually in plastic wrap then place in a freezer-safe ziploc bag. Enjoy!
I looked all over for a salted caramel brownie recipe and am very happy I went with this one! I made these today and they turned out great. Like many people, I also burnt the caramel, but realized it before I added the heavy cream so I tried a second time – this time, I took the pan off the heat when the sugar was a golden brown color, before I added the salt and butter, and it turned out perfect. There was still enough heat to melt the butter. I’m really happy to have this caramel recipe to use on its own, without the brownies! I think I put slightly too much caramel in the middle layer because they needed to bake for about 50 minutes, but in the end they turned out great. It’s worth the effort of making the caramel; these are really yummy!
hi, i ve been searching for caramel brownies…..finally i came across of yours…..plz tell me can we put caramel layer in the middle and chocolate sauce on the top….???? Also plz tell me how much 1 ounce equal to spoons???? tell me in spoons…… and for unsweetened chocolate chopped….do we have to use cooking chocolate????
thnx!!!
Shaz, You can put chocolate sauce on top, but I would do so after the brownies have baked, as a topping. Ounces to spoons (I assume you mean tablespoons or teaspoons) varies depending on what you’re measuring (different ingredients have different volume). In the recipe above, the only thing measured in ounces is the chocolate, but that cannot be measured in tablespoons or teaspoons. The chocolate is a solid bar of chocolate, with a weight measurement on the package. It cannot be converted to tablespoons or teaspoons. I’m unsure of what you mean by “cooking” chocolate, but you should use a solid chocolate bar or, as a last resort, chocolate chips.
I want to make these brownies but also came across ‘The Baked Brownie’ on this website… how do the two brownies differ and what makes this recipe more suitable for eating with salted caramel? Thanks :)
Hi Yogin, This recipe is a little thicker and denser. Since posting this, I found the Sweet and Salty Brownies, which is essentially a salted caramel version of the Baked brownie, with the salted caramel baked right into the middle: https://www.browneyedbaker.com/2011/06/07/sweet-and-salty-brownies/
Yeah, I totttalllyyyy screwed this up. Just wanted to post all the things I did wrong, in case someone else reads this and it could prevent their mistake!
So, like a lot of other people, I burnt the caramel (and I was a HAWK, Michelle… the only thing I can attribute it to is that I used my le creuset pot and the heat was trapped in the bottom, so even though I removed it from the heat super early, as soon as I put the salt in I could see it turned black… ugh. I will use a different pan next time). Anyway, my husband ran to the store and bought packaged caramels, because in your salted caramel cookie bars (which I’ve made a million times and everyone loves) it’s the same general concept. Right? NO. The caramel was creamy, I added the salt to it, put it between the brownie layers, but… another mistake… I put it on top too and stuck it in the oven. It’s a hard, chewy, burnt-tasting mess on top now. UGH! I should have thought of that!!! So, NEXT TIME, if I burn the caramel again, I will remember to bake the brownies with the layer of caramel in the middle and, after they are out of the oven and cool, I will cut and then decorate with the caramel, then sprinkle salt on top. Or, just not burn the caramel next time. ;) haha. Hopefully (next time) I’ll be able to post an awesome review like everyone else did!