food. caramel brownies.

I've come to the conclusion that as long as I have an interest in baking or dessert making, I'll be feeding our family of two plus some. So I guess this is...your welcome, friends and co-workers. Unless the dessert sucks. I blame it on my 'novice baking skills'.

Brownies. Pretty sure this was a staple when I was going up. Even though it was of the packet in a box variety, it was still delicious and my sister and I needed a baseline to learn how to bake. (She's turned out to be a pro...have you tried her banana bread? I can't compete. I just use old banana for diy beauty treatments.) I love that you can have one recipe to start and make it your own by adding items you probably already have in your pantry. Last night, I went for salted caramel. It worked, kinda. See my notes below.

Sorry Nate, I'm pretty sure you are going to see a lot of brownies over the next few months.

Caramel Brownies inspired by RachelRay.com
Ingredients

• 1 1/2 sticks butter (6 ounces) 
• 1 3/4 cups sugar 
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract 
• 1/4 teaspoon salt 
• 3 eggs 
• 1 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder 
• 1/3 cup flour
• Caramel Sauce
• Sea Salt

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350F/175C degrees . Line a square baking pan with foil, leaving a 2-inch overhang. Coat the foil with cooking spray.

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium. Add butter to your stand mixer or mixing bowl. Whisk in the sugar, vanilla and salt. Whisk until creamy, about 1 minute. Add the eggs, one at a time, whisking well between additions. Add the cocoa powder and flour; stir until just blended.

Pour into the pan. Bake the brownies until a tester inserted into the center comes out with moist crumbs attached, 40 to 45 minutes. Drizzle caramel sauce over the top of the brownies and top with sea salt. Use as much or as little as you want of each ingredient. Cool in the pan set on a wire rack. Using the foil overhang, lift the brownies out of the pan. Cut into squares.

Get a glass of milk. Enjoy. Share if you feel it necessary.

Jen's Notes
Not sure if it was suppose to turn out this way but these are very rich brownies. A little piece goes a long way. Next batch I'm going to try to incorporate the caramel sauce in the batter before baking it - unless that's a no-no. Is it?!
Oh, and use actual sea salt. I used table salt and Nate called me out on it.