Skip to main content

Salted caramel mocha brownies


These brownies were created one sunny Sunday morning in North Wales. Whist they were baking I also won at three games of Bananagrams so the day was wonderful before I'd even tasted them. 

 They were made with my friend Emily who loves mucking about in the kitchen as much as me - as well as being crazy about salted caramel. She infact scattered Maldon sea salt all over the top which took them from amazing to magical. 

 We didn't have any scales to hand whilst making these so the measurements were quite a clever art, demonstrating that as long as you're vaguely there with this recipe they will turn out brilliantly.

 To make a tray of salted caramel mocha brownies you will need:

 For the brownie mix
225g butter
115g milk chocolate
300g granulated sugar
2 tablespoons instant coffee
4 eggs
120g cocoa powder
130g plain flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
150g hazelnut chocolate spread (i.e. Nutella)

 For the caramel sauce
250ml black coffee
275g soft brown sugar
240ml double cream
2 tablespoons butter

 Salt to sprinkle over the baked brownies


Preheat the oven to 170C and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.

 If there are two of you one can make the caramel sauce while the other makes the brownie mix so that the two are ready at the same time. Otherwise start by making the caramel sauce. Add the brown sugar and black coffee to a saucepan and bring up to a boil -  do this slowly as it will suddenly go from gentle simmer to volcanic. Keep both eyes on it at all times. Also do not stir - just wiggle the pan gently from side to side. 

 Keep at a boil for 5 minutes before taking off the heat to whisk in the butter and cream. Put back on the heat for a further 5 minutes until the caramel is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon (it won't actually look any thicker but it is). Leave to one side.

 For the brownie mix melt the chocolate and butter together in a large bowl, either over a bain-marie or in the microwave. Add to this the instant coffee and sugar. Fold it all together. Crack in the 4 eggs and sieve in the flour and cocoa powder and sprinkle in the salt. When all gently combined the mix will be pretty thick.

 Pour half of the brownie mix into the prepared tin and dollop over blobs of Nutella - 150g is a guide, just enough to get a few little dollops over the brownie mix. Pour over 3/4 of the caramel sauce - it's ok if it looks like a caramel brownie bath! The caramel will thicken more in the oven so all will be fine I promise. Add the other half of the brownie mix on top of this (don't worry if it doesn't totally cover the other layers) and put in the oven for 30 minutes, until the top is cooked and firm. 

 Allow to cool - yes, I know that's hard - play a game of Scrabble, Monopoly…something to pass the time. When cool enough to cut, slice into pieces and pour over the remaining 1/4 of caramel sauce. Decorate with crystals of sea salt and dig in. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sweet potato hummus

I have two friends coming over for supper this evening; I haven't seen them properly for a little while so I thought I'd pull out all the stops. For starter we'll be having this sweet potato hummus with some freshly baked, homemade bread that one of the boys is bringing over. I had a practice run with this hummus with my housemates yesterday and it went down well so I've got everything crossed the boys enjoy it as much as them! The hummus will keep for up to a week sealed in the fridge.  To make two medium-sized dishes of sweet potato hummus you will need: 1 tin of chickpeas 450g sweet potato 2 garlic cloves 1 lemon 2 tsp cumin 2-4 tbsp oil (dependent upon how thick you want your hummus) Peel and slice the sweet potato into thumb-sized chunks and add to boiling water for 10-15 minutes until nice and soft before draining. Throw all of the ingredients into a blender and combine.  HOWEVER  if you only have a little blender (like me!) and can't get al
1 comment
Read more

Sweet potato and flageolet bean burgers

Sweet potatoes could possibly be my favourite food ever. These burger patties don't contain any gluten because they're held together with egg. We had the sweet potato and flageolet bean burgers in rolls, whereas the gluten-free member of the family had lots of smaller patties (rather than one big one) as part of a pretty epic salad. Nothing much beats these burgers when piled up with with salad, avocado, home-grown tomatoes and a little smear of mayonnaise (in my eyes anyway!) You can get 8 medium-sized patties out of the quantities used (happily fed a family of 5 with patties of varying sizes!) For the sweet potato and flageolet bean burgers you will need: 2 sweet potatoes A (400g) tin of flageolet beans  1 tsp paprika 1/2 tsp cumin 1 tbsp tomato puree 2 garlic cloves, crushed 1 egg Few tbsp oil to cook the patties To serve you'll need rolls, but beyond that you're welcome to put in whatever your heart desires! Other than the avocado and tomato, I th
Post a Comment
Read more

Roasted beetroot risotto

Tonight was my night to cook in our little rota. Cathy told me after I'd planned the meal that the one food she really dislikes in beetroot….oops.  I decided that rather than boiling the beetroots to soften them for the recipe I would bake them to make them a little sweeter and (hopefully) more palatable for a beetroot-hater. After clearing her plate she announced that she now liked beetroot. Phew.  The quantities feed five - adjust accordingly! To make roast beetroot risotto you will need: 3 uncooked beetroots Splash of oil 1 red onion (chopped) 1 garlic clove (crushed) 2 glasses of red wine 2 vegetable stock cubes A kettle of water (as much as is needed! Approx 1.5L) 450g risotto 1 tbsp butter Handful of grated parmesan Preheat the oven to 200C. Peel and slice the beetroot into half if little and quarters if large. Wrap in silver foil, drizzle with some oil and bake in the oven for 25 minutes. In the meantime, soften the red onio
2 comments
Read more