Sweet Your Heart Out: Double Chocolate Caramel Fudge Brownies

So here's the deal. I love brownies. Like, a lot. Hubby likes brownies too. No wait....he loves them. Obviously I've been more than partial to those chocolaty squares of goodness on The Pink Dish since it's inception. In fact, it's where my mind immediately wanders everytime I search for a new recipe. Hubby's request this week sounded something like this..."anything that isn't lime, lemon or pineapple." Yes sir. I knew I'd have some down time on Friday and I also knew that the weather was going to be cloudy and cool. A nice warm pan of brownies sounded delightful. I haven't done a lot of baking with caramel so I thought it was high time when I spotted this This Betty Crocker recipe. I think the picture does enough talking about how gooey-ooey these puppies are so I'll just jump right in with what you really need to know.....

Ingredients: 

Filling

*1

package (14 oz) caramels, unwrapped

*1/2

cup evaporated milk

Brownies

*1

cup butter

*2

cups sugar

*2

teaspoons vanilla

*4

eggs, slightly beaten

*1 1/4

cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour

*3/4

cup unsweetened baking cocoa

*1/4

teaspoon salt

*1

package (11.5 or 12 oz) semisweet chocolate chunks (2 cups)

*1 1/2

cups chopped pecans

*1

teaspoon oil

Directions: 

• 1) Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 13x9-inch pan. In small saucepan, cook caramels and milk over low heat until caramels are melted and smooth, stirring frequently.

Caramel balls instead of squares...aren't they cute!?

• 2) In medium saucepan, melt butter over low heat. Remove from heat. Stir in sugar, vanilla and eggs. Stir in flour, cocoa and salt until well blended. Stir in 1 1/2 cups of the chocolate chunks and 1 cup of the pecans. Spoon and spread batter in pan.
• 3) Gently and evenly drizzle caramel filling over batter to prevent large pockets of caramel and to prevent caramel from reaching bottom of bars. (Caramel can cover entire surface of batter.)
• 4) Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until set.

• 5) In small saucepan, melt remaining 1/2 cup chocolate chunks with oil over low heat, stirring until smooth. Drizzle over warm brownies. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup pecans; press in lightly. Cool 20 minutes. Refrigerate 1 hour 30 minutes or until chocolate is set. Cut into squares. If refrigerated longer, let stand at room temperature for 20 minutes before serving.

This is not your average brownie. Trust me. I'm pretty picky when it comes to brownies. A brownie connoisseur? Sure, I like the sound of that. They are tall and dense and moist (oh so moist) and sweet and rich (but not too rich) and gooey and ooey and just plain amazing. I've only eaten one so far. This is self-control in action right here folks. Hubby has strict rules to eat the entire pan while I'm gone this weekend. Needless to say, these will be my new go-to brownie.

Oh yeah, one more thing....ENJOY!!!

Wait, just one more thing.....is it okay to eat brownies for breakfast???