I love baking brownies.  They are so easy to make yet are so naughty but nice at the same time.  I used to make loads of them when I had cake stalls as they were always popular with customers.  One man was so taken by my brownies that he came back and bought some more and proposed to me!  No, it wasn’t my husband! It was a joke though it was nice that he liked my brownies!

Last week I had some ingredients I wanted to use up and I had a free afternoon at home.  I had a packet of Cadbury’s Chocolate Pretzels and some caramel sauce which originally was going to be for my daughter’s birthday cake.  In the end she had cupcakes for her birthday but I didn’t get round to using up the other stuff.  If I left the caramel sauce in the fridge, well it wouldn’t be there as I could imagine my kids fishing out spoonfuls of it!

I’ve always wanted to try Salted Caramel Brownies and looked through my recipe books for ideas.  I would take the brownies into school to share with my work colleagues.  I found exactly what I was looking for in Miranda Gore Browne’s latest book “Bake Me A Cake As Fast As You Can”.  Her recipe is the Salty Dog Brownies.

  I used my own  standard brownie recipe for the bottom layer using some Lindt dark chocolate and Green and Blacks cocoa in the mix.  I then swirled in the caramel sauce which was some Bonne Maman Confiture de Caramel.  I expect you could make it with Dulce de Leche or make your own using condensed milk.  I used the same quantities of the sauce as Miranda did, which was about 6 tablespoonfuls.

Then to the mixture I added the topping which was flavoured with sea salt and like the same texture as the brownie minus the chocolate.  I could see the calorie count going through the roof here!

The brownies came out of the oven after about 30 minutes and I couldn’t wait to cut them up and see if they were squidgy and gooey.  They were exactly what I wanted them to be like.  As soon as they were nearly cool I cut them up into 16 large pieces and topped them with the chocolate pretzels.  These complemented the brownies beautifully.

When my  kids got home they wanted to eat some and I told them that they weren’t allowed, they were heading off into work.  I knew if I left them at home I wouldn’t see them for dust and if there were any around I would polish the lot off!

The verdict? Well I took them into school and they went down very well with the staff.  I took a small piece to eat at playtime and wished I could have eaten more.. too addictive!

Happy Baking!

Love Sam xx