Salted caramel brownies

Salt and sweet is a little bit like Kate and Wills; one of the great love stories of our time.  Add that to brownies and you’ve got yourself something there’s no going back from.

I went through 2 batches of brownies (the sacrifices I make…) to get a perfect recipe for you guys and I promise, if the husband can make these at 11pm after a generous stint in the pub and still they’re perfect, they’re foolproof.

Salted Caramel Brownies*

225g dark chocolate, 70% cocoa solids (don’t screw with this %)
225g butter
200g caster sugar (pretty much all the good stuff so far right?)
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs, beaten
150g ground almonds
4 tbsp good quality caramel sauce
2 tsp coarse sea salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 170 C.  Melt the chocolate and butter over a low heat in a heavy saucepan until smooth and glossy.

Take the pan off the heat, mix in the vanilla and sugar, and let it cool a little.

Beat the eggs into the pan along with the ground almonds.  Pour batter into a 24cm square baking tray (I don’t have one exactly that size so I use my roasting tin and it works fine – what I’m saying is don’t rush out to buy a 24cm square tin – improvise).  Squeeze over approx. 4 tbsp caramel sauce and sprinkle on your sea salt as evenly as possible.

Bake in the oven for 30 mins at which point the brownies will be gooey.  I’ve been known to quiz waitresses about the gooey-ness of brownies and declined to order if they’re not gooey.  Probably because there’s no flour but these are gooey.  Every time.

Once cool, cut carefully with a sharp knife into 16 squares.  Then, if you can bear to share, give them to friends and tell them about the greatest love story of our time. 

*Recipe adapted from Nigella Lawson’s ‘Flourless Chocolate Brownies’.