Caramel Filled Brownies

Prior to making these brownies, peanut butter and chocolate had always been my favorite dynamic desert duo. But that all changed after one bite of these brownies! Caramel and chocolate snuck up from behind and is now in the runnings for my favorite duo.

Warm brownies, gooey caramel, and a scoop of ice cream! Need I say more? Off to heaven I go!

Caramel Filled Brownies
1 cup unsalted butter
12 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 1/4 cup flour
1 cup chocolate chips

filling:
14 ounces candied caramels, unwrapped
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Grease 9x13 pan with cooking spray. Combine the butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Heat, stirring occasionally, until completely melted and smooth. Remove the bowl from the heat. Whisk in the sugar, eggs and vanilla until incorporated. Stir in the flour until combined. Spread about half of the brownie batter in the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool for 20 minutes.

To make the caramel filling, combine the caramel candies and cream in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Heat, stirring frequently, until melted and smooth. Immediately spread the caramel mixture over the bottom brownie layer. Pour the remaining brownie batter over the caramel layer, taking care to pour and spread it evenly otherwise it will be difficult to spread evenly over the caramel layer. Sprinkle the chocolate chips on top of the final brownie layer. Bake for 20 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before slicing and serving.

Source: Annie's Eats

Caramel Filled Rice Krispie Bars

I nearly died the first time Zach's mom made these bars! I can't even find words to express my love for them!!


Kind of surprising, but this is actually my first time making these bars! Up to this point I haven't had to because Zach's mom always pulls through. And everything always tastes better when someone else makes it for you, right?

Usually I go for the bars on the inside of the pan. Ya know, the ones that are soft and gooey. Well with these, go for the ones around the outside edge. And this is why....


They are loaded with caramel!! Especially the ones in the four corners! As you push down the top layer of rice krispies, the caramel gets pushed to the outer edges and corners.

As you won't even believe how easy these are to make. Only five ingredients!


Caramel Filled Rice Krispie Bars

12 cups rice krispies
8 cups miniature marshmallows
6 tablespoons butter
1 bag of Kraft caramels
1 can sweetened condensed milk

Measure out rice krispies into a very, very large mixing bowl and set aside

Unwrap caramels and place in a medium microwave safe bowl. Pour in sweetened condensed milk. Start by microwaving for two minutes. Stir afterwards. Likely will have to return the mixture to the microwave, but this time only microwave at 30 second intervals until smooth. Stir between each interval.

In another microwave safe bowl, measure out the marshmallows and butter. Microwave at 30 second intervals until smooth. Pour mixture into the large mixing bowl with rice krispies. Mix until rice krispies are well coated. Pour half of the mixture into a well greased 9x13 pan and evenly press into pan using buttered fingers or wax paper.

Pour caramel mixture over the top of the rice krispies that have been pressed into the pan. Evenly spread over the top. Press remainder of rice krispies over the top of the caramel mixture. Let cool for a few hours before serving.

Chocolate Carmel Bars

These have to be one of my favorite bars. These bars take a bit of patience to make since they do have a few steps, but they are so worth the work. They are fantastic!! So, rich and gooey... you won't be able to say no.

2 1/4 cups flour
2 cups quick cooking oats
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups cold butter or margarine
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans
1 jar-12oz caramel topping

In a bowl combine 2 cups flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda and salt. Cut in butter until crumbly. Set 1/2 aside for topping. Press the remaining crumb mixture into a greased 9X13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Sprinkle with chocolate chips and pecans. Whisk the caramel topping and remaining flour until smooth. Drizzle over the top. sprinkle with pecans. Sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for 2 hours before cutting.

To my coworkers... Yes! These are the bars that were at skills day on Nov 30th and Dec 1st.

Bake on!

-M

Zucchini Cupcakes with Caramel Frosting

My parents' garden is producing zucchini faster than we can all eat. So I went on the hunt for a good zucchini cupcake recipe. I found one on Taste of Home that got rave reviews so I thought I would give it a try. I was kind of surprised that there was only a cup and a half of zucchini in the 24 cupcakes. Didn't seem like very much to me. The recipe called for orange juice which gave it an interesting little twist! Overall, not completely impressed with the cupcakes. The caramel frosting on the other hand was absolutely outstanding! If you know me well, you know I have high frosting standards. And this one definitely exceeded those standards! I will be committing this frosting recipe to the "keep file."




Caramel Frosting

1 cup packed brown sugar
½ cup butter
¼ cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ to 2 cups powdered sugar

Combine the brown sugar, butter, and milk in a saucepan. Bring to boil over medium heat. Cook and stir for two minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla. Cool to lukewarm. Gradually beat in powdered sugar until frosting reaches spreading consistency.