Salted caramel Archives - 2 Sisters 2 Cities

Posted by Keelin Hollenbeck on July 14, 2013

Delicious Salted Caramel Brownies

I realized as I was typing up this post that M and I have a few different recipes on our blog for Caramel Brownies (see here and here for the other recipes.) Can you blame us??? It really is okay because all the recipes are a little bit different and all make spectacular brownies. Salted caramel desserts are starting to become as regular as chocolate chips cookies.

This recipe makes a chewy gooey brownie with chunks of chocolate chips inside, then covered with melted caramel and flaked sea salt. As you may remember, last summer I made these Sea Salt Caramel Brownies, which were a huge hit at both my family reunion and a baby shower I made them for. That particular recipe had a homemade caramel sauce baked into the center of brownie and then the top of the brownies were topped with fleur de sel. The caramel gets baked into the brownie so it sort of soaks in throughout the brownie and makes for an incredibly rich and moist caramel brownie flavor.

For this recipe, I used Maldon flaked sea salt and I loved how big the flakes are. They gave the brownies the perfect amount of saltiness. Ina uses this salt a lot in topping her baked goods. I bought some from Amazon, but since then I’ve also seen it at Whole Foods.

Salted Caramel Brownies

Author: 2 Sisters 2 Cities

Ingredients

1 cup butter (2 sticks)
14 oz. semisweet chocolate chips (about 2 and ⅓ cups)
3 oz. unsweetened chocolate
3 large eggs
1½ tbsp. instant coffee granules
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
1 cup, plus 2 tbsp. granulated sugar
½ cup, plus 2 tbsp. AP flour, divided
1½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. kosher salt
5-6 oz. caramel bits (such as Kraft’s)
1-2 tbsp. half and half or milk
flaked sea salt, such as Maldon

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and flour a 9x12x1½-inch baking pan.
In a heat-proof bowl set over a sauce pan of simmering water, melt together butter, 8 oz. of the chocolate chips, and the unsweetened chocolate. Allow chocolate to cool for at least 15 minutes off of the heat.
In a large bowl, stir eggs, coffee, vanilla and sugar together. No not beat the mix, just stir.
Stir the the chocolate into egg mixture and let cool to room temperature.
In a medium bowl, whisk together ½ cup flour, baking powder, and kosher salt. Mix into chocolate mixture.
Toss the remaining 2 tablespoons of flour with the remainder of the chocolate chips. Once the batter mixture is at room temperature stir in the chocolate chips. Spread the batter in the pan.
Bake for 35 minutes. A toothpick pressed in the center should come out clean.
In a microwave safe bowl, add caramel candies and 1 tablespoon of half n’ half or milk. Gradually melt the caramel in the microwave in 15-20 second intervals being very careful it doesn’t burn. Repeat until caramel is melted, using the extra tablespoon of half n’ half or milk if needed.
Once the brownies come out of oven, drizzle the caramel over the hot brownies an sprinkle with the flaked sea salt. Let the brownies cool completely before cutting.

Source- Adapted from Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa Foolproof

Caramel Brownies

sisterk (2)

Posted by 2 Sisters 2 Cities on December 23, 2012

Then there was one!

We are down to our last cookie already and wow, has this month flown by! I am starting to get excited for the upcoming holiday and spending some time with the family. I haven’t really had any time off since my move so a few days to breathe and relax will be nice too. M and I were discussing how much we have to do for the holidays and she told me how she has yet to wrap a gift. I, on the other hand haven’t even seen a gift I have bought because I shipped it to everywhere I am going so I don’t have to bring them on the plane.

The last cookie is a cookie bar, and a delicious one at that. I have to admit that I don’t like make chocolate chip cookies for Christmas cookies because they are an everyday cookie to me. My boyfriend begged for this recipe and actually was head chef on these. I just helped melt the caramel and he did most of the baking. Guess which cookie has been the most popular so far? Yup, this one!

One Salted Chocolate Chip Caramel Cookie Bars

Author: 2 Sisters 2 Cities

Ingredients

2⅛ cups AP flour
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. baking soda
12 tbsp. butter, at room temperature, plus a small amount for greasing baking pan
1 cup light brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups chocolate chips
10 oz. caramel candy squares, unwrapped
3 tbsp. heavy cream
Sea salt, for sprinkling over caramel and bars

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F
Grease a 2-quart baking pan (11x7 baking dish) by spreading a small amount of butter on a paper towel.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda.
Next, in bowl of a stand mixer, mix softened butter and both sugars.
Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract and mix until combined and smooth.
Slowly stir in dry ingredients and mix until combined. Add in chocolate chips.
In a large microwave safe bowl, combine the caramel and heavy cream
Microwave caramel on high until caramel are melted, stirring every 30 seconds for about 2-3 minutes, until mixture is smooth.
Divide the cookie dough into two. Place one half of the cookie dough into the pan, smoothing with a spatula.
Pour hot caramel over the dough in the pan. Sprinkle with sea salt.
Drop remaining cookie dough by the spoonful over the caramel layer. Spread cookie dough with a spatula until the caramel is covered. Sprinkle with additional sea salt.
Bake for 30 minutes or until the top of the cookie bars are light golden brown and the edges start to pull away from the pan.
Remove from oven and allow bars to cool on a wire rack. Cut into squares and serve.

Source- Adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod
sisterk (2)

Posted by 2 Sisters 2 Cities on December 12, 2011

Why twelve you say? Well, because this is the Twelve Cookies of Christmas, and today we are officially 12 days from Christmas!

That’s right 12 types of cookies…I have officially gone Christmas cookie overboard. What’s worse is that I made 8 types over the weekend on top of hosting a dinner on Saturday. Let’s just say when Christmas music is playing, I can crank those Christmas cookies out!

So here we are 12 days before Christmas and I thought what would be a better present to all our readers than sharing 12 different recipes for the cookies I have made for the holiday season. Just don’t tell weight watchers that I went this cookie crazy!

What are better than 12 drummers drumming? Well, after going to my boyfriend’s shows for his band Emergency Now, I can tell you that 1 drummer drumming is powerful enough, so 12 of them would probably hurt your ears. Ear plugs would be a must! Anyways back on topic, 12 Salted Chocolate Carmel Shortbread Bars are what are better! This recipe was probably those most labor intensive of the cookies, but holy crap they are amazing. It definitely helped that I made these first. Make them!

Salted Caramel Chocolate Shortbread Bars

Yield: about 5 dozen small bars
Ingredients:
For shortbread layer-
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup sugar

For caramel layer:
1 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 cup sugar
4 tbsp. light corn syrup
2 cans sweetened condensed milk

For chocolate layer:
8 oz. bittersweet chocolate chips (chopped if you can’t chips)
1 tsp. light corn syrup
½ cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
Fleur de sel or sea salt or Kosher salt

Directions:
For Shortbread layer:

Preheat the oven to 325° F. Line a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with parchment paper so that the paper comes up on the sides. In a bowl mix together flour, baking powder, and salt. Next in mixer bowl, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed for about 1-2 minutes or until blended. Slowing the mixer to a lower setting, mix in the dry ingredients. Transfer the dough to the parchment paper lined baking pan and spread out evenly. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden. Make sure the crust doesn’t have any bubbles in it, if so push them down with a spatula. Move pan to a wire rack and let cool.

To make caramel layer-

In a medium sauce pan combine butter, sugar, corn syrup and condensed milk over medium heat. Stir occasionally until the butter is melted. Increase heat to medium-high and bring caramel mixture to a boil. Stirring constantly, reduce to a simmer. Continue, until the mixture thickens and becomes darker (Keep stirring and make sure the heat isn’t too high or it will burn). Pour the caramel over the shortbread layer and smooth out. Chill to harden slightly before pouring chocolate on it.

To make chocolate layer:

In a double boiler combine chocolate, corn syrup, and butter and melt completely until smooth. Pour chocolate mixture on to the caramel layer and spread so that it is even. Allow to cool for a minute then sprinkle with salt. Cover an chill until ready to cut and serve.

Sources: Annie’s Eats and Lisa is Cooking, components originally from Baked and The Golden Book of Baking

-K