Layers of Love Chocolate Brownies

My husband had a picnic for his work group recently and said that I would bake cookies for him. He sent me a couple of different recipes for ideas, although some of them wouldn’t really work for an outdoor picnic on a 90 degree day! I thought this recipe looked great and you can’t really go wrong with a good brownie. Of course, it was 90 degrees out and nearly that warm in the house, so I didn’t end up baking them for the picnic. But I made them as soon as the temperature dropped to more normal levels. Thankfully, the weather changed from 95 degrees to 75 degrees in just 2 days.

This recipe is for a deep, dark brownie with a layer of nuts, chips and caramel in the center. Yum! It’s also a good recipe to use up those half-full bags of chips you may have in the cupboard. I realized when typing up this recipe that I left out ¾ cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips for the topping, but they seem ok without them. I didn’t really measure the white chips or caramel, but I’m sure I was pretty close to the amounts given here. I thought that the 1 cup of chopped pecans called for in the original recipe was way too much; I probably used about ¾ cup.

The batter for these brownies is thick! For the topping, you add an egg to the reserved batter to lighten it and make it spreadable. It was still a little hard to spread on top of the chips and such, so don’t rush this step. I baked them for the full 35 minutes, but these brownies are just gooey. They are very rich and decadent and a little goes a long way!

Layers of Love Chocolate Brownies

3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 eggs, divided
2 teaspoons vanilla
2/4 cup chopped pecans
3/4 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup caramel ice cream topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8-inch baking pan with foil and spray the foil with cooking spray.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder and salt. In a large mixer bowl, cream the butter, sugar and brown sugar until creamy. Add 2 eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture, mixing just until combined.

 Reserve 3/4 cup of the batter for the topping. Spread remaining batter into prepared baking pan. Sprinkle nuts and white chips over batter, and then drizzle with the caramel topping. Beat remaining egg and reserved batter in a medium-sized bowl until smooth. Spread carefully over the caramel topping.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until center is set. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. To cut into bars, lift the foil from the pan and place the bars on a cutting board. Peel away the foil and then cut into bars.

Recipe from Nestle, via Franklin County Times