Knock You Naked Brownies

We were really looking forward to this dessert from the July Sweet as Pie menu.  Here’s how it came together:

You start with a box of German chocolate cake mix and add some melted butter and some evaporated milk.At this point I was supposed to add pecans, but I don’t like pecans in my brownies, so we went nutless.  We didn’t suffer for it.  Mix this together to form a really thick batter/loose dough.  I divided the dough in half and put it into a greased 8×8 pan.  Now, I really needed a 9×9 pan for this recipe, but I couldn’t find mine (storage unit, maybe?).  The correct size pan really would probably make a difference.  Or maybe doubling the whole recipe and using a 9×13 or other large dish (although I’m not sure you’d even need to double the caramel for that).  Anyway, bake the bottom half of the brownies and let cool while you whip up a caramel sauce.

A bag of caramels and some more evaporated milk melted and mixed together makes a delicious and easy caramel sauce.

Pour the caramel over the bottom brownie layer.

This made plenty, so I didn’t use all the caramel. I might have needed more if I’d been working with the right size pan, but I still think this makes enough to do a double batch.

Sprinkle on some chocolate chips.  Yes, that’s right.  Brownies, caramel, AND chocolate chips.Next you fashion the rest of the brownie dough into a pan-shaped square to be laid on top of the chocolately, caramely gooey goodness.  Don’t even think about trying to dump in the dough and spread it over the top – it’s just too thick.

Pre-baking

These need to cool completely and then be refrigerated a while before cutting.  Technically, I was supposed to dust them with powdered sugar, but I skipped that step because I just didn’t think they’d need it.  And they didn’t.  The finished product:

Despite refrigeration, these brownies were chewy and gooey till the end.

These were easy to make and would be even easier if you could find a way to shortcut the melting of the caramels.  I think I’ll keep them around for party food.  Why party food you ask?  Because they are so good that you really need to share them with other people to prevent yourself from eating all of them.  And they are so rich that they would work great cut into caramel-sized bites I think.  A great pick from Jennifer at Redheads Plus One!