Recipe: Chocolate chip caramel brownies with sea salt

Turn your elevenses into something truly decadent with these exceptionally good brownies

Makes 12 brownies

Ingredients

For the brownie mix:

3 eggs

400g light brown sugar

150g butter

150g dark chocolate, broken into chunks

190g plain flour

3 tbsp dark cocoa powder

100g milk chocolate chips

For the caramel:

130g caster sugar

60g butter

80g cream

1 teaspoon sea salt flakes

METHOD

• Preheat the oven to 170°C. Line a 20 x 20cm baking tin with baking parchment.

• Start by mixing the ingredients to create the brownie batter, stirring the extra chocolate chips into the batter before placing in the tin.

• To make the caramel, put the sugar in a clean, heavy-bottomed, medium saucepan and place on a medium-high heat. Stir the sugar with a wooden spoon or a heat-resistant spatula. The sugar will first form clumps and then melt into an amber-coloured liquid – this will take around eight minutes. Be very careful not to allow your caramel to burn at this stage.

• Once there are no clumps of sugar and the mixture is completely melted, carefully add in the butter. The caramel will bubble up immediately so be very careful as you stir it through.

• After the butter is fully melted and combined, slowly add in the cream and continue to stir, then remove from the heat and stir in the sea salt.

• Spoon about six tablespoons of the caramel mix evenly over the batter in the tin then swirl using a knife or skewer.

• Bake for 25 minutes, or until the sides of the brownies have set, but the centre is still wobbly. Leave to cool in the tin, then remove in one piece (this should be easily done by lifting the parchment), place on a board and cut into squares. Store in an airtight container for up to five days.

• If you have some caramel left, store in a jar in the fridge for up to one month, or serve heated with the brownies.

This recipe is from Sweet Therapy: The Joy of Baking by Una Leonard and first appeared in the print edition of Irish Country Magazine.