This recipe is the first in a new monthly series started by a group of food bloggers who are also members of a food blogging discussion group on Yahoo. It was the idea of the very creative Amanda at Amanda’s Cookin’ and we call it The Secret Recipe Club. The idea is that each blogger is assigned to make and post a recipe from one of the other participating blogs, kinda like a Secret Santa. You visit your assigned blog, choose a recipe and make it. No one tells whose blog they have until the day of posting.
Lucky me – I was assigned to make something from Katrina at Baking and Boys! What a wealth of recipes to choose from. Picking the one to make was much harder than actually making the recipe. But after a little browsing over there, I knew exactly what I wanted to make. This Caramel Pecan Brownie recipe. For one thing, I can’t resist anything chocolate. Or caramel. Or with pecans. And secondly, I don’t think I have a brownie recipe on my blog at all. I could hardly believe it, either.
If you like brownies, you’re gonna be crazy about this recipe. It has a brownie layer on the bottom and top with a layer of creamy caramel and toasted pecans in between. Yum. Yum.
Start by preheating your oven and preparing the pan.
Line an 8×8 pan with either foil or parchment paper and spray it lightly with cooking spray.
Next, melt the butter and cocoa powder over medium heat. Whisk it together well then remove it from the heat and let it cool slightly for about 5 minutes.
Whisk in the eggs, then the sugar and vanilla stirring it just until combined. Add the flour and salt and stir that just until combined.
Spread half of your batter evenly over the bottom of the prepared pan. Set that aside for now.
Place the caramels and cream in a microwave safe bowl. Melt in 30 second intervals, stirring between each.
When melted and stirred together until smooth, pour the caramel over the bottom brownie layer. Sprinkle the caramel layer evenly with toasted pecans. Pour the remaining batter evenly over the caramel and pecans.
Bake for 25-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Start checking before the end of the baking time to make sure you don’t overcook.
Cool completely on a wire rack. Katrina says that for a fudgier texture, you should refrigerate the cooled brownies for several hours before cutting into serving pieces.
Enjoy!
Caramel Pecan Brownies
Decadently rich brownies with a caramel and pecan layer in between.
Ingredients
- Cooking spray
- ½ cup butter, cut into pieces
- ½ cup cocoa powder
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ tsp. salt
- ½ to ¾ cup pecans, toasted
- 24 Kraft caramels
- 4 tblsp. cream
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
- Line an 8x8 baking pan with foil or parchment paper so that the edges extend over the sides slightly. Spray lightly with cooking spray.
- Melt butter and cocoa in saucepan over medium heat. Whisk together until well combined, remove from heat and let sit for 3-5 minutes or until cooled slightly.
- Whisk in eggs, then sugar and vanilla stirring just until combined. Add flour and salt and stir just until combined.
- Spread half the batter evenly over the bottom of the prepared pan.
- Place the caramels and cream in a microwave safe bowl. Melt in 30 second intervals, stirring between each. When melted and stirred together until smooth, pour the caramel over the bottom brownie layer.
- Sprinkle the caramel layer evenly with toasted pecans. Pour the remaining batter evenly over the caramel and pecans.
- Bake for 25-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Start checking before the end of the baking time to make sure you don’t overcook.
- Cool completely on a wire rack. For fudgier texture, refrigerate cooled brownies for several hours before cutting into serving pieces.
–Recipe from Baking and Boys (www.bakingandboys.com) and adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s book, Baking from My Kitchen to Yours
Oh my gosh, how funny that you didn’t have any brownie recipes on your blog already! These look fabulous! I am so glad you joined in this month, it’s been so fun seeing what everyone made :)
Can you believe I didn’t have a single brownie recipe! And what a great one to add. Yum.
Yay for brownies! You know what is funny, Lana? I just made these on Saturday. Our neighbor went nuts over them and LOVES them. I was reminded how much we like them, too. Glad you liked them! Thanks! This really was fun. And your brownies and step-by-step look exactly like mine do when I make them. Great photos.
Katrina – Thanks for this truly delicious brownie recipe! It’s one that I know I’ll make again and again. Delicious!
Now we’re talkin’! You can’t go wrong with chocolate, caramel and pecans. My favs!
Great combination, isn’t it? We love it here, too.
Wow! These look incredibly decadent. I am all about anything chocolate with caramel. What a great recipe!
Definitely decadent. I’ll be making these over and over again.
I want to dive in and swim in that chocolate, with caramel and pecan buoys floating in the richness of the cocoa waiting to be devoured. So delightfully decadant. So rich and gooey. I am craving those. I blame you and thank you all in the same breath for sharing this recipe. But mostly, I thank you. So, thanks!
;)
You’re welcome, Kate! Enjoy.
Ooh, Lana, these look incredible! Though it may only be 8:30am here in California, you’ve begun a full-on chocolate craving for me now… Mmmmm.
Georgia – Hope you found something to satisfy that chocolate craving :-)
These look awesome! Seriously!
Thanks, Alison. Decadent and rich but definitely worth a splurge.
These look amazing!!! I somehow missed these on Katrina’s blog so I am so glad you selected this post of hers!
It was really hard to choose from all Katrina’s fabulous recipes. I think I made a great choice with these.
Oh my goodness, these look like heaven!
Resist. temptation…. ;)
The brownies look heavenly!
These seriously sound so delicious!
Lucky you for sure! Katrina has some really good yummies on her blog! These brownies are awesome!
She does, doesn’t she! Everything looks great. It was so hard to choose just one recipe
Aggghh OMG these look and sound amazing!! Will def try them, printing out the recipe now :)
These look amazing… brownies + caramel is just so good!
killing. me. caramel. killing. me. here.
A secret recipe club–what a cute idea!
Goodness, Lana, I can certainly see why you chose to make and post this wonderful brownie recipe. It must be simply sensational with the pecan and caramel flavors included here!
This has everything in it one could ever drool about! Yum.
What a great brownie recipe to bake! Looks seriously decadent. I love that you picked out one of my faves from Baking & Boys Lana … YUM!
They really are decadent, Deeba. And worth every single decadent calorie :-)
This is soooo tempting. This blog just knows how to cater the needs of the viewers. Posting the pictures around just makes me stick to the brownie recipe. I’d love to do the steps and make this as a gift to my fiancée. Does it sound good?
It’s a really good recipe. I was so glad to get to choose something from Katrina’s wonderful blog, Baking & Boys, for this first secret recipe club post.
Oh those look perfect! Nice choice.
Oh very nice! I was on vacation when this posted but it was so much fun!!
This looks soo god. All my favorite things in one of my other favorite things – brownies :D