Sandwiched Salted Caramel Brownie Cookies

I saw a delicious looking picture (similar to mine) pop up in my Facebook newsfeed recently so I followed the link to the Donna Hay website and had to get into the kitchen to give them a go, making a few tweaks along the way. They were better than I imagined, actually I think they are one of the best things I have ever baked!

Ingredients:
350g dark chocolate, chopped
40g unsalted butter
2 eggs
⅓ cup caster sugar
⅓ cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
⅓ cup plain flour, sifted
¼ teaspoon baking powder, sifted

Salted caramel frosting
¾ cup caster sugar
¼ cup water
½ cup cream
150g unsalted butter, chopped
sea salt flakes, for sprinkling

Method:
Preheat oven to 180°C.
Place 200g of the chocolate and the butter in a small saucepan over low heat and cook, stirring frequently, until melted and smooth.
Set aside. Place the eggs, sugar and vanilla in an electric mixer and whisk for 12-15 minutes or until pale and creamy.
Stir through the flour, baking powder, chocolate mixture and remaining chocolate and allow to stand for 10 minutes.
Drop tablespoonfuls of the mixture onto baking trays lined with non-stick baking paper, allowing room to spread.
Bake for 8–10 minutes or until puffed and cracked. Allow to cool completely on trays.

To make the salted caramel icing, place the sugar and water in a medium saucepan over low heat and stir with a metal spoon until the sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to medium and bring to the boil. Cook, without stirring, for 8–9 minutes or until golden.
Remove from the heat and carefully add the cream and butter. Return the saucepan to the heat and stir until the mixture is smooth.
Refrigerate until completely cool.
Using a hand-held electric whisk, whisk mixture until soft peaks form.
Spread half the cookies with the icing, sprinkle with the salt and sandwich with the remaining cookies.

I do urge you to give them a go! They are simply amazing. Although before I sign off, a couple of tips - make sure you do let the mixture stand, it will thicken and reduce spreading. If your brownie cookies do spread unevenly use a circular cutter to cut down/shape the biscuits while they are still hot out of the oven, you do need them to be a uniform size to sandwich. Also, I made my caramel frosting first as by the time I had made my cookies and let them cool completely I was ready to sandwich.

Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcakes

These are super yummy and use the salted caramel sauce that I posted last week. They are super easy to make, just use your favourite chocolate cupcake recipe (I used my easy peasy chocolate cake recipe halved to make a dozen cupcakes).

Ingredients:
Cupcakes
½ cup sugar
1 tablespoons cocoa
½  teaspoon baking powder
½  teaspoon baking soda
¾ cup flour
1 egg
¼ cup milk
75g butter (melted)
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
Pinch of salt
¼ cup boiling water

Salted Caramel Buttercream
100 grams butter, softened
100 grams cream cheese, softened
¼ cup salted caramel sauce
½ teaspoon vanilla paste
2 ½ cups icing sugar, sifted

Method:
Pre- heat your oven to 180°C and line a muffin tin with 12 cupcake cases.
Place all ingredients in a bowl EXCEPT the water. Add water last - do not mix until it is added.
Beat well with a hand held mixer for about 2 minutes and once combined and smooth spoon evenly into your cupcake cases.
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until you can remove a skewer cleanly from the centre of your cupcakes or they spring back when lightly touched.
To make the buttercream, beat butter and cream cheese in a mixer until pale and fluffy. On a low speed add 1½ cups icing sugar and mix to combine with butter and cream cheeses. Add the salted caramel and vanilla essence mixing again. Add the rest of your icing sugar and mix again. If you find your frosting is a little bit thick add some room temperature milk 1 tablespoon at a time. 
Use a large star shaped piping tip (like a Wilton 1M or 2D) to frost cupcakes. Drizzle cupcakes with a little salted caramel sauce to finish.

Cupcake toppers c/o – Wink.  Thank you to Pop Roc Parties for the picture at the top of the post, sharing their attempt at the cupcakes using this recipe.

Salted Caramel Sauce

Doesn’t it look tempting?! A big jar of gooey goodness and the uses for this jar of amber deliciousness is endless! Keep you eyes peeled over the next few days for a post about salted caramel cupcakes which involves using it to make buttercream frosting. You can drizzle it over ice cream, brownies or biscuits or then again you could try dunking apples in it – perfect for Halloween (check out this post from Pioneer Woman for inspiration)!

Ingredients:1 cup white sugar
30 grams butter, chopped into cubes
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup of cream (room temperature)
1 teaspoon flaky sea salt

Method:
Place the sugar in the bottom of a medium-large saucepan and head over a medium-high heat, whisking it until it begins to melt. Don’t worry when it starts to form clumps, these will dissolve.
Once all the sugar has melted and you are left with a clear liquid you can stop whisking and start swirling the pan occasionally while the sugar cooks.
When the sugar has reached a deep amber colour (a reddish brown) it is ready, the best way to be sure of the readiness is to use a a candy or instant read thermometer, your caramel will be 175°C when it is ready. Caramel can go from perfection to burnt in a matter of seconds so it is important that you keep an eye on things. It is at this point you can add the butter and whisk to combine it with the sugar. It will bubble up but keep whisking.
Remove your pan from the heat and pour in the cream, again it will bubble up but you need to keep whisking to ensure it is incorporated and you end up with a nice smooth sauce.
Sprinkle over your flaky sea salt and stir.
Set aside to cool for at least 15 minutes and place in a jar. Cool completely to room temperature before storing in the fridge. It will keep for about two weeks.

Salted Caramel Choc Drop Cookies

These are the ultimate indulgent cookie!  I had been looking at recipes for salted caramel cookie bites and they looked delish so was going to whip some up for visitors, as well as these muffins (with pecans) because I was craving them.  Then I realised what the time was and as it was getting on in the evening I decided I was only going to have time/energy to make one thing, so I turned to my friend google and looked for a recipe (or two or three) that suited the ingredients I wanted to use.  In typical BMTB fashion I adapted a couple of recipes to make these fantastic cookies!  My only gripe is that I made the cookies a little too big which meant they looked a little ugly but hey, they tasted AMAZING!

Ingredients:
200 grams butter, melted
¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar
¾ cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
2 large eggs
2 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¾ cup milk chocolate drops
¾ cup dark chocolate drops
¾ cups roughly chopped pecans
1 ¼ cup caramel chunks*, chopped into chunks and sprinkled with salt
Sea salt
* I didn’t find any plain caramels on my trip to the supermarket so I bought a bag of Jersey Caramels and cut the caramel off either side of the creamy centre and diced it into quarters.

Method:
Place your melted butter in a large bowl (or the bowl of your stand mixer), add both sugars and mix until combined.  Add the salt and vanilla, mix again.  Sift in flour, baking soda, baking powder and mix on a low speed to combine.  Add in chocolate, pecans and 1 cup of your caramel chunks, fold so that all the deliciousness is distributed evenly into your cookie dough.
Scoop out two tablespoons of dough at a time and combine (if you have an ice cream scoop I recommend using it as it will help keep all your cookies a uniform size).  Place on a lined baking tray, leaving at least 3cm between each ball.
Put in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour to firm up and reduce spread when they go into the oven.
Preheat your oven to 180°C.
After your cookie dough balls have firmed up, remove from the oven and place 2-4 pieces of your remaining caramel chunks on the top of each cookie.
Place in the oven for 12-15 minutes, until golden all over.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the tray for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.  While they are still hot and on the baking tray sprinkle each cookie with sea salt.

Do yourself a favour and make these yourself, they are incredible! I am going to have to stop myself from making them again in the near future as I can see them becoming addictive!

Simon’s Chocolate Ganache and Salted Caramel Tarts

Simon experimented and made these little tarts tonight.  I bought the tart cases a few weeks ago when I made Neenish tarts, but ended up using bigger ones for them.  Ever since Simon has been thinking up ways they could be put to use.  He has also started a thing called ‘25 before 26’ where he is coming up with 25 treats for me before my 26th birthday, which is coming up on March 19th.  It started on Friday night with a gorgeous dinner out to Soto, a restaurant I had been wanting to try for ages.  Saturday’s treat ended up being a milkshake and I don’t think he had anything planned for Sunday.  So, I think these tarts were a last minute attempt at keeping the 25 treats going and also gave Simon an excuse to be allowed to use up the tart cases :P
I’ve written out an approximate recipe below (the email version that Simon sent me said things like “stir to get all the lumpy lumps are out”).

150g dark chocolate
95ml cream
1 teaspoon butter
⅓ cup caramel condensed milk
2 tablespoons salt
12 mini tart cases

Melt the chocolate and butter together in the cream over the top of a double boiler.
Fill the little tart cups with the chocolate mixture then put in the fridge to chill.
Heat the caramel condensed milk in a little pan and stir to get all the lumps out.  Use a teaspoon to drip some over a good ⅓ of the chocolate tarts.  Alternatively, if you like caramel, cover the entire top in it.  Sprinkle the tops of each tart with a pinch of salt.  Refrigerate to set.