Operation Kitchen Cleanout, Part II – a happy accident

Well… the house is almost packed – just a couple of closets and half the kitchen remain. Only a few more days until I hit the road, leaving my husband here to wrap things up, and turning the page to a new chapter in our life. Scary… exciting… hectic…

And, in the meantime, we continue to try to clear out the perishable items from the kitchen. I’d like to tell you that I’ve been all sorts of industrious… cooking up all kinds of dinners and whatnot. But, in actuality, we’ve been eating a lot of take out and, when I do get into the kitchen, it’s mostly to bring a little sweet relief into our lives.

I had some heavy cream hanging out in the fridge. Always the last one to the game, I decided I wanted to make caramels which, you may remember, was ALL the rage last Christmas. Yes… six months ago. Like I said, last one to the game.

My first attempt seemed to go well. Until, that is, my beautiful caramel didn’t set up properly. I tried coaxing it along by putting it into the fridge. Still liquidy. In retrospect, I suspect it was a temperature issue (and totally my fault). But, in the moment, I was pretty disappointed. After all, I had such plans!

But, this was not a failure. In fact, it was quite the happy accident. Seconds before I was ready to pour my liquid caramel back into the pan to try to heat it up to the correct temperature, I realized that my not-so-set-up-caramels were, instead, the tastiest caramel sauce I’d ever tasted. This stuff was just begging to be poured over something ooey gooey chocolatey. So, into the pantry I went… for my canister of Ghirardelli Sweet Ground Chocolate.

My brilliant solution? Brownies smothered in caramel sauce.

Lordy these were awesome.

The brownie recipe is from the back of the Ghirardelli can… and I promise you it doesn’t disappoint. The caramel (errr… caramel sauce) came from a recipe I found over at Dessert First. I’m sure the fact that the caramels didn’t set up was due to some error of my own because I’ve seen the recipe replicated on a few other food blogs. No worries, though… no matter which way you do it, you won’t be dissappointed!

Ghirardelli Award Winning Brownies
(slightly adapted)
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup Ghirardelli Sweet Ground Chocolate
2/3 cup unsifted flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Using a spoon, stir eggs with sugar and vanilla; add butter. Mix in ground chocolate, flour, baking powder, and salt. Spread into a greased 8″ square pan. Bake 20-30 minutes, to desired consistency. Cool to room temp or refrigerate before cutting into squares.

Honey & Sea Salt Caramel Sauce
Adapted from Dessert First
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup honey
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt
2 cups heavy cream
3 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces

In a large saucepan (use at least a 3 quart saucepan, as the boiling caramel will increase in volume), combine the corn syrup, honey, sugar, and sea salt, and bring to a boil. Cook for about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the cream in a small saucepan and warm on the stove until it is just at a simmer. Turn off the heat and cover the saucepan to keep the cream warm (you do not want to add cold cream to the hot caramel or it will seize up and harden.)

When the caramel has cooked for the allotted time, take it off the heat and add in the butter, stirring until it is melted and combined.

Add in the cream slowly – when you pour it in it will bubble up violently, so don’t add the cream all at once or it might overflow. When you have added all the cream, stir the mixture until combined.

Return the saucepan to the stove and cook on medium heat for another 3 minutes or so.

Pour the caramel into a heatproof container. Cool completely before slathering over your favorite brownie, ice cream, or cake.