Sea Salt Caramel Brownies

Cole was craving brownies last night and picked these for me to make.  It was my friend's birthday yesterday as well, so part of the pan went off to her (because she is my friend AND because I didn't want to eat a whole pan of these brownies).  Use whatever brownie recipe you'd like and whatever caramel sauce you'd like.  Great way to jazz up any brownie recipe (or box mix).

Note: The caramel sauce I used was super easy- kind of a fake out sauce.  I figured this was a good time to not worry about it because it was being drizzled on brownies.  Use whatever recipe you'd like- caramel is essentially butter, sugar and cream.

Note: Use a 9x13 pan or cooking time goes up a lot and it's hard to get the chewy brownie consistency desired because they are too thick.

Source of brownie recipe: http://joannagoddard.blogspot.ca/2012/11/the-best-salted-caramel-brownies-youll.html
Source of caramel recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/easy-caramel-sauce-recipe/index.html

Ingredients:

Brownies:
1 cup butter
4 squares of dark chocolate (28 grams per square)
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4-1/2 cup caramel sauce
1/2 tsp coarse sea salt

Caramel:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup cream (half and half or whipping)
2 tbsp butter
pinch of salt
1/2 tbsp vanilla


Directions:

For the caramel, add everything but the vanilla to a small saucepan and stir on medium heat.  Once you see little bubbles, keep stirring for 5-7 minutes, then add vanilla and stir another minute.  Pour into a container and refrigerate to cool down.  It will keep thickening once it's cooled.

For brownies, in a medium saucepan melt butter and chocolate.  Take off heat and beat in sugar.  Then beat in each egg separately, incorporating really well.  Add vanilla.  Beat in salt and flour.  Pour into a greased and floured 9x13 pan and drizzle top with caramel.  Swirl with toothpick and then sprinkle with coarse salt.  Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.  You can drizzle some more caramel and salt on top while they are still warm if you want.  Then let them cool before cutting into them.