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Great recipe! Chewy and fudgy and caramely – and very easy! I pulled them out at 25 minutes and they were perfect!
Stephanie
Okay, there are a few essential things I look for in a brownie, and I have some practice (see here and see here):
- Appropriate gooeyness
- Fudgification
- Density
- Texture
- Thickness
Imagine your most thick, dense, fudgy, rich, beautifully underbaked brownie. Now imagine it studded with soft caramel. Not like a sickly-sweet caramel. A just-right, flavor-rich, soft, silky caramel. That you made yourself, cause you’re a boss, duh. Now imagine that the sticky tops of the caramel pools on top of your brownies are not only oozing with love from the sides of the adorable Pinterest-level heart-cut-outs, but that they are also speckled with delicate, flakey sea salt. It screams for a glass of milk or a latte, complete with candles and pajamas. And by pajamas I definitely mean sweatpants and t-shirts from 10th grade softball camp. No need to make this into a whole fancy thing.
Is it even a surprise that these beauties, these love-of-my-life salted caramel brownies just straight-up have it all? They have everything. They check off everything on my list. They literally ARE everything.
They are my Valentine.
Speaking of which, do you guys even like boxes of chocolates? I might be the ultimate food snob right now, but I would easily take a batch of these brownies over a box of chocolates. Or even flowers. Just skip em, k? I’ll take the brownies.
How To Make Our Salted Caramel Brownies:
Thinking you need to make these happen for someone in your life. Go ahead and drop them the link. Aka drop yourself the link. Hint: loves salted caramel brownies, dog snuggles, and Riverdale.
This genius recipe was inspired by Smitten Kitchen, the Food Blogging Master, and her salted caramel brownies. GIRL THEY DID NOT DISAPPOINT. You must.
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Salted Caramel Brownies
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 9 big brownies 1x
Description
Salted Caramel Brownies ♡ thick, dense, fudgy brownies stuffed with homemade salted caramel. HEAVEN.
Ingredients
Yummy Homemade Caramel:
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 4 tablespoons salted butter
- 3 tablespoons heavy cream
- pinch of salt
Fudgy Thick Brownies:
- 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate (one bar)
- 1 stick salted butter (8 tablespoons)
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3/4 cup flour
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- Prep: Preheat oven to 350. Line a flat plate with parchment paper and coat with cooking spray. Line an 8×8 square baking pan with parchment paper and coat with cooking spray.
- Make that caramel: place the sugar in a small saucepan over medium high heat. Stir frequently – the sugar will form clumps and eventually become smooth. Remove from heat. Add butter and stir in. Add cream and stir in. Return to heat – let it get smooth and bubbly for another few minutes. Pour the caramel on the parchment-lined plate. Freeze for 20-30 minutes to solidify.
- Brownie time: Melt the chocolate and the butter (microwave or double boiler). Whisk in the sugar. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla. Whisk in the flour and salt.
- Caramel meets brownie: Cut the cooled caramel into small squares. Stir most of them into the brownie batter and transfer to the pan. Arrange the last few caramel pieces on top of the brownies. Bake for 30 minutes (more or less to taste). Cool in the fridge or freezer for easier cutting. FALL IN LOVE!
Notes
Heart Shapes: If you want to get heart shapes, you can either use a heart-shaped cookie cutter (affiliate link), or just print out a heart-shaped piece of paper and cut around it with a small knife. If you cut out heart shapes, you should be able to get 6-8 hearts with some scraps leftover. If you just cut into squares, you can easily get 9 big brownies.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition Facts
- Daily value: 32% Total Fat 24.9g
- Daily value: 29% Cholesterol 87.8mg
- Daily value: 17% Sodium 400.4mg
- Daily value: 16% Total Carbohydrate 45.2g
- Daily value: 8% Dietary Fiber 2.4g
- Sugars 33.7g
- Daily value: 9% Protein 4.6g
- Daily value: 19% Vitamin A 167.4µg
- Daily value: 0% Vitamin C 0mg
- Daily value: 16% Iron 2.9mg
- Daily value: 3% Potassium 141.9mg
- Daily value: 7% Phosphorus 91.2mg
Keywords: caramel brownies, valentine’s brownies, salted caramel brownies
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our collection of easy dessert recipes. Check it out!
If I doubled these, would I bake them in a 9 x 13 pan?
Yes, you could use a 9×13 pan. The brownies will probably be a bit thicker, which might make it hard to cut out the hearts. If you plan on using the cookie cutter, it may be best to divide the batter in half and use the 8×8 pan twice.
Okay so these didn’t work out for me at all. I consider myself a good baker and have also made caramel before. But I could not make the caramel in this recipe work at all- it would just clump up once I added the butter then cream. I tried 3 times and it was a no go for me.
I can only have chocolate cookies that’s all I can eat
Oh my goodness, these are so good!!! I initially tried to freeze canned caramel and that failed to I added the unfrozen caramel sauce to the batter and used caramel sweets for the topping. The resulting brownies were so gooey and delicious and when the melted sweets hardened, they added a little crunch. Next time I will definitely try making the caramel though, to see the difference.
Any tips for freezing these?
We’d recommend just freezing in a freezer-safe container. You could also put a layer of wax paper or parchment paper between the brownies to prevent them from freezing on top of each other.
Just wondering when the salt shown in the picture goes on – before or after baking.
We would suggest sprinkling the flaky salt on top of the brownies just before baking!
Can you use store bought caramels too?
That should work!
Hello,
I just printed your recipe for the Salted Carmel Brownies. Can you tell me if you have ever made them using Truvia instead of sugar? Would love to make these for Valentines Day.
Thank you,
MaryEllen
Hi, Mary Ellen! We haven’t tested this out using Truvia adn we’re not sure if that would change the texture or outcome of the brownies at all. If you give it a try though, we’d love to hear!
I want to receive more recipes from this website!
i love Brownies, thank you for sharing lovely recipe.
This is delicious and easy to make but one thing I would probably do is make the caramel the day before so it can sit in my freezer overnight to get it REALLY cold. If the caramel is soft it will melt into the brownies still delicious but you will be looking for that bite of caramel and it isn’t there. Make sure the caramel is really frozen solid and you will get a delicious bite. Also I didn’t have enough baking chocolate bar so I subbed with cocoa powder (3tbs) and vegetable oil (1tbs) per each oz of chocolate I was missing. Still tasted amazing and fudgy.
These were so good! I had never made caramel before and was surprised at how simple it was, and so creamy. The brownies were perfectly fudgy. A decadent treat! Would absolutely make again.
I think next time, instead of assuming people know, you need to specify that the caramel needs melted butter. I put cold butter into the sugar and it becomes this big hard lump
Hello POY Team. This recipe looks wonderful and I’m dying to try it but I tend to be cursed when it comes to melting sugar. Any tips for melting it without burning? I have tried using low heat, medium heat, high heat, dissolving it with a tbsp water first, different sizes of pots, I have tried melting a little at a time and then sprinkling more on top but, no matter what I do, some sugar burns before the rest of it melts every single time!
Hi Lauren! Here’s a post with some great tips!
Would using half and half instead of heavy cream be okay? I’ve made these before and they’re delish I just can’t remember if I used cream.
We think that substitute would work!
really want to make a lot of your recipes they sound so delicious and somewhat easy, thanks a bunch for sharing,
Absolutely delicious! Just wondering, can you make batches and freeze them?
That should work!
Worst recipe. Completely ruined a pan trying to make this caramel. No advice whatsoever on how to make caramel without burning the sugar. I followed everything exactly and ended up with a hard clumpy mess.
So sorry to hear this, Lisa. 😕 Thanks for sharing this feedback with us!
Thank you so, so much for this wonderful recipe! I was looking for something special to bake for my husband, and he loves caramel and chocolate so this was absolutely perfect. I am not a very experienced or confident baker, so I really appreciated how detailed and easy this recipe was. These brownies are awesome and I will definitely be making them again! Thank you!
So glad you enjoyed these, Lindsay!
How long do these keep when stored in an airtight container? I made these for my boyfriend for Valentine’s Day, and we LOVED them. Unfortunately we are long distance, and his bday is coming up. I wanted to ship these brownies to him for his birthday. And I’m wondering if you think they’ll be okay through the shipping process! 🙂 thank you for your help!
Hello this is American recipe so what sugar and flour do you use?
We used granulated sugar and all-purpose flour here. 🙂
Hello
any adaptations for this to be used in the UK as i see its in cup measurements and what flour and sugar do you use?
Hi there, Tasha! Just based on the location of the blog (U.S.), we unfortunately aren’t able to provide metric conversions. We just use all-purpose flour here and granulated sugar. Enjoy!
so yummy..can’t wait to make this reciepe…. what type of flour do you use? Thanks much for sharing.
Just all-purpose flour here. Enjoy the brownies, Juli!
When you said 350, is it Fahrenheit or Celsius?
350 degrees Farenheit 🙂
350 Celsius or Fahrenheit?
Fahrenheit!