Easter Weekend means Chocolate: Turtle Brownies

This Easter weekend could have been awful, it was the first one I've ever spent away from my family and since my mum pretty much makes Easter Sunday the best, this was a pretty big decision. But instead of being a disaster Easter weekend was absolutely lovely. I got not one but two Easter egg hunts and more than that I got quality time with friends and my bf which was really enjoyable. On Saturday we went to a lovely Easter BBQ with an outdoor egg hunt. It was so much fun and the food was absolutely delicious. So of course I had to contribute something baked but we'll get back to that. Sunday I used the magic of Skype to have breakfast with my family and then had the most amazing chilled day. The weather here was absolutely awful on Sunday but after a few weeks of running around a day of being confined indoors while rivers of rain splatter your window, some blissful relaxation (read watching frozen) and the remains of my baked goods were the perfect combination. So what was the fitting baked good for this weekend of enjoyment - well you know it's got to involve chocolate.

How bout adding some caramel? maybe some nuts?

Any ideas?

It's Turtles Brownie

I've made brownies a few time, including recently with low fat versions. These versions are inspired by the delicious DeMets Turtles and some delicious sea salt caramel brownies I saw on littlerosebook back in January. Previously I have always made a more cakey brownie but since these were to be turtles brownies which are american, it only felt right to use an american recipe. So I adapted a recipe from the hummingbird bakery



For the caramel

2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp sugar
1 can condensed milk
1 pinch salt

50g toasted pecans

Brownies

100g Dark chocolate
100g milk chocolate
175g Butter
200g caster sugar
125g muscovado sugar
130g plain flour
3 eggs

1. To make your caramel, melt together the butter and sugar and when the sugar is dissolved, add the condensed milk and whisk continuously until it thickens and darkens in colour.
2. Leave aside 20g of whole pecans and chop up the rest. Then add these to the caramel and mix thoroughly

3 - Set aside your caramel and put your chocolate and butter into a microwaveable bowl and heat for sets of 20 seconds, mixing between until melted.
4 - Add the sugars and mix thoroughly
5 - Add the flour and mix until very well combined.
6 - Finally add your eggs and whisk to combine. The mixture will be very thick

 7 - Pour into a lined tin. Then add teaspoons of the nuts and caramel at regular spaces

8 - Swirl together with the handle of a spoon, leaving large clumps of caramel

9 - Then add another 1/2 tsp of caramel with a whole pecan on top at regular intervals

10 - Bake for 30-40 minutes at 170'C. Then remove from the oven and let cool to almost room temperature before cutting, as difficult as that is. Then enjoy