Salted Caramel Pecan Brownie

My daughter absolutely loves brownies. Anytime she sees it at any store or restaurant, she always begs me to buy her some. I have a great go-to recipe for brownies that I promised her we would make together one day. But I haven't gotten around to doing it. I've been seeing many recipes for Salted Caramel Brownie recipes in the blogosphere and felt like they were calling out to me. So I thought this particular recipe from Beantown Baker was the recipe to make with my daughter.

Once the caramel sauce is made, this recipe was really easy. No need for an electric mixer because the ingredients are whisked together. The result is an ooey-gooey, chocolatey goodness that may have caused problems between me and hubby. You see, he's been doing so well with his diet this week, and blew it because of these brownies. He couldn't stop eating them. Sorry boo. But our daughter wanted some brownies :)

3/4 cup pecans
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp. all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup salted caramel sauce
Fleur de Sel for garnish

1) Preheat oven to 350 deg F. Place pecans in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake until toasted, about 7 minutes. Coarsely chop pecans and set aside.

2) Line a 8 x 8 inch baking pan with foil, leaving several inches overhang on the sides. Grease pan with butter or cooking spray. Set aside.

3) Place 1 cup of chocolate chips and butter in a bowl over simmering water (double boiler). Stir occasionally until melted and smooth. Remove from heat.

4) Whisk in sugar, eggs and vanilla extract and continue whisking until glossy and thick, about 2 minutes. Stir in flour and salt and mix just until blended. Transfer batter onto prepared pan.

5) In a small bowl, combine half of the pecans with the caramel sauce. Drop caramel pecan mixture by spoonfuls onto brownie batter. Gently swirl with a skewer or thin metal spatula. Top with remaining pecans and chocolate chips. Bake for 35 minutes. Allow to completely cool in the pan set on a baking rack. Once cooled, grab foil overhang to lift brownies out of pan and cut into squares to serve. Store in an airtight container for 1 week.