Chocolate Chip Salted Caramel Brownies

One of my favorite pastimes is searching for recipes and Pinterest has only made that the search more fun and successful!! This recipe is from Pinterest and I made it for a dinner party we were hosting. They were a complete hit although, I'll warn you that these brownies are REALLY rich.  I froze the leftovers and they came in handy throughout the next month as we went to various parties/gatherings. They still tasted delicious right out of the freezer or just warmed up with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I adapted the recipe by increasing the caramel and cookie layer(as a disclaimer this recipe for cookies is NOT the cookie base I use for making chocolate chip cookies) as well as added more chocolate chips since I used a larger pan. I also used half n' half instead of the heavy cream.


ingredients:

2 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups chocolate chips
10 ounces caramel candy squares, unwrapped
3 tablespoons heavy cream
Sea salt, for sprinkling over caramel and bars

directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray a 11x7 inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.

3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the melted butter and sugars together until combined. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract and mix until smooth. Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix on low, just until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

4. In a large microwave safe bowl, combine the caramels and heavy cream. Microwave caramels on High until caramels are melted, stirring every 20 seconds. This will take about 2 minutes, depending on your microwave.

5. Divide the cookie dough in half. Press half of the cookie dough into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with the spatula. Pour hot caramel over the cookie dough. Sprinkle caramel with sea salt. Drop spoonfuls of cookie dough over the caramel and spread dough with a spatula until the caramel is covered. Sprinkle the bars with additional sea salt.

6.Bake cookie bars for 30 minutes or until the top of the bars are light golden brown and the edges start to pull away from the pan. Cool bars on a wire rack to room temperature. Cut bars into squares and serve.