Salted Caramel Blackberry Brownies

We finished our second year of grad school last night! I am very happy to have most of my summer free this year. I will be starting a six day course tomorrow -- I have class, one week to prepare and then class again two Mondays from now. Once that ends, my exciting summer can begin.

Until then, it's another busy day heading back to my alma mater because my younger brother is graduating. By the time he graduates grad school in three years we will have attended the same high school, same college and same grad school -- how cool is that?

Back to the food, this recipe was really intriguing to me. I had never had blackberries in a brownie before and had never paired them with caramel either. This recipe uses homemade brownie batter and salted caramel sauce. Both are worth it. This recipe was delectable and a great one for summer.

Photos by Kayla.

Recipe by Food Mouth.

Ingredients:

- 1/2 cup margarine

- 1/2 cup granulated sugar

- 3/4 cup dark brown sugar

- 3/4 cup extra dark cocoa powder

- 2 eggs

- 1 teaspoon vanilla

- 1 teaspoon baking powder

- 1/4 teaspoon salt

- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

- 1 6 oz. container blackberries

- 3/4 cup caramel sauce

Caramel Sauce

- 1 cup granulated sugar

- 6 tablespoons butter

- 1/2 cup heavy cream

- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Place margarine, sugars, and cocoa powder in a bowl and microwave until margarine is melted.
 Stir until smooth.
Next add eggs and vanilla, stir until smooth.
Stir in baking powder, salt, and flour.

Add in the blackberries. Gently incorporate.
The batter will be very thick.

 Add sugar to a medium saucepan, and whisk over medium-high heat until all the sugar melts.
It will take a minute, but it will melt!
Once it becomes a nice reddish-brown color add the butter and stir until melted.

Remove from the heat and stir in the half and half.

In a foil lined 8x8 coated with cooking spray press half of the brownie dough into the pan.

Pour the salted caramel over brownie layer.

Top with the other half of the brownie batter.
Bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes, in an 8x8 pan, or until a tester comes out clean.

Find something to do while the brownies bake -- Kayla is sneaky with that camera.

Remove from the oven and let cool.

Slice and serve. 

Any of the three of us who ate these could have eaten the whole pan in one sitting. I'm sure of it. The salted caramel sauce made these gooey and the blackberries were perfectly plump. All of the flavors combined to make an unexpected flavor combination that was tart, salty and sweet.