Caramel Surprise Brownies

When I was a litle girl, there were three things my Aunt B made that I could not possibly love more. Lasagna, cream puffs, and caramel surprise brownies. When the rest of the family asked for birthday lists every year, the only thing I wanted from her was one (or three) of those things. YUM.

I've never asked her for any of the recipes because I wasn't sure she shared them (signature pieces, you know), so alllllll these many years later, I've just savored any morsel of them she offered. Come to find out...the caramel surprise brownie recipe was in the church cookbook the whole time! Good grief.

Earlier last year I made a "almost" version of these brownies and it's good...but this real version is SO worth the effort. You will not be sorry.




The Recipe
1 German Chocolate Cake Mix


1 package of caramels UNWRAPPED (Important)
2/3 cups evaporated milk
1 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cups melted butter

Preheat oven to 350. Add 1/3 cup evaporated milk and melted butter to cake mix. Spread 1/2 of the batter in a greased 9x13 pan. Bake for 10 minutes at 350. Melt caramels with remaining 1/3 cup of evaporated milk. Pour on top of cake and sprinkle on chocolate chips. Add remainder of cake batter and bake for another 15 minutes.


I used milk chocolate chips in this just because I wanted it to be richer. (As if it isn't by itself.)
Cut the butter into chunks and melt in the microwave.

In case you don't know what melted butter looks like. :)

Add the butter and the evaporated milk (half of it) to the dry cake mix.

The batter will be very thick.

Unwrap the caramels. A tedious but important step.

Put them in a saucepan along with the rest of the evaporated milk.

Pat the batter into the bottom of the pan (just half of it).

Keep an eye on the caramel so it doesn't burn.

The batter spreads out as it bakes, so don't worry if in the pre-bake look, there are some holes. They will fill in!

Pour the melted caramel mixture over the baked cake half.

Sprinkle on the chocolate chips.

This is the trickiest part. The batter is thick enough to handle (like soft play-doh) so I just pulled chunks of it out of the bowl and made little pats of it.

And then I piece them together on top of the baked mix.

Bake!!! And ENJOY!!

I'll warn you...it's super rich! So pace yourself! Best when consumed with milk or coffee. Or both.