Knock You Naked Brownies

Yes, that’s the title of this brownie variety. You wouldn’t be surprised why once you sink your teeth into these. Seriously.

This title I can’t take credit for at all. Though it is pretty perfect. This is a Pioneer Woman recipe and she named these so appropriately.

All you must know is these brownies are excellent. You may lose some socks…your right earring…your Twins hat. Who knows.

A friend of mine made these for a camping trip a few months ago, and they were devoured throughout the weekend. A panful of brownies between three of us girls. Not ashamed. I may have had one for breakfast itself one day.

Ingredients:

• 1 box (18.5 Ounce) German Chocolate Cake Mix (I Used Betty Crocker as that was literally the only brand of German Chocolate cake mix at my grocery store. I had to scan the shelf for an embarrassing length of time)
• 1 cup Finely Chopped Pecans
• 1/3 cup Evaporated Milk
• 1/2 cup Evaporated Milk (to be added at a separate time)
• 1/2 cup Butter, Melted
• 60 whole Caramels, Unwrapped (The bag I found had only 50 in the bag, so I sucked it up and bought 2 bags. 60 is better than 50. Right?)
• 1/3 cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
• 1/4 cup Powdered Sugar

How to Make:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and  flour a 9 x 9 square pan. My parents taught me, when in doubt, flour the pan. Especially with brownie/cakes. So flour away!

Then grab yourself a big mixing bowl. Mix up the 1/3 cup evaporated milk…

and the cake mix…

…the melted butter…

…and the chopped pecans (I bought the pre-chopped variety…yes…I’m lazy).

The batter will get a little hard to stir and it will be quite tasty. Forewarning.

Now, to make the first layer of the brownies, split up this batter into two equal halves.

Take one half and press that into the bottom of your floured pan. Pop it into the oven for 8-10 minutes. When it’s all done, set it aside to cool for a bit.

Now, time for some double boiler madness! If you’re a double boiler newbie like me, this is setting a glass bowl (or other heatproof bowl) over a saucepan of boiling water. We’re going to melt some caramels.

First though, you get to peel these suckers. Put on some tunes or press play on your favorite show. The unwrapping (which I took at a leisurely pace) took me about 16 minutes.

1 down…

halfway…

DONE.

Once unwrapped, pour the rest of the evaporated milk (the other 1/2 cup) over the caramels in your heatproof bowl. Set it over your saucepan of boiling water and watch the double boiler effect take place. I stirred fairly consistently to get the whole mixture to melt evenly and to avoid burning.

Once it’s liquid gold like, pour that on top of the first baked brownie layer. If needed, help spread out the caramel with a spatula.

Your third layer is going to be the chocolate chips. Sprinkle those over the caramel.

Yes…it’s going to taste good.

And it gets better.

The rest of the brownie batter is now going to go on top of these three layers. The Pioneer Woman suggests flattening out the top brownie layer on a work surface (I used wax paper) into just about the size of the 9×9 pan. Then transfer the batter to the pan.

I’m not a good transfer-er of brownie batter. Not even close.

I transferred pieces of the batter and then kind of made it look normal-ish once it was all in the pan.

I don’t think you can really tell though, right?!? Plus the peek-a-boo caramel is kinda fun, right?? This is what I told myself at least.

Now…this whole concoction is going in the oven for 20-25 minutes. Your kitchen will smell delicious. Try to contain the drool and spend the 20-25 minutes being productive….doing the dishes…eating string cheese…watching ABC Family shows that you can’t share with the world that you watch (Pretty Little Liars…cough, cough). Either way, when it’s ALL cooked through, pull it out of the oven.

You must let this cool before you eat it. Serious. Ideally, cool to room temperature first and then put it into the fridge to harden. I feed a brownie square to my roomie prior to the fridge step and it was kind of a molten pile of goo. It was tasty goo, mind you. But goo. Definitely refrigerate before you cut and serve them.

After a few hours of you pacing in front of your refrigerator…pull ’em out and sprinkle them with powdered sugar. Cut them into squares…serve them to people you really enjoy.

I chose a pool-ful of people who each had two. Didn’t matter that it was hot out and the brownies were a little melty. They were divine.

Now – your turn. Go make yourself some brownies.

Tags: Brownies, Caramel, Chocolate