Salted caramel pretzel brownies – crunchy pretzel crust topped with rich, fudgey dark chocolate brownie and a sticky, gooey, sweet-salty caramel. Jump to Recipe
Just booked a Gelato Messina appreciation class!! They are normally only held in Sydney, but have just opened up one class per month in Fitzroy (Melbourne) for the rest of this year. Clearly I jumped at the opportunity – two hours of learning to make gelato, having a gelato degustation, getting to try as many flavours as you want out of the cabinet (up to 40!) and taking your own tub of gelato home – there was no way I was passing it up. Gelato Messina is legendary here, having been voted best gelato in Australia by the Good Food Guide, and for good reason: as well as the 40 permanent flavours (salted caramel and white chocolate, chocolate fondant, pandan and coconut, pear and rhubarb..), they also offer 5 weekly special flavours – crazy combinations that constantly bring people back for more. Some of my favourite specials have been the Crack Pie and Cereal Milk (based on Christina Tosi’s infamous Momofuku Milk Bar creations) and the Robert Brownie Jnr (chocolate gelato with chocolate brownie and chocolate fudge), but other recent flavours have included Copper’s Delight (peanut butter and coffee gelato layered with coffee caramel and doughnuts) and LMP (lemon custard gelato with shortcrust, baked meringue and lemon curd). You get the picture.
Also: only two more days of university left for the semester! Cannot believe it. This year is absolutely flying by – I did my first blog post here on January 20th, and now almost four months have passed. I do feel like writing has become easier: both my reviews and recipe posts take less time and the words seem to come a little more naturally than they initially did. And I love it – blogging provides such a different, and more creative, outlet than university work, and gives me a chance to get a bit of perspective and get my brain out of science and study mode, even if just for a short time. However, without a kitchen at college, all this inspiration and motivation to try recipes I have seen on other blogs or attempt flavour combinations I have experienced at cafes is being built up higher and higher – I definitely need to get home soon for the break and spend some serious time baking.
INGREDIENTS:
Hmm. It looks like these ingredients aren’t on sale today.
1 (14 ounce) bag individually wrapped caramels, unwrapped, divided
1 (19.8 ounce) package fudge brownie mix (such as Betty Crocker®)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup water
2 eggs
1/4 cup butter
1 tablespoon milk
1 cup chopped pretzels
3/4 cup chocolate chips
1/3 cup chocolate-covered toffee bits
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9×13-inch baking dish. Cut 9 caramels in half.
Beat brownie mix, vegetable oil, water, and eggs together in a bowl until batter is well-combined. Pour batter into prepared baking dish. Place caramel halves in 3 rows of 6 in the brownie batter so that there will be a caramel half in the center of each brownie.
Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out almost clean, 25 to 30 minutes.
Melt remaining caramels, butter, and milk together in a microwave-safe glass or ceramic bowl in 30-second intervals, stirring after each melting, for 1 to 3 minutes (depending on your microwave). Pour caramel mixture over warm brownies and top with pretzels, chocolate chips, and toffee bits. Cool completely before cutting into squares.
