Caramel Brownies * using a cake mix in a recipe * using evaporated milk * melting caramel

Caramel Brownies

1 German chocolate cake mix

1 1/2 sticks melted butter

1/3 c evaporated milk

1 c pecans, chopped

1 bag caramels, unwrapped

another 1/3 c evaporated milk

12 oz chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 and grease a 9x13 pan.

Melt the butter and stir in the evaporated milk, pecans, and cake mix. Spread about half of the mixture in the pan and bake for exactly six minutes. Melt the caramels and 1/3 c evaporated milk together (it takes 3 minutes in the microwave). As soon as the six minutes of baking are up, remove the pan from the oven and immediately pour the chocolate chips over the top, then pour the caramel mixture over them. Drop the remaining cake mixture over it all. Bake another 15 minutes exactly and remove from oven. Do not overbake; mixture will look underdone when first removed from oven. Cool completely before cutting. Brownies will be soft inside after they have cooled.

Welcome to the Real Life Cooking Podcast. I’m Kate Shaw and this week we’re going to learn how to make Caramel Brownies.

This recipe is one that calls for a cake mix. I don’t usually like using cake mixes in recipes. For one thing, it feels like cheating, and for another, sometimes it just doesn’t taste as good as homemade and it’s certainly more expensive. But it occurs to me that some listeners who are new cooks may not know how to use a cake mix in a recipe.

This is another recipe I got from a coworker many, many years ago, in this case a woman named Alice. I was so enthusiastic about these brownies when she brought them in for a company potluck that I begged her for the recipe. I was still a new cook at the time and the recipe sounded so complicated that I never tried making it—until now, when I found it in my recipe box. And it’s not really complicated at all.

For this recipe you’ll need a big mixing bowl, a small bowl you can microwave, and a 9x13 pan. You’re also going to need a German chocolate cake mix, and it doesn’t matter what brand you get. Make sure it’s specifically German chocolate, not just chocolate, because you need that cocoa flavor from German chocolate cake mix to make the brownies taste like brownies.

You’ll also need a bag of caramels. Alice didn’t specify how big a bag, so I bought the only bag I could find in my local grocery store. I didn’t keep the package but I think it was about 12 ounces or so, certainly not a big bag. These are the little square soft caramels that are wrapped individually in cellophane. I think you can buy them unwrapped for baking these days, but if you buy the wrapped ones, as soon as you get a minute, open the package, unwrap all the caramels, and store the caramels in a plastic baggie. That makes them a lot easier to use them later, and in fact my recipe has a note that says “this takes forever so do it first.” The hardest part is not snacking on them as you unwrap them.

You’ll also need evaporated milk, and Alice helpfully pointed out that the small can you can buy in the baking aisle has exactly 2/3 of a cup in it. This is the little bitty can, not the 12 oz can. It’s also evaporated milk, not condensed. Be careful because the two are sold side by side and it’s easy to grab the wrong thing.

So, you’ve got all your ingredients together and unwrapped your caramels. Before you do anything else, cut the top off the chocolate chip bag and set it somewhere where it won’t spill but you can grab it easily. Once the pan goes into the oven for the first bake, time is of the essence and you don’t want to have to stop and find the scissors to open that bag.

Then turn the oven on to preheat and grease the 9x13 cake pan. I use my Pyrex pan but metal is fine too.

Put the butter into the large mixing bowl