Fudgey Salted Caramel & Macadamia Brownies

Fudgey decadent brownies paired with a gooey, home-made salted caramel sauce filled with crunchy macadamia nuts.

Guys, where do I even begin with these? These brownies, in my eyes, are the EPITOME of decadent brownies. As though regular brownies weren’t addictive enough, this recipe takes brownies to a whole new level. Imagine the most rich, fudgy chocolate brownie, smothered with salted caramel sauce and fresh macadamia nuts. This is that recipe!

The inspiration for this recipe is from my fellow Sydney-cider and incredibly talented fellow-baker friend, Afra from Oh That Be Good! The brownie recipe is from BBC Food and Salted Caramel recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction.

Onto this recipe! There are two elements to this fudgey salted caramel macadamia brownie:

• The Salted Caramel Sauce
• The Fudgey Chocolate Brownie

I strongly recommend making the salted caramel sauce ahead of time. The sauce can be made up to one month in advance and slightly heated before drizzling over the brownie batter.

Baking these Fudgey Salted Caramel Macadamia Brownies to Perfection

THE SALTED CARAMEL SAUCE

• As mentioned above, this salted caramel sauce can be made in advance and refrigerated for up to one month in an airtight container.
• The most simple salted caramel sauce calls for four ingredients: granulated sugar, salted butter, heavy cream and salt.
• I recommend having the cream, butter and salt measured out and ready to use before you start the process of melting your sugar. This makes it easy to get right to it once the sugar has melted and starts to simmer.
• The first step in the process is to melt the sugar in a heavy bottomed, non-stick saucepan. Stir the sugar with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon until it has melted. Add the butter and cream together and bring the caramel to a boil. Once the caramel mixture starts to boil, remove it from the flame and add the salt. You can adjust the amount of salt depending on how salty/less salty you like your caramel!
• It’s important to have this salted caramel sauce ready to go before making the fudgey chocolate brownie mixture below.
• Extra salted caramel sauce can be drizzled over vanilla ice cream, yogurt, pancakes and even my Smooth and Creamy New York Cheesecake Recipe.

THE FUDGEY CHOCOLATE BROWNIE

• The brownie calls for 7 simple ingredients: butter, caster sugar, dark chocolate, eggs, plain flour, cocoa powder and macadamia nuts. If you aren’t a fan of macadamia nuts, you can omit them from the recipe but I HIGHLY recommend sticking with them.
• The recipe begins with melting together the dark chocolate and butter in a microwave safe bowl, covered loosely with cling wrap for two minutes. I recommend using 70%-80% dark chocolate for this recipe to ensure a deep chocolate flavour. Depending on your microwave, this could require anywhere from 90 seconds to 2 minutes.
• The next step is to sieve together our flour and cocoa powder to remove any flour lumps and to ensure a smooth and fudgey brownie batter. Keep this aside and ready to fold into our wet ingredients. 
• This third step is what determines the volume of the thick and fudgy brownies. The eggs and caster sugar are beaten with an electric mixer on maximum speed for anywhere between 8-10 minutes until the texture is very thick and pale – resembling a thick milkshake.
• Add the cooled chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and fold together with a spatula until just combined. Be sure not to over-mix this as you don’t want to lose the effort you put into incorporating all that air into the egg and sugar mixture. Using a figure 8 mixing pattern is the best way to go about mixing the two wet ingredients together. Add in the roughly chopped macadamia nuts at this point.
• The final step is folding our dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Get those arm muscles ready! Pour the sifted flour and cocoa powder into the chocolate mixture and using the same figure 8 mixing pattern, fold together the dry and wet ingredients. It may not look promising at first but keep folding the dry and wet ingredients together until JUST combined! No over-mixing here.

ASSEMBLE THE FUDGEY SALTED CARAMEL MACADAMIA BROWNIE

• Pour half the brownie batter into a greased and lined 20cm square tin. Spoon as much or as little of the salted caramel sauce over half the brownie batter as shown in the images below. I use about 80% of the salted caramel sauce recipe for a more gooey and sticky brownie. Spoon the remainder of the brownie batter over the salted caramel. Spread the brownie evenly within the tin using a spatula.
• Bake the brownie at 180C for approximately 25-35 minutes. As with all brownie recipes, over-baking the brownies dries them out. It’s important to watch that brownie like a hawk around the 25 minute mark depending on your oven. A skewer inserted in the middle of the brownie should come out with a few trails of wet crumb on it. Remove the brownie from the oven and allow it to cool completely in the tin. Brownies cool best on a cooling rack.
• Salted caramel macadamia brownies can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 10 days or frozen for a month.

If you enjoyed this Fudgey Salted Caramel & Macadamia recipe, don’t forget to check out some of the other chocolate recipes on the blog:

Fudgey Salted Caramel & Macadamia Brownies

4 from 9 votes

Recipe by Shilpika Course: DessertCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy

Servings

16

Pieces

Prep time

20

minutes

Baking time

25

minutes

Fudgey decadent brownies paired with a gooey, home-made salted caramel sauce filled with crunchy macadamia nuts.

Ingredients

• For the Salted Caramel Sauce

• 1/2 cup (100g) Sugar

• 3 Tablespoons (45g) Salted Butter (room temperature)

• 1/2 Cup (60ml) Heavy Cream

• 1/2 Teaspoon Salt

• For the Fudgey Chocolate Brownie

• 185 grams Salted/Unsalted butter

• 185 grams Dark Chocolate (70% or above recommended)

• 85 grams Plain Flour

• 40 grams Cocoa Powder

• 3 Large Eggs

• 275 grams Raw Caster Sugar (white Caster Sugar can be substituted)

• 100 grams Roughly chopped macadamia nuts

Directions

• Making the Salted Caramel Sauce
• Heat the sugar in a thick-bottomed, non-stick saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon till the sugar forms small clumps and eventually melts into a thick and sticky liquid. Make sure not to burn the sugar, it should be a light caramelised colour at this stage.
• When the sugar has completely melted, add in the butter. Note: the mixture will begin to rapidly bubble – this is normal. Keep stirring till the butter has completely melted. If the butter separates from the mixture, remove the saucepan from the heat and whisk the mixture vigorously till it comes back together.
• In a thin, gentle stream, slowly pour the heavy cream into the saucepan while continuously stirring. The mixture will rapidly bubble once again but keep stirring and allow it to boil for about a minute.
• Remove the saucepan from the heat and add in the salt. Stir together until combined and transfer to a heatproof bowl to cool or store in an airtight container for up to 1 month.
• Making the Fudgey Chocolate Brownies
• Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and line a 20cm baking tin. In a microwave proof bowl, add chocolate and butter. Loosely cover the bowl with cling film and microwave for 90 seconds – 2 minutes. Stir together the chocolate and butter until just melted and leave aside to cool slightly.
• In a mixing bowl, add eggs and caster sugar. Using an electric beater or stand mixer, beat on maximum speed for approximately 8-10 minutes till the mixture forms a very thick, creamy and pale consistency. When lifted with a spatula, the mixture should leave a trail over the surface of the batter.
• Pour the cooled chocolate mixture into the egg mixture. Gently fold the two together using a figure 8 mixing pattern. Be careful not to over-mix or we could lose all the incorporated air beaten into the eggs.
• Sieve the flour and cocoa powder into the wet ingredients. Gently fold the dry and wet ingredients without over-mixing and losing too much incorporated air. Fold this together using the same figure 8 mixing pattern until JUST combined. Throw in the macadamia nuts and incorporate till just combined.
• Pour half the brownie batter into the prepared 20cm tin. Spoon over as much/little of the salted caramel sauce over the surface of the brownie batter. If the salted caramel has cooled and hardened, return to heat for a few minutes till it is a runny consistency. Spoon the remainder of the brownie batter over the caramel in the baking tin and level the surface of the brownie using a spatula or the back of the spoon.
• Bake the brownie for 25-35 minutes – making sure not to over-bake. Check on the brownie at the 25 minute mark, if it jiggles, allow it to bake a few minutes more. Test the brownie for doneness by inserting a tooth pick that should come out with a few wet crumbs on it.
• Allow the brownie to completely cool on a cooling rack at room temperature before removing from the tin (if you can help yourself!). Slice into 16 even squares before serving.

Notes

• This brownie recipe can be made gluten-free by substituting equal parts of gluten-free all-purpose flour in the recipe.
• Brownies can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 10 days or in the freezer for up to a month.