Full-on overload

Originally when I started this blog, I thought I'd only include Big Sis's recipes that I'd also made. Mainly because sometimes she takes a little interpretation. Or what is called "recipe tolerance," if you want to get all highfalutin about it.

But I am currently saddled with what, on as-built drawings anyway, can only laughingly be called a kitchen. And the upshot of that is I hardly ever bake anymore. (Okay, I've got a carrot cake in the oven right now, but it's Thanksgiving and I'm headed somewhere else for dinner. I have to bring something.)

So if I waited to post til I made, I'd never post any recipes. And this one, well, this one...

See, I'm firmly of the opinion that chocolate and caramel are as close as it gets to the perfect food substances. Put them together, and you're approaching the divine. Chocolate caramel brownies. Oh, my.

Now, this isn't one of Big Sis's standard recipes since in this, the brownies are made from scratch. Which is reason 2 why I'm not overly tempted to make them: while I can whip out a pretty mean carrot cake, baklava, incredible chocolate chip cookies, and a variety of other wonderful sweets, brownies from scratch pretty much defeat me. They're okay, they're just not stupendous. And I don't want to mess up my recollection of the flavor of this recipe by doing one of my standard brownie treatments. So I'll just pass this on to you, and leave my pots and pans in the cupboard.

3/4 c flour
3/4 c cocoa
1/4 t salt
1/2 c butter
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c brown sugar (firmly packed)
3 large eggs (total, though you won't use all 3 at once so pay attention below!)
2 t vanilla
1 c pecans (more on this in a sec)
3/4 c white chocolate chips
1/2 c caramel ice cream topping
3/4 c semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Grease an 8" square pan.

Combine flour, cocoa, and salt in a small bowl and set to the side. Beat butter & sugars til creamy (so you probably want to have the butter at room temp when you start making this.) Add 2 eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and mix well. Gradually add flour mixture til all mixed in. Set aside about 3/4 of the batter.

Spread about 1/4 batter in the pan, sprinkle with nuts and white chocolate chips. Drizzle on the caramel. Beat the remaining egg into the remaining batter, stir in chocolate chips, spread over bottom layers and bake 30-35 minutes.

Not to get too personal, but we have a split family. Mom and Big Bro like pecans, Big Sis and I don't. I can't remember where Dad stands on the whole pecan issue, but knowing him, he probably likes them. So when I originally saw this recipe, I was wondering about the fact that big sis included pecans. Well, turns out she would have made a great medieval monk copyist: she copies faithfully, whether or not the original has a mistake in it. But she also adds in annotations, since she wants to be true to life, too.

And here's where Big Sis has really outdone herself and is glowing with a bit of the Divine. The annotation on this one? She leaves out the pecans and substitutes an equal amount of Heath bits. Oh. My.

So if the appeal of the pumpkin has worn off this Thanksgiving Day, and you're craving chocolate, here's one for you. Enjoy.