Ooey Gooey Chocolate Caramel Dessert ~ A Must Try Recipe

Chocolate Caramel Dessert: by Tiffany

Homemade caramel is the best! It’s very very simple and really doesn’t take that long to make. You will reap the taste rewards for sure by making it yourself. That being said, this recipe calls for homemade caramel. I promise, it’s not hard to make and takes only about ten minutes from start to finish. You’ll be so happy you made it yourself. Let me ask you…. Do you have a chocolate cake mix, nuts and chocolate chips in your pantry? Butter and milk in the fridge? Oh and light corn syrup in the cupboard? I bet you do, because you’re rockin’ couponers. 🙂 With just a little bit of work you’ll have an ooey gooey dessert that screams chocolate fix. A little goes a long way with this decadent dessert. Make sure to serve it hot with vanilla ice cream on top, just sayin’. The warm chocolate and gooey caramel combination, topped with vanilla ice cream that is slightly starting to melt into the crevasse of this cake, is a little piece of tasty heaven here on earth. You’ll be emailing wanting to send me flowers. 😉 I can’t take all the credit though. I found this recipe and adapted it from one of my older books. But you can still send flowers. 😉

PS… I’d rather have chocolate instead of the flowers. hehehehe

Ingredients

For The Caramel

• 1 cup salted butter
• 2 cups packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For The Cake

• 1 box (18.25 oz.) Devils Food cake mix
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 cup soy milk or regular milk can be used
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Let’s start by making the caramel. In a medium heavy duty sauce pan, with a candy thermometer attached to the side, combine 1 cup salted butter, 2 cups packed light brown sugar, 1/2 cup light corn syrup and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook, stirring frequently over medium heat until candy thermometer reaches approx. 250 degrees. (approx. 10minutes) Remove from heat, stir in baking soda and vanilla. (Syrup will foam. This is normal.) Set prepared caramel aside. Stir every now and again.
2. Meanwhile, while making caramel, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
3. Spray a 2 qt. baking dish with non stick cooking spray. Set aside
4. In a medium sized bowl, combine cake mix, 1/2 cup unsalted butter, soy or regular milk and chopped pecans until well blended.
5. Spread half of the batter in the baking dish with hands sprayed with non stick cooking spray. Bake for 6 minutes. Remove from oven, sprinkle crust evenly with 1 cup chocolate chips. Drizzle 1 1/2 cups of homemade caramel over chocolate chips. (Save the remainder for later use.) Make disks with remaining cake batter by rolling into 1-2 inch dough balls and flattening them between the palms of your hands sprayed with non stick cooking spray. Top evenly over caramel. Bake an additional 18 minutes. Remove from oven and serve immediately with vanilla ice cream.

Notes: This is just as good served at room temp., It tastes like a chewy caramel brownie. But for me, there’s something about an ooey gooey chocolate caramel dessert topped with vanilla ice cream. 🙂 Also you will have approx. 1 1/2 cups of homemade caramel left over. Suggestions for use – Wrap individual caramels in waxed paper sheets for a later treat in kids’ lunches or serve the adults the Ooey Gooey Chocolate Caramel Dessert and cut up some apples for the kids to dip in the remainder caramel.

Additional Notes: This can be made the day before. Make as directed. Let cool in baking dish on a wire rack. Once cooled completely, cover with foil. Leave dessert at room temp. When ready to serve, preheat oven to 200 degrees F. remove foil and warm dessert in the oven for approx. 8-10 minutes or until chocolate and caramel start to get gooey. Remove and serve.

Or to reheat single pieces, you can reheat individual pieces in the microwave. Start at 10 second intervals.

Original recipe for Caramel Bars from Blue Ribbon Recipes pg. 323

Adapted recipe/photos by: Tiffany