Brownie Cookies with Salted Caramel Filling

 Over the holidays, I made these delicious brownie cookies (YES, brownies and cookies all wrapped up in one bite!  Perfection!).  I found this recipe on pinterest (here is the pin).  They turned out really well.   I made some for us to snack on at home and some to take to our friends house for Christmas dinner.  They are rich, gooey, and delicious!  

Here is the recipe copied from the Bakers Royale website:

Brownie Cookie

12 oz. chocolate, chopped
3 tablespoons butter

2 eggs

⅔ cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ cup all-purpose flour, sifted

¼ teaspoon baking powder, sifted

Salted Caramel Creme Filling (by Bakers Royale)

1 cup butter

2 cups confectioner sugar

1/4 teaspoon salted

1/4 cup caramel (Make sure caramel is cooled if making homemade. Clickhere for homemade caramel sauce recipe)

Instructions:

To make brownie cookies:

Place 7oz. of the chocolate and the butter in a saucepan over low heat and gently stir until melted and smooth. Set aside.

Place the eggs, sugar and vanilla in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat for 15 minutes or until pale and creamy. Add in flour, baking powder, melted chocolate mixture, remaining 5 oz. of chocolate and mix to combine. Set aside to to stand for 10 minutes. Spoon 2 tablespoonful of the mixture, onto parchment lined bake sheet. Bake for about 8–10 minutes or until puffed and cracked. Allow to cool completely on trays.

To make caramel creme filling:

Place butter in a bowl and beat until creamed. Add in confectioner sugar and salt and beat until light combined. Add in caramel and beat until combined.

Assembly:

Spread a teaspoon and a half of caramel creme on underside of one brownie cookie and place a second brownie cookie bottom side down on top frosting.

The only thing I did differently was add a bit more caramel and salt to the filling and I sprinkled a bit of salt on top of the filling before putting the cookie on top.

Adventures in Macaron Making

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that since coming home from Paris, I have been a bit obsessed with learning how to make homemade macarons  (see my Paris macaron post here).  It has been quite the challenge!  After lots of failed attempts, I was finally successful last weekend.  My first few tries resulted in very tasty, but also very ugly, cookies.  I couldn't figure out how to get the texture just right to create the smooth top and the ruffled "feet" (the sides).  Thanks to those of you who gave me tips on instagram and thanks to Dzung, from My Honeysuckle blog, for posting her  macaron youtube video tutorial!  It was very helpful.

While these are certainly not perfect, they actually look like macarons!!!  I was so very excited and proud of them:)  We had some fresh, local raspberries in the fridge, so I decided I would go for raspberry flavored (my first few batches were strawberry). I can't wait to try different flavors and maybe even some combos.