Published May 1, 2006.
Dark chocolate brownies, rich and chewy caramel, and sweet pecans--it's hard to go wrong with turtle brownies. But it's even harder to make them right.
Most homemade turtle brownie recipes call for boxed brownie mixes and jarred caramel sauce, yielding lackluster results.
We wanted something reminiscent of a candy turtle: rich, chewy, and chocolatey, with a bittersweet, toothsinking caramel and an abundance of pecans.
We began by choosing the type and amount of chocolate, landing on 4 ounces of bittersweet (for complexity) and 2 ounces of unsweetened (for assertiveness). For texture, we wanted something in between cakey and fudgy and adjusted the quantities accordingly: 2 eggs, 3/4 cup flour, and 1/2 teaspoon baking powder. Chopped pecans and a handful of chocolate chips added further dimension. The real challenge was deciding on the right texture for the caramel sauce and the application process. A mere 6 tablespoons of cream produced a caramel that was pleasantly chewy and gooey, 2 tablespoons of corn syrup kept the caramel from crystallizing or turning gritty, and 2 tablespoons of butter made it smooth and silky. We added half the brownie batter to the pan, drizzled some of the caramel on top, added the rest of the brownie batter, and then drizzled and swirled more caramel on this top layer. We baked the brownies, and then poured on even more caramel, completely covering the surface before setting it in the refrigerator.
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