Bake-off Extraordinaire

We had a company picnic last Friday and I baked two yummy treats. WARNING: THESE ARE NOT HEALTHY. AT ALL. SORRY.

First, my "award-winning" Caramel Brownies (on the left, actually, they belong to the Sept 2009 issue of Family Circle, but I won first place in the company picnic dessert competition)

Caramel Brownies
Makes: 32
Ingredients:
1.5 sticks unsalted butter
4 oz unsweetened chocolate
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1.25 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans (I left these out)
1 bag (12 oz) chocolate chunks
1 package (14 oz) soft caramels, unwrapped
1/4 cup heavy cream

1. Heat oven to 350*. Line a 13 by 9 by 2 inch baking pan with nonstick foil (I skipped this since I used a throw-away pan, because I do not own a 9x13in pan....it made these very hard to cut. I recommend buying a pan and lining as directed.)

2. In a large micro-safe bowl, nuke butter and chocolate in microwave for 2 minutes, stir until smooth. Whisk in eggs, sugar, flour and vanilla. Stir in pecans if using. Spread half the batter into the pan. Sprinkle with 1 cup chocolate chunks.

3. In med-sized sauce pan, melt together caramels and heavy cream over med-low heat until smooth, about five min (this took me way longer, perhaps because I could not find "soft caramels" but I could find "soft and chewy caramels". oh well, they were delicious anyway. did I mention I won a competition?).

4. Evenly pour over batter in pan. Spread with remaining batter (this is where I ran into trouble and had only a big circle of batter covering about 1/3 of the caramel melted concoction. I whipped up MORE of the brownie batter to have enough to cover. I recommend being judicious with the "pour half of batter in" first part). Sprinkle with remaining 1 cup of chocolate chunks.

5. Bake at 350* for about 35 min, or until top is dry to the touch. Let cool completely in pan on wire rack. Grab foil and lift brownie from pan. Cut into squares and serve.

Nutrition - too evil. they don't even tell you.

And next, fabulous Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars (on the right in the photo above)
I got this recipe from some town magazine that came to our house. No clue who to credit. They were fantastic.

Makes 2 dozen

2/3 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup peanut butter (smooth is better)
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking poder
1/2 tsp salt
1 pkg (12oz) milk chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350* and grease a 13x9 baking pan
2. In medium bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.
3. Using mixer, in large bowl, cream butter, peanut butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla.
4. Gradually add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture, beating after each addition.
5. Stir in the chocolate chips
6. Spread into prepared pan
Bake at 350* for 45-50 min or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for 15 min in pan, slice into squares.
AMAZING. Also probably too evil nutrition-wise to bother.