the fairy bread chronicles: Caramel Easter Egg Fudge Brownies

FBC IS BACK BABY!

(and by FBC, I mean the Fairy Bread Chronicles, the name of my temporarily abandoned blog which I have been neglecting painstakingly throughout the last month because of all my big scary HSC exam prep.)

But GUESS WHAT!

...what?

My exams are officially over as of yesterday, and since I have gone into an uncontrollable baking frenzy.

Exhibit A: These bad boys right here.

Yesterday I was like HOLY WOW it's like 5 days till Easter!

And because of my stupid important exams, I had (almost) completely forgotten, and could not bake any delicious and bunny/egg related treats for y'all.

Soooo yesterday I came out of my exam coma and said to myself, you know what Angela? Today, you're going to buy 4 packets of caramel easter eggs, and you're going to make an amazingly sugary baked treat.

And so... I did!

By the by, today I am including many photos, as I am attempting to make up for the lack of material during my absence. So consider this a MONSTER POST.

And what better treat to include in my MONSTER POST than possibly the most chocolate-y and sugary treat I have ever created?!

I give you: Caramel Easter Egg Fudge Brownies.

I tweaked a glorious recipe for Rolo Brownies that I saw here on Cookies and Cups, a fabulous blog that is always jam-packed with baking inspiration!

But, seeing as it's Easter soon, I figured I'd use caramel eggs instead. 2 cups of them!

I had to chop up the poor little eggs. I was shocked at how ruthlessly I massacred them:

Their caramel blood leaking out everywhere... Not pretty.

I made too much batter too, so I put some of the mixture into little circus cupcake cases that I got for Christmas. They are so cute!

These brownies are not pretty. And they're not polite either. Do they care what you think? Not one bit.

Is it possible for something to be ugly, and yet incredibly beautiful at the same time?

In this case, yes.

The brownies are soft and gooey and the caramel sauce/eggs balance out the sheer sweetness of the chocolate.

I dare you to give them a go!

Caramel Easter Egg Fudge Brownies

{Recipe adapted from Cookies and Cups, Brownie + Caramel Sauce recipe adapted from 'Sweet Serendipity' Cookbook}

Makes 1 and a half 20x25cm tins (or you can put the mixture into cupcake cases!)

Ingredients:

Brownie Base:

250g unsalted butter

250g dark chocolate

2 cups caster sugar

5 large eggs

1 1/4 cups plain flour

1 tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla essence

Caramel Sauce:

(You could use store-bought caramel sauce, but just in case...)

1 cup caster sugar

1 cup thickened cream

2 tsp unsalted butter

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups Mini Caramel Easter Eggs

Fudge:

400ml can sweetened condensed milk

250g milk chocolate

2 tsp vanilla essence

Optional: Rainbow sprinkles

Method:

For the Brownie base:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius, and grease/line a 20x25cm brownie pan.

Combine chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a pan of boiling water on medium-high heat. Make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the water!

Remove from heat and mix in caster sugar. Whisk in the eggs one at a time. Sift flour and salt into the bowl, mix until just combined. Add vanilla.

Scrape the batter into the pan(s)/cases. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes.

Let cool completely before adding the caramel sauce.

For the caramel sauce:

Either use store-bought, or make from scratch:

Combine sugar and 1/2 cup water in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Cook until sugar is dissolved and mixture has started to turn golden brown. Swirl the pan around to prevent the sugar on the edges of the pan burning.

When mixture is a dark amber colour, remove from heat and add the cream slowly (mixture will bubble up!) Allow mixture to settle and add the butter and salt. If lumps remain, cook slowly over low heat until smooth.

Pour caramel sauce over the cooled brownies, spread so a thin layer covers the top of the brownie.

Chop easter eggs and spread evenly over the top of the sauce. Make sure the eggs don't add too much height to the pan, keep them low.

Fudge: In a small heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat, melt together the condensed milk and chocolate. Once smooth, remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.

Using a spatula, evenly spread the fudge over the top of the easter eggs, ensuring it doesn't spill over the side of the pan. (Optional: sprinkle rainbow sprinkles on top for some Easter-y magic!)

Let set for at least 2 hours before consuming (if you can wait that long!). Cut into squares.