Knock You Naked Brownies

Let me say these are the most decadent brownies I've ever made and eaten in my life. Close your eyes and imagine rich, chocolately brownie mingled with caramel, chocolate chips and a tiny bite of pecans. Mmmmm-mmmm!

Not convinced yet? Let's get up close and personal. Get your gallon of milk and dig in!

Margaret shared this recipe with me after she enjoyed it at the Pro-Fab Friday Lunch Feast. Since I'm not working on-site in Canada, she did her best to let me know how delicious they were. She did such a great job I went to the grocery store for the ingredients and whipped them up for Sunday evening dessert.

Ingredients

• 1 box (18.5 Ounce) German Chocolate Cake Mix
• 1 cup Finely Chopped Pecans
• ⅓ cups Evaporated Milk
• ½ cups Evaporated Milk (additional)
• ½ cups Butter, Melted
• 50 whole Caramels (1 bag), Unwrapped
• ⅓ cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips (suggestion only! I used a little more)
• ¼ cups Powdered Sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl combine the cake mix, melted butter, pecans and 1/3 cup of evaporated milk. The mixture will be quite thick. I had to keep scraping and stirring to get it blended well.

Spray the bottom of an 8x11 or 9x9 casserole dish with cooking spray. Spread 1/2 of the cake batter in the bottom of the dish. Bake for 10 minutes and set to the side.

While this bakes, the "fun" begins! Unwrap all those yummy caramel morsels. :-) It'll be worth it!

You can use a double boiler or do what I do, put about an inch of water in a sauce pan, bring it to boil and set a small bowl on top.

 Stir.

 And stir.

And stir some more until it's nice and creamy smooth.

Pour that creamy bowl of caramel all over the top of the partially baked brownies. Avoid the temptation to dip your fingers in the bowl! Yeah, right! Didn't work for me either!

Now it's time to randomly scatter the chocolate morsels over the top of the caramel.

On a very lightly floured surface, spread out the remaining brownie mix in an approximate size of the baking dish. FYI: Break out a spatula. I had no luck picking this up in one section. I used my spatula and covered the top in sections. Worked great!

Let the brownies bake for around 20-25 minutes. Remove to a cooling rack. Once the dish has cooled down, place in the refrigerator for several hours. At this point, you can dust the top with powdered sugar, but come on! They're rich enough and really don't need it. You might have to change the name to "I Won't Be Caught Naked Brownies." Cut with a plastic knife when ready to serve.

 Here's a few views of the finished product.

Adapted from: Tasty Kitchen