Recipe Review #1: Pioneer Woman's "Knock You Naked Brownies" - Contains Gluten

The Review: Pioneer Woman's "Knock You Naked Brownies"

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/05/knock-you-naked-brownies/

My Rating:
8 out of 10

Ingredients vs. What I actually used (in purple):

• 1 box (18.5 Ounce) German Chocolate Cake Mix (I used Good Old Betty Crocker and I only found a 15.25 oz box)
• 1 cup Finely Chopped Pecans (I only got 1/2 a cup and it was fine)
• 1/3 cup Evaporated Milk
• 1/2 cup Evaporated Milk (additional)(Just plan on using 3/4 cups and you'll be fine)
• 1/2 cup Butter, Melted 
• 60 whole Caramels, Unwrapped 
• 1/3 cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips 
• 1/4 cup Powdered Sugar (Not necessary)

The Recipe Deets w/Commentary:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

In a large bowl, mix together cake mix, chopped pecans, 1/3 cup evaporated milk, and melted butter. Stir together until totally combined. Mixture will be very thick. (Mixture is very thick and literally comes together in a pinch. I seriously used an over sized fork to mix everything and it all came together fine.)

HIT READ MORE BELOW TO CONTINUE THE REVIEW...

Press half the mixture into a well-greased 9 x 9 inch square baking pan. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Remove pan from oven and set aside. (Okay, I only had an 8 x 8 dish but I honestly wouldn't recommend going any smaller or larger than an 8 x 8 or 9 x 9 pan. If you buy the 15oz mix like I did you'll notice that half of mix really isn't all that much, but make sure to use the half for the bottom layer. I also forgot spray. So I just buttered my pan...)

In a double boiler (or a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of boiling water) melt caramels with additional 1/2 cup evaporated milk. When melted and combined, pour over brownie base. Sprinkle chocolate chips as evenly as you can over the caramel. (Be forewarned, it's going to be tedious unwrapping the caramel. Don't be like me and start unwrapping as your first brownie layer is in the oven, it just adds to your stress level. Also I don't have a double boiler yet, but I do have lots of Ikea Stainless Steel bowls. So I just set one of those over boiling water with my caramels and milk and just hung on to it for dear life as I stirred the caramels for what felt like an eternity all the while being sure that the heat from the bowl would burn off my oven-mitt. I also will mention that as I stirred the first 5 minutes I was 100% convinced there was too much milk as it just looked like too much. Don't worry, after several more minutes you'll see how wrong I was.)

Turn out remaining brownie dough on work surface. Use your hands to press it into a large square a little smaller than the pan. Use a spatula to remove it from the surface, then set it on top of the caramel and chocolate chips. (At this point you're going to realize you don't have nearly enough to cover the top of the caramel. You'll feel like a failure and will probably spew out a few choice curse words that do nothing to help and really only make your cat feel uncomfortable. Don't be a bitch to your cat, just place the rest on top and try and spread it out as much as you can.)

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from pan and allow to cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate for several hours. When ready to serve, generously sift powdered sugar over the surface of the brownies. Cut into either nine or twelve helpings, and carefully remove from the pan. (About 10 minutes into baking this layer I noticed that the top layer was expanding well... too well. I removed my pan from the oven, placed a larger cookie sheet in there and placed my pan on top of that. I named this "Operation hot pan" and moved on. After about 8 more minutes I decided the time has probably come. Since I also realized I forgot to buy toothpicks to do the "is my brownie done" test, I grabbed a knife and by George (or Jorge) it came out clean.

Cooling down to room temperature is going to take a LONG time. Hours. Once it's "cool" enough, place in fridge overnight ideally (in a covered pan). Okay, big step here. Take it out of the fridge and DO NOT try a piece, not even a little. It'll taste really hard and not great and you really don't deserve that. Let it sit and get room temperature again. 

After several more hours pass and you look into your pan, things are going to be different. Your "rock brownies" as you named them earlier in the day will turn into these caramel volcano chocolate clouds... and you will be happy. Happier than that time there was a water-main leak outside your work and you had to work from home.

Afterthought/What I'd do different Next Time:

Look, you're going to win some friends with these. They are multi-layer brownies so they are 

sure to impress. I wouldn't change much at all.

Next time I make these:

• I will use less caramels, maybe around 50ish as opposed to 60 (as recipe calls)
• I will look for a cake mix that has more mix or buy a 2nd box and just save the rest for next time
• I might invest in a double boiler
• I'd buy cooking spray so I don't have to butter a pan ever again. It felt wrong
• Use Gluten Free Mix so Deni can eat them too!