Dulce de Leche Brownies - The Merchant Baker

By efriend

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup dutch process cocoa
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup bread flour (I use King Arthur Flour Unbleached Bread Flour) or use all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon espresso powder
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 Tablespoons water
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• about a 1/2 cup or so of dulce de leche (I used Nestle La Lechera)

Details

Servings 1
Adapted from themerchantbaker.com

Preparation

Step 1

The recipe I’m sharing today is from scratch. I’m only making one batch in a 9″ square pan, so no need to take the box mix short cut. I used the recipe from


Once your brownie batter is mixed, spread a little more than half of it in a square pan.

Then, take about a half of a cup or so of dulce de leche and heat it for a few seconds in the microwave. You don’t want it to get hot, just a little more fluid. Spoon dollops of the dulce de leche on top of your brownie batter.

Use the tip of a knife to swirl it around. Don’t swirl it too much; you want pools of it in and around the batter. Then drizzle more around the empty spaces just to make sure there’s some dulce de leche in every bite.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease or spray a 9" or 8" square baking pan. I like to line the pan with foil and then spray, so that I can completely lift the brownies out for cutting.

Whisk cocoa, sugars, salt, flour, baking powder, espresso powder and chips in a large bowl.

Add the eggs, oil, water and vanilla and mix until smooth.

Spoon, then carefully spread, the remaining brownie batter over the swirls of dulce de leche. You want to be careful not to disturb your first layer of swirls too much. Drizzle remaining dulce de leche over the top. (Or, heat a few more spoonfuls up, if you've used all of it in the first layer.)

Bake for about 35 minutes for the 9" pan and about 45 minutes for the 8" pan. Allow to cool for one hour before cutting. I also like to refrigerate them after they're cool for the cleanest cuts.

*Adding the chips with the dry ingredients helps keep the chips from sinking to the bottom. I used 1/2 semi-sweet and 1/2 bittersweet chips for a deeper flavor.

*You can substitute your favorite unsweetened cocoa in this recipe, but this particular cocoa is what makes this brownie my favorite. Expect that other cocoas will alter the taste. Using an unsweetened cocoa instead of dutched may leave you with a bit of an acidic taste. It will still be good, but it will be different.