Caramel Coconut Brownies…and a Giveaway!

Told you I’d be back.  You doubted it, I know.  But here I am…and I am the bearer of good things.

First up?  These brownies.  Caramel Coconut Brownies.  And they are super easy.  So easy, in fact, I hesitate to even post them, because the die hard From Scratchers will disapprove, and those of you who like cheats will curse me for adding such a delicious concoction to your repertoire.  I apologize in advance.

I rarely like cheats, but last week I was feeling lazy but still needed a chocolate fix.  So – I pulled this little number together.  It starts with a box of Devil’s Food Cake Mix.  Nope – not a brownie mix, a CAKE mix.  Because that’s what I had.  Work with what you have, I like to say.  I also had some of my homemade sea salt caramel on hand, so of course I used that.  You should make some, too – but I guess if you HAVE to, you can use caramel ice cream topping.  It will work, and besides, if you haven’t made the caramel recipe yet, you won’t even know the deliciousness you are missing.  That may be a good thing, at least for your butt.

Caramel Coconut Brownies

• 1 box  Devil’s Food Cake Mix
• 1 teaspoon Coconut Extract
• 1 cups Evaporated Milk
• 1 cup Browned Butter
• 6 ounces Milk Chocolate Chips
• 6 ounces Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips
• 2/3 cups Caramel
• 1/4 cup  Toasted Coconut

Preheat oven to 350.  (This would be a good time to toast your coconut as well.) In the meantime, brown the  butter over medium high heat until nicely browned and nutty in scent. Remove from heat.  If you are timid about browning the butter, just melt it in the microwave.  However, I like the extra richness the browning provides.  Combine cake mix, evaporated milk, extract and butter in bowl of stand mixer and beat on medium until well combined.  Stir in about 2 ounces of each type of chocolate chips.

Pour half of batter into a prepared 9 x 9 or 10 x 10 baking pan.  Bake for 7 minutes.  Remove from oven and pour over the caramel and half of the coconut, as well as most of the remaining chocolate chips and the remaining batter.  Return to oven for 18 minutes.  Remove from oven and sprinkle remaining chips and coconut on top, then return to oven for 7 more minutes.  Brownies will be soft and fudgy – perhaps even a bit gooey in places.  Allow to cool before cutting.

Okay – so you don’t have a stand mixer, eh?  I’m sorry to hear that.  You CAN use a hand mixer on this recipe…but what a bummer.

Why not WIN A 5 QUART KitchenAid Mixer from me?

Guess who did?  It wasn’t easy, this giveaway.  With the special bonus entries and the kitchen memories being worth 5 entries each – I had to print each entry, verify it was not a duplicate, blah blah, blah.  But – in the end, after all 1011 eligible entries were counted and numbered…

Congratulations Dawn of KitchenTravels!!  Email me Dawn, we’ll get your info on over to the folks at KitchenAid so you can get cooking!