Homemade caramel sauce and semi homemade caramel brownies- A recipe

March 25, 2025

Homemade caramel sauce and semi homemade caramel brownies- A recipe

Though my mom made a lot of sweets when I was growing up, they were almost all of the baked variety- she made homemade pies, cookies and cakes that she beautifully decorated. She didn't make homemade candy, sauces, or sweet items like fudge that one makes in a sauce pan much at all. (But boy when she did- her peanut butter fudge was incredible!).

I do remember just before my mom got sick, when I was a little older- probably college age, my mom must have come across a recipe for caramel brownies. She would do what the recipe said and melt those little Kraft squares of caramel pieces and place the caramel sauce in the middle layer of two brownies.

Fast forward a few more years. Mom wasn't making much of anything though her legacy of home baked goodies lived on, at least with regard to my sister and me, who enjoy baking homemade goodies for family and friends. (And ultimately- that's all you've got on earth is your legacy, 'cause you aren't living forever on earth!). Fast forward a few more years and Dayton's gourmet grocery store chain (it only had two locations at this point), Dorothy Lane Market opened a store in our town and suddenly we had easy access to the store's scrumptious profferings. Its bakery boasts a signature item dubbed a "Killer Brownie" which is, essentially, a caramel brownie on steroids. The brownies are huge and the middle layer of caramel is dense and thick.

I began seeing many recipes for caramel brownies online and most of them were quite similar. The base is a chocolate cake mix but you don't add oil or eggs or water. You add melted butter and some evaporated milk. Then a layer or caramel and then another layer of the brownie mixture. So easy and good!

The caramel part is not easy! I've melted those little Kraft squares many times but ugh, it's time consuming. You have to take off the wrappers and then melt them with some evaporated milk. I started making my own after find recipes for homemade caramel saucer but mine always just turned out ok, not great. It seemed like the sauce always turned out a bit gritty from the sugar. And I did everything the recipe said to avoid having gritty sauce.

Then recently I saw a different recipe for homemade caramel sauce. As soon as I saw it, I knew there would be no sugar grit because you melt the sugar on the stove. As in, it becomes liquid. WHAT?? I didn't know that was a possibility with sugar! I learned something... After the sugar melts, you add butter and heavy cream. That's it!

It isn't complex but it is time consuming. Sugar doesn't become liquid without a decent bit of time and stirring. So it was a fairly hands on process. The first time I made it, it took almost an hour from start to finish (I only know that because I took pictures of when I started it to when I finally had caramel sauce in my sauce pan!).

Here are some pics:

How it started and how it ended:

And the in between:

The recipe and instructions can be found here.

So that's a good way to make homemade caramel sauce if you want to for the brownies. Now about the brownies, like I said, there are dozens of recipes for making caramel brownies with a cake mix. Here is what I do:

First, I almost always make a double batch which requires using two cake mixes. I saw many recipes that had you use one cake mix for a 9 x 13 pan. No, no, no, no! Maybe before the shrinkflation of cake mixes it would have possible to stretch one cake mix out for a 9 x 13 pan. But with today's size of cake mixes, I wouldn't do it. It's fine to just use one cake mix, but then prepare and bake it in an 8x8 pan. Like I said, I almost always double the recipe and bake in a 9x13 pan because we like these so much and almost always bake them for a get together meaning there's going to be a number of people who will be eating them (and everyone likes them so you'll want to have plenty!).

Here's the recipe that I use:

Ingredients-

2 chocolate cake mixes- I prefer to use Devil's Food

2 sticks of butter, melted

2/3 cup chocolate chips (I usually don't measure- I just sprinkle some over the caramel)

2 packages of Kraft caramels or 1 1/2 to two batches of homemade caramel sauce from above

2/3 cup evaporated milk + about 1/3 cup if melting Kraft caramels.

1 1/2 cups pecans (optional)

Instructions-

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x13 pan (I always use a glass pan)

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine cake mixes, melted butter and 2/3 cup evaporated milk and stir to incorporate.

3. The mixture will be pretty thick and viscous at this point which is good because you're going to take 1/2 of it and place it in the bottom of the greased pan. Bake for eight minutes.

4. While it's baking, either melt the caramels per the package instructions (I'd also add about 1/3 cup of evaporated milk to the pan where the caramels are melting) or have homemade caramel sauce ready.

5. After eight minutes in the oven, take the brownies out. Add the caramel sauce/ melted caramels to the top of the brownies. Add chocolate chips and nuts if using.

6. Take the remainder of the brownie dough and place it on top of the caramel/ chocolate chips. I do this by taking a small amount of the dough in my hand and using both hands, flatten the dough into a disk shape and place on top of the caramel. Do this until the dough is all used up, placing the disks such that most of the caramel is covered.

7. Bake for about 15 minutes- oven times vary. What I look for is the top to not have the shiny glaze that the dough has. Once the shine is gone, it means the dough is baked. I always error on under baking but I do wait until the shine of the dough is gone!

8. Wait for the brownies to cool to cut. It's a long wait even if you put them in the refrigerator or freezer.

Some pics of the process:

Doughy and delicious- I love the texture of the dough of the brownies. It's sort of like Play-dough but it tastes like one of the best things you'll even taste (assuming you like chocolate...)

First layer ready for the oven

First layer out of the oven- see how the shine is gone. She's all baked.

This caramel layer is 1 1/2 batches of the homemade caramel from the recipe above. I will plan to make a double batch the next time I make these. I didn't add chopped nuts this time. I usually add nuts to half of it since we have some non-nut lovers.