Dulce de Leche Brownies

I found a jar of dulce de leche caramel lurking at the back of the fridge when we were craving something sweet and chocolatey the other day, so these decadent little brownies came to our rescue. They are very delicious, very rich and simply perfect eaten straight out of the fridge. Not only are they great as a coffee time treat, but they will double as a sweet little canapé to serve friends in a few weeks time (everything is crossed as I type that).

If you don't have a jar of dulce de leche to hand, simply boil a can of condensed milk in a large saucepan of water for about 3 hours. Make sure the can stays submerged in the boiling water and you will end up with something similar. Of course you can always just ditch the caramel idea and make the original chocolate brownies (click here).

Ingredients

260g dulce de leche (or make your own caramel)

115g butter, cubed

170g dark chocolate, broken up

25g cocoa powder

200g caster sugar

3 eggs, lightly beaten

140g plain flour

Method

Heat oven to 175°c

Line a 20cm square baking tin with baking parchment.

Melt the butter and chocolate together in a medium sized bowl suspended over a saucepan of simmering water.

When the chocolate and butter are melted, sift in the cocoa powder and beat it in. Then beat in the eggs, followed by the caster sugar and finally fold in the flour. Work quickly, so the brownie mixture doesn't start to cool and thicken too much, which makes it more difficult to work with.

Spoon half the batter into the prepared tin and then pour or spoon the dulce de leche over, as evenly as possible. Add the remaining brownie batter on top and try to cover the dulce de leche.

Bake for about 25 minutes. A skewer in the centre should come out clean. Cool in the tin and then cut into small squares. Store in the fridge for 4 or 5 days (if you can keep them that long).