This is the closest thing to the incredibly delicious “Killer Brownies” recipe sold at Dorothy Lane Market in Dayton, Ohio. It adapts the well known classic “Knock You Naked” recipe by greatly reducing the number of chocolate chips and baking them in a square pan instead of the rectangular pan in the recipe. It’s incredibly delicious.
Yield : Serves 12 people
Prep time : 15 minutes.
Cooking : time 23 min.
Total time : 38 min.
Ingredients
- 1 box (18.5 Ounce) German Chocolate Cake Mix (I Used Duncan Hines)
- 1 c. Finely Chopped Pecans
- 1/3 c. Evaporated Milk
- 1/2 c. Evaporated Milk (additional)
- 1/2 c. Butter, Melted
- 60 whole Caramels, Unwrapped
- 1/3 c. Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
- 1/4 c. Powdered Sugar
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl, combine cake mix, chopped pecans, 1/3 cup evaporated milk and melted butter. Stir until fully incorporated. The mixture will be quite sticky.
Press half of the mixture into a greased 9×9-inch square baking pan and bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the top is golden brown. Remove the pan from the oven and set aside.
In a double boiler (or place a heatproof bowl over a pan of boiling water), melt the caramel and 1/2 cup of evaporated milk. Once melted and mixed, pour over the base of the brownies. Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the caramel as evenly as possible.
Arrange the remaining brownie batter on a work surface. Using your hands, press it into a square slightly smaller than the bottom of the pan. Use a spatula to peel away from the surface and place on top of the caramel and chocolate chips.
Bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove from pan and allow to cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate for several hours. When ready to serve, sprinkle tops of brownies generously with powdered sugar; cut into 9 or 12 portions and carefully remove from pan.
This recipe is adapted from the classic “Knock You Naked Brownies” recipe, based on a dessert from Salt Creek Steakhouse in Breckenridge. These brownies aren’t really naked, but they are almost naked.
Yummy. You should absolutely try these.
It looks like this. A few weeks ago, I was given a jar of brownies as a gift. Specifically, they were killer brownies from Dorothy Lane’s Market in Dayton, Ohio. The jar contained four large brownies, each with a thick layer of powdered sugar. But they’re not just brownies; they’re multi-layered, with a gorgeous caramel oozing out of the middle layer. And the flavor. It was to die for. I ate them for days, and each time I ate them, I was so discouraged that I thought I was one step away from not being able to eat them anymore. But I never wanted to eat it again.
They were unlike anything I had ever tasted before.
There is no official recipe for killer brownies, but the classic layered brownie recipe known as “Knock Your Naked Brownies” is rumored to be a pretty good match.
I decided to make and try these brownies over the weekend. I had never tried them before.
Of course, this was for research purposes.
We started by bumping it into a large mixing bowl.
What do you mean by ‘this’?
German chocolate cake mix.
This is not the devil’s food.
It’s not chocolate fudge.
It is German chocolate.
If you don’t like cake mixes, don’t worry: depending on how you combine the ingredients, the end result won’t taste like a boxed cake mix. Promise.
Cut the pecans into small pieces.
You will need about a cup of nuts, but remember, this is much different than chopping a cup of nuts.
You’ll also need melted butter…
And evaporated milk.
Pouring the evaporated milk on top of the cake mix.
Next, add the butter…
Then, the nuts.
Stir until completely mixed. It will be very thick, unlike cake batter. It will feel more like a thick cookie dough than a cake batter.
Spray a square (8×8 or 9×9) baking pan generously with non-stick cooking spray.
Divide the dough in half…
Then press the two dough halves into the bottom of the pan. Place it in the oven for 8 minutes.
Caramel!
Peel off the skin. Put in a bowl.
Pour in evaporated milk.
Heat over a double boiler, stirring often, until smooth and melted.
Pull the pan out of the oven.
Then pour the caramel on top.
Now, this is optional, but grab the chocolate chips. I say “optional” because I don’t think the caramel layer in the brownies I received as a gift, wholeheartedly loved, dreamed about for weeks, and passed out after eating contained chocolate.
In any case, we eventually concluded that the recipe had too many 1-cup servings. In the final printable recipe, we reduced it to 1/3 cup.
Next, pick up the other half of the cake mix. The original recipe said to pour it in the pan, but it was too thick to pour. So I made roughly large squares by hand.
(I suppose you could use a spoon, but I was worried it would be too rough ……)
Carefully place the square of dough on top…
Then bake for 20-25 minutes, until the top looks “done”.
This is a seriously delicious mess, that’s all I can say. And by “confusing” I mean in the best possible sense.
Now, this is important, you’re not allowed to eat brownies right now.
I know. I’m being cruel. But because the ingredients are gooey, I have to let the brownies cool and then refrigerate them for a few hours to allow the ingredients to set. So, if you want chocolate, don’t make this recipe. In fact, eat a piece of chocolate before making this recipe. That way, you can resist chilling it in the refrigerator.
After chilling in the fridge, when you are ready to eat, sprinkle a generous amount of powdered sugar on top.
At this point, a generous dusting of powdered sugar means a really generous dusting of powdered sugar, sister. If you’re a man, you’re a brother. The brownies presented to me had a noticeably thicker layer of powdered sugar, which is part of what makes them so special.
You can divide the brownies however you like. I decided to make a big brownie for the Marlboro Man for me.
It’s a joke, but I took the extra large route and divided the pan into only six large brownies.
But nine would have been wiser.
But when it comes to dessert, I’m not feeling it.
Hello, my beautiful love. Please come with me, I would love to meet you.
Let’s study a little. First, you can see what I mean by too much chocolate. Admittedly, I used a square pan instead of the 9 x 13 inch pan in the recipe, so the consistency was more pronounced. But it’s obviously more chocolate than the brownies require, and you want the caramel to take center stage. But that aside, look how good this tastes. Ideally, I would have given it more time to soften the stickiness.
The result is this. I was surprised at how close it tasted to the brownies I received. Of course, they didn’t quite live up to the Dorothy Lane brownie experience, and that was life-changing. But this recipe is right behind it. I will be making it time and time again.
By the way, if you need a special food gift for a friend, family member or business associate, I highly recommend a jar of killer brownies. They’re sure to make a statement.
