Ooey Gooey Madness with the Texan

You know, sometimes cooking can be trial and error. That's what happened to me this weekend.

Saturday I watched the Pioneer Woman on the Food Network and she made KNOCK YOU NAKED BROWNIES. Don't you just love that name? Or not.

At any rate, as I watched, I thought, "I have that same recipe." Though I hadn't made it in years, I pulled out my recipe for Caramel Fudge Brownies and decided to make them for a church picnic we were having the next day.

Sure enough, same ingredients. Except pecans were optional in mine. Mostly because my kids are party poopers when it comes to nuts.

No taste, I tell you.


Soon after I did my first mixing, I realized something was different. Ree's batter was much thicker than mine. Hmmm. Checked my recipe against hers. Ah-ha! She only used one stick of butter while I used a stick and a half. Both needed 1/3 and 1/2 cups of evaporated milk. However, in my recipe the half cup went in the batter, the third with the caramel. Hers was the other way around.

So I'm going to give you both recipes, though, honestly, I will probably go with her measurements the next time around.

Ree's recipe calls for:

1 stick butter, melted

All-purpose flour, for dusting

1/3 plus 1/2 cup evaporated milk

One 18.5-ounce box German chocolate cake mix

1 cup finely chopped pecans

60 caramels, unwrapped

1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted

Mine calls for:

• 1 1/2 sticks of butter
• 1/2 plus 1/3 cup evaporated milk
• One box German chocolate cake mix
• 1 - 14 oz. package of caramels, unwrapped
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup finely chopped pecans (optional)

You see, the same, only different :-)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Ree's instructions said to grease and flour a 9-by-9-inch baking pan. My recipe says a 9 x 13 pan. I went somewhere in the middle with a smalled oblong pan.

First, you're going to mix together the cake mix, melted butter, and evaporated milk (Ree says 1/3 cup). It will be thick. Especially if you use the Pioneer Woman's measurements.

Divide the dough in half down the middle. Press half of it into the bottom of the prepared pan to make the first brownie layer. Bake until slightly set, 8 to 10 minutes. Then remove from the oven and set aside.

While the first layer is baking, melt you caramels with remaining (1/2 or 1/3 cup, whichever you didn't use before). Ree used a double boiler for this. I used a nonstick sauce pan over low heat and stirred frequently. The key is slow melting so they won't burn.

Pour the caramel mixture over the first baked layer, spreading so it's evenly distributed. Sprinkle the chocolate chips all over the top.

Next, on a sheet of waxed paper, press the remaining dough into a square/rectangle shape slightly smaller than the baking pan. Using the waxed paper to your advantage, lay the dough on top of the chocolate chips.

I just flipped it over and peeled the paper off.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and let the brownies cool to room temperature. Cover the pan and refrigerate the brownies for several hours to allow them to set.

Trust me, refrigerating the brownies is key.

Ree sprinkles hers with powdered sugar before she cuts them for serving. That was her pic at the top of the page.

I don't have an after pic of mine because, as I said, refrigerating is key. Mine were not in there long enough, so I had layers sliding every which way. They still tasted yummy though. Decadent and definitely indulgent.

Have you ever had two recipes that looked alike but, upon closer inspection, were slightly different? Did you try them both? How did things turn out?