Salted Vanilla Bean Caramels

Up close and personal with sea salt. :)

Apparently I’m on a salted caramel kick this week. I came across this recipe on Brown Eyed Baker this week, but it was Foodie Bride who did it first. So, when I went to make them myself, I went to the original source. I was really nervous about making caramels, but I decided I owed it to the world to try since my Salted Caramel Brownies were so successful! :)

What really made want to try out this recipe were the vanilla beans. I’m sure that a normal kitchen does not have a stash of vanilla bean pods lying around, but that’s what makes me unique. Erin gave me vanilla beans last year for Christmas and it took me 9 months to find a recipe that was worthy of cracking them open! I think that you’ll agree this was a good one to start with. Erin had told me that when I use them, I need to make sure that the vanilla beans get to shine and be the star of the show. What that really means is that I probably shouldn’t waste them on something with chocolate.

Salted Caramel Brownies

Salted Caramel Brownies

Last week I had a wonderful birthday lunch in La Jolla with my friend Sapna. Sapna and I went to high school together, but we don’t get to see each other as often as either of us would like anymore. She was living in San Diego for college and med school, but is spending this year in NYC to do some research. Lucky for me, she’s in town for a week for a wedding and a conference and I get to hang out with her! She took me to Prepkitchen in La Jolla for lunch and wouldn’t let me pay on account that we were celebrating my birthday. Being the amazing person that she is, Sapna insisted on dessert and ordered the Salted Caramel Brownie. Oh. My. God. It was one of the most incredible things I have ever had. I can still taste the warm, fudgy brownie, the ooey gooey caramel, and the crunchy pecans. How amazing does that sound?? 


Anyway, a few days later I came down with strep throat and was lying miserably in bed (this was before I ended up in the hospital…long story). I decided that I needed something to cheer me up, so I started researching salted caramel brownies. Nothing fit the bill like the one from Prepkitchen. On a whim, I searched for the Prepkitchen recipe and FOUND it‼ By the grace of God, someone asked the San Diego Union-Tribune to coax the recipe out of Prepkitchen for these decadent brownies and the UT was successful.