I have never been one to have issues with jealousy. It's just not natural to my personality as {most times} I'm genuinely happy for others' fortune and success.
"You got a raise?! Fabulous!", "Your husband bought you a 3 karat diamond ring? It looks gorgeous on you!" and these days even, "She had the baby?! How exciting!" are all things that I would feel authentic excitement over.
But last week, I was bombarded with a major case of envy...food envy.
There I was, minding my own business -- well, ok, minding other peoples' business while scrolling through my Instagram feed -- and I noticed these wonderful posts from some of my favorite food bloggers with the hashtag #BBRetreat. As it turns out, that stands for "Better Blog Retreat", which is a very exclusive retreat for some of the top food bloggers out there. {As a side note, I'm not sure how they'd make these blogs better... they're already pretty good if you ask me!} This year, it took place at Deer Valley Resort in Park City, Utah and it looked like a wonderful time from the social media bits and pieces I gathered.
The food blogging world has grown pretty extensively over the past few years, and yet, sometimes it seems like such a small world. When you start following bloggers and attending food blogging conferences, you start to notice that there are groups of bloggers who often go to the same events and hang out together. That means that repeats of very similar pictures are bound to crop up on your news feeds.
At one point during the #BBRetreat weekend, my Instagram feed was filled with not one, but SEVEN different pictures of this drool-inducing creation:
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| Clockwise from top right: Julie of The Little Kitchen, Sandy of Reluctant Entertainer, Jenny of Picky Palate Shelly of Cookies and Cups, Lindsay of Love & Olive Oil, Amanda of Kevin and Amanda |
And that's when the green-eyed monster set in. Um, enough of the content, "happy for you" version of Dianna. GIVE ME THE BROWNIES, PEOPLE.
I blame it on pregnancy. Those hormones will do funny things to you.
So, what did I do? I marched into the kitchen and made my OWN version of these brownies. Because I needed my own little retreat right then and there.
Remember these Pumpkin Paws I shared last week, a copycat version of Williams-Sonoma's seasonal candy? And remember how I said the Pumpkin Caramel recipe makes an awful large batch? Well, I figured out what to do with it when I got into the kitchen to whip up these brownie pops...
I used my favorite brownie recipe, which happens to come directly from the back of the Nestle Cocoa Powder container. Two layers of brownies filled with a layer of pumpkin caramel, skewered onto a stick... and then coated with dark chocolate and a drizzle of a little extra caramel & a sprinkle of sea salt. Yes.
Of course, I ate like one of these over the course of a full day and then wrapped up the rest to give away... that's the safest thing to do when something this seductive is staring at you.
But I slayed that green-eyed monster. With a popsicle stick. And all is right with the world again.
Feeling a little jealous yourself? Get into the kitchen and make these babies!
Pumpkin Caramel Brownie Pops
Ingredients
For Brownies:
- 1 ⅓ cup sugar
- ¾ cup {1 ½ sticks} butter melted
- 2 tablespoons milk {I just use almond milk because that's what I have on hand}
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ⅓ cups all purpose flour
- ¾ cup cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
For Pumpkin Caramel:
- Click here for the recipe!
For Coating:
- About 5 oz. good dark chocolate melted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 8x8 inch pans with foil or spray with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine sugar, butter, milk, eggs and vanilla extract until smooth.
- In a separate bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.
- Slowly add dry mixture to wet mixture, mixing until just combined. The batter will be stiff and sticky.
- Divide batter evenly between two prepared pans, smoothing the top with an offset spatula. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Try not to overbake.
- Remove from oven and cool brownies for about 15-20 minutes in the pan before removing. Cool completely before proceeding to next step.
For Coating:
- {I'd hate to sound Ina here, but it's true that the good stuff is the easiest to work with. I used 1 ½ bars of 70% cocoa Lindt chocolate. It melts like a dream and is easy to pour. You can use whatever chocolate you'd like, but good chocolate makes life easier.}
- Break chocolate into pieces and microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring until completely melted.
For assembly:
- - Place one layer of brownies {smoother side down} back in a foil-lined pan {flaps hanging over make for easy removal}. Pour about a cup or more of pumpkin caramel directly over brownie. Smooth out into an even layer with an offset spatula and makes sure it gets all the way to the edges, they'll be trimmed so it's ok if it's messy.
- - Carefully place the second layer of brownies {smoother side up} over top of the caramel layer. Push down lightly to affix to caramel. Your caramel will most likely still be warm and will need to set. The fastest way to do this is to refrigerate for a little while - 30 minutes to an hour should do.
- - Once the caramel is set, remove the whole brownie from the pan carefully. Using a sharp knife, cut the very edges off to make clean sides. Cut the brownie into 9 equal pieces. Insert a popsicle stick into each brownie and place onto a cooling rack.
- - Pour about a tablespoon of melted chocolate over each brownie pop to coat, allowing to drip over sides. Refrigerate to set for about 10-15 minutes. Remove from fridge, flip, and coat the other side. Refrigerate until chocolate is set.
- - Drizzle the tops with melted caramel and immediately sprinkle with flaked sea salt if desired. Allow caramel to set.
Alyson says
These look AMAZING!!! Love this story. Just pinned this because wow, I could grab it from the screen right now.
alyson
http://www.theaveragegirlsguide.com