I love to bake. Getting immersed in the measuring and mixing is almost meditative for me. That said, sometimes there isn’t always the time (or will) to create from scratch. Yesterday I wanted to make something for Dawn’s mom’s birthday, but only had an hour before I needed to get ready for a wedding. My intentions were to make these brownies and this homemade fleur du sel caramel sauce, but since I didn’t have enough time I used the best premade mix and gourmet canned caramel I could find. I still infused as much love as I could (cheesy, I know, but I swear it works) and kept my Sandra-Lee semi-homemade secret to myself.

Caramel pretzel brownies

Ingredients:

1 box of brownie mix
2 eggs
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup water
Pretzel chips (next time I’m going to use the mini pretzels as the chips didn’t quite hold their crunch)
Caramel sauce
Sea salt

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the brownie mix together with the eggs, oil, and water (or whatever the box calls for). Pour 1/3 of the mix into an 8″x8″ pan. Arrange one layer of pretzel chips. Repeat one more time with more brownie mix, another layer of pretzels, and then the last of the, you guessed it, brownie mix. Bake for 45 minutes or until the brownies have cooked through. Let the brownies cool before covering with the caramel sauce and a sprinkling of  sea salt.