Brownie Cookies with Salted Caramel Creme Filling for Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day gave me the perfect excuse to make these beauties. And since my Valentine doesn't do back flips for chocolate and salted caramel quite like I do, I'll also be baking a pan of Meyer lemon bars. The things we do for love. 

The original recipe for these brownie cookies had a peanut butter filling so I'm sure you could get creative and adapt this recipe to make a raspberry filling, mint or whatever your favorite flavor combination is! 

Brownie Cookies with Salted Caramel Creme Filling

Recipe slightly adapted from Bakers Royale

Makes 24 one inch sandwich cookies (I only ended up with 14 sandwich cookies, and I promise I didn't eat that much of the dough) | Preparation: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line bake sheet with parchment paper.

Ingredients:

Brownie Cookies (adapted from Donna Hay)

• 12 oz. chocolate, chopped
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 2 large eggs
• ⅔ cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour, sifted
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder, sifted

Salted Caramel Creme Filling (This made a lot more than I needed, probably could have doubled the above brownie cookie recipe)

• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups confectioner sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup caramel (I used Trader Joe's fleur de sel caramel but if you're an ambitious super star, you can make your own caramel. Click here.) 

Instructions:

To make brownie cookies:

1. Place 7oz. of the chocolate and the butter in a saucepan over low heat and gently stir until melted and smooth. Set aside.
2. Place the eggs, sugar and vanilla in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment and beat for 15 minutes or until pale and creamy. Add in flour, baking powder, melted chocolate mixture, remaining 5 oz. of chocolate and mix to combine. Set aside to to stand for 10 minutes. Spoon a little under a 1 tablespoonful of the mixture, onto parchment lined bake sheet. Bake for about 8–10 minutes or until puffed and cracked. Allow to cool completely on trays.

To make caramel creme filling:

1. Place butter in a bowl and beat until creamed. Add in confectioner sugar and salt and beat until light combined. Add in caramel and beat until combined (since my caramel was already salted, I only put in a few more sprinkles of salt, not the 1/4 tsp. it calls for). 

Assembly:

1. Spread a  tablespoon and a half of caramel creme on underside of one brownie cookie and place a second brownie cookie bottom side down on top frosting.