Easy Turtle Brownies

It's Sweet Friday again and today I bring you Easy Turtle Brownies. I wanted to title this post "Crazy Easy One Bowl Turtle Brownies" but I thought that might be a little long. These are however crazy easy to make, and they do only require one bowl. Perfect for a weeknight chocolate craving.

I do have a go-to recipe that I have dubbed my favorite but in my opinion a girl can never have too many ways to make a brownie. If you haven't noticed, there is a salted caramel craze across the foodie world. So I drew some inspiration from that - and a bottle of Hershey's caramel sauce that I found hidden on my refrigerator door shelf. I also had a bag of pecan pieces in the cabinet. That's how the wheels starting turning.

I thought these brownies were fabulous. The bit of brown sugar I subbed in the brownies gave the chocolate an extra caramely and chewy kick. And every so often I would get a nice bite of kosher salt. They also had my ideal brownie texture, chewy, fudgelike, and moist. Jesse on the other hand liked them but still thought they were too "wet." He prefers a much more cake like brownie so I wasn't at all surprised. Just keep that in mind, if you prefer drier cake like brownies, these aren't it.

Crazy Easy One Bowl Turtle Brownies
(Brownie adapted from Hershey's, idea inspired by The Novice Chef)

Ingredients
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1/3 cup cocoa powder*
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
Hershey's Caramel Syrup (or another brand of caramel, or make you're own if you're up to it)
Pecan pieces, optionally toasted
*I used half Hershey's special dark and half regular cocoa powder, you can use a combination or whichever you have on hand.

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8x8 baking dish (or if you're like me and resisting this purchase, just use a 9 inch pie pan).

Melt the butter in a microwave safe mixing bowl. Using a wooden spoon, stir the sugars into the melted butter. Add the vanilla and eggs and stir until well combined. Add the cocoa powder, flour, baking powder, and kosher salt to the bowl. Without breaking into the liquid ingredients below, give the dry ingredients a few stirs with a fork, then use your wooden spoon to incorporate into the liquid ingredients. Stir until you no longer see the flour.

Pour half of the batter into the greased pan and spread with a spatula (or save dishes and just use the wooden spoon). Drizzle the batter with the caramel syrup, being careful to keep it a 1/4 inch away from the edges. Pour in the rest of the batter. Drizzle with a little more caramel syrup then swirl with the spatula (or wooden spoon). Drop a small handful of pecans on top.

Bake for 20 minutes**, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool then slice into even squares or wedges and serve with a LARGE glass of milk.

**Because of the caramel syrup these were a little bubbly when baking, probably not the prettiest brownies I've ever made, but that's OK. Don't be scared when they don't have box-perfect shiny crispy crust on top.