Chocolate Turtle Brownies

I promise I haven't disappeared. I have just been looking for jobs, among other things. On the fun side, I made a few cute little animals to hold rings.

Finding a job is all about confidence, networking and luck. And chocolate. This week was a little bit of everything on the job front - some resumés, a postponed phone interview, a real interview, a job and a rejection. The rejection was sad mostly because it would have been fun to move out of the country purely to write for a travel company. The job I got is short term, but it is the first step on my overriding goal of opening a bakery in Chile. I know it was originally a bit of a joke, but long-term goals are great and every bit of work experience will get me a little bit closer to the sheer madness of doing my own thing and being my own boss and making things with chocolate every day.
I can tell this is a good long-term goal, because as soon as I finished my interview I returned home and made brownies to de-stress. They are gooey and delicious and have surprisingly few ingredients. These brownies are the only time I ever use a cake mix, and it is worth it every time.  The recipe is from a friend, handwritten and pasted into my mom's college cookbook.






Chocolate Orgy (or Chocolate Turtle Brownies)
3/4 cup (1 1/2 stick) softened butter
1 box german chocolate cake mix
2/3 cup (about 6 ounces) evaporated milk
16-18 ounces caramel (It's much easier to just buy the Marzetti's caramel apple dip that they sell next to the apples in the grocery store)
1-2 cups chocolate chips (use your own judgement)
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Beat together butter, cake mix and evaporated milk until smooth. Press half of the batter into a greased 9x13 pan. It's okay if it seems very thin - it will rise, and you still have more layers to go.
Bake at 350º for 15 minutes.
Pull the pan out of the oven and spread the carmel all the way to the sides. Add layers of chocolate chips and nuts. Spoon out the rest of the batter on top and try to make it cover as much of the pan as possible. It's fine to have gaps, but you want to be able to have a solid brownie rather than something that you can't hold in your hand because it's dripping off the top with caramel, nuts and chocolate.
Bake for another 20 minutes until the top is cooked and the caramel is bubbling.

Let cool for at least an hour. If you try to take it out too soon, the whole thing will disintegrate into a delicious, caramel mess. I prefer it the next day, (usually as breakfast) once the caramel has had a chance to sink into the bottom layer.