Tuesdays with Dorie: Caramel Topped-Peanut Brownie Cake

It is as good as it sounds, really. Wow, this was a really delicious and very decadent dessert. This week's recipe was chosen by Tammy of Wee Treats by Tammy. I did have a lot of dirty dishes during the process of making this but it was well worth it. I made the cake first, which was similar in ingredients and directions to the French Chocolate brownies we made in May (I think it was May?). My cake was a little dark on the top but it wasn't too noticeable.

While the cake was cooling I started work on the caramel. Making the caramel was a lesson in being patient. The caramel (well it's not caramel yet) has to boil until it turns color and I was afraid I would leave mine on too long so I kept checking it. In the book Dorie suggest putting a little on a white plate to check the color so I did that several times before it turned. Once it turned a deep amber color I pulled it off the heat and it smelled a little burnt. I was completely paranoid I had left it on the heat for too long. But it looked like caramel so I just went with it hoping it tasted like caramel. Luckily, it tasted just fine.The recipe says to wash the springform pan you bake the cake in after the cake cools and put the cake back in the pan. I am lazy and did not do this. I put the cake in a tart plate (the horror!) and then topped it with the peanuts and caramel. Had I been serving this to guests I probably would have put it on my nice cake platter. But it was just the two of us and Doug was going to eat it if it was on a crystal platter or not.

The cake tasted great. Once the caramel set it formed a chewy layer on top of the brownie cake. The peanuts added a nice crunch too. I would make this again, probably for a 'wow' end of meal dessert. Great recipe to try and now I can say I've made caramel. Next week we're doing biscotti which I've never done but I'm looking forward to.