Samuel's Salted Carmel Peanut Brownie Bombs (Flourless and Gluten Free)

Well, Samuel is at it again. If you follow me on Instagram, you've seen lots of breads and bagels from Samuel before, but this time he has tried his hand at a dessert. I was pretty impressed. Especially because he even made them flourless so his poor, pregnant, gluten intolerant wife could partake.

Samuel actually made these a couple weeks after we found out I was pregnant, just around the time when the nausea started to strike.

"I'm never making a post ever again," I said dejectedly, slamming my head down onto the dining room table.




Suddenly Samuel appeared nobly on the scene, "Never fear, I will make a post for you," he said, apron flowing majestically around him.

He really didn't even let me help at all. At least not until it came time to taking photos. He tried a few and got frustrated and then he handed me the camera and I got frustrated. February's limited sunlight in Berlin is enough to make any photographer overturn tables and smash caramel brownie balls into the wall. Not that anything like that happened...

So anyway Samuel, if you're reading this... I've been having sort of a weird pregnancy brain lately that makes it hard to make normal decisions in cooking sometimes. I've put so much yellow food coloring in a lemon cake that it looked like a highlighter and I've poured water onto crispy fried chicken. I've even  considered feeding you guacamole and chocolate cake for dinner.

So if you ever feel like coming the rescue again and whipping up some kind of chocolatey, caramely, amazing creation again... you're more than welcome to. The sun is back in town too, so you might even want to try your hand at taking the photos this time... I mean, only if you want to.... sometime...






Seriously though, you should make these things. They're awesome. So is Samuel.

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• Samuel's Salted Carmel Peanut Brownie Bombs
•  
• For the Brownies:
• 1/2 cup white sugar
  1/2 cup brown sugar
  6 tablespoons butter
  2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
  3/4 cup cocoa powder
  1/4 teaspoon salt
  
• 
  
• For the Caramel:
• 
  3/4 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons light corn syrup
  4 tablespoons butter
  1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 
  For the Chocolate Coating:
• 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips or chopped chocolate 
• 1/4 cup chopped salted peanuts
   
•  
• For the Flourless Brownies: 
• Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 8x8 inch baking pan. Combine the sugars and oil and beat until well combined. Add in the eggs and vanilla and whisk together. Beat for about two minutes. 
• Stir together the cocoa and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the batter and blend until smooth. 
• Pour into prepared pan and bake about 25 minutes.
•  
•  
• For the Caramel: 
• In a medium sauce pan, combine the sugar and syrup. Cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally. Once it is caramel colored, add the butter and stir until the butter is melted. Add the cream and stir until it's all combined. Bring it back to the heat if you get clumps and stir it until they're dissolved. Add the salt and vanilla. Refrigerate until completely cooled. 
•  
• Assembly:
• Once the brownies are slightly cooled, but still a little warm, cut them into brownie sized squares (I think this is about how big Samuel made them, but you can make them any size you want! It might be nice to use one of these cookie scoops to form them into balls). 
• Pick up each brownie and squish it and form it into a ball in your hands. Make a large indentation with your thumb in the ball and fill it with the cooled caramel. Seal up the brownie around the caramel with your fingers and roll the brownie into a round ball. Place on a sheet of parchment paper on a pan that will fit in your freezer. 
• Freeze all the balls for about 20 minutes or until they're pretty cold. 
• Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave on medium power, stirring every 30 seconds until melted. Stir in the peanuts. 
• Dip each brownie ball into the chocolate and then place back on the parchment. You can then return them to the freezer if you want them to harden faster or just let them harden on the counter.