College Flashback

I went to the University of Utah for college.  My last year I spent all my time on campus, especially winter quarter.  I ended up eating lunch and dinner every day at the commons.  At some point during that year the commons started offering these wonderful brownies.  They were deep, rich chocolate, with chocolate chips, chocolate frosting and a caramel swirl.  They were so, so wonderful.  I got one every time they were available - sometimes two!  I bet those brownies added 10 or more pounds to my frame that year. 

Recently I started wondering if I could recreate them.  This past weekend I gave it a try.  I used this brownie recipe, with dutch processed cocoa. 

Look at all that chocolate yumminess!  I mixed the chocolate chips with the flour and then added them when the recipe called for the flour.

I read once that if you coat the chocolate chips in flour they won't all sink to the bottom of your baked good. 

Doesn't that look yummy!  I could have eaten that raw.  As a matter of fact Jonathan and I shared the bowl...

Unfortunately I tried to improve the recipe.  Instead of making a buttercream chocolate frosting I made a cooked fudge frosting.  I love that frosting but it wasn't an improvement over the original. 

Once I frosted the brownies I melted some caramel with a little milk.  I found these wonderful caramel bits for this step.

I've never seen these in Utah but they are in every grocery store here in Southern California.  It's such a break not having to unwrap caramels! 

It only took a minute or so to melt the caramel and then I just spread it over the top of the brownies.

The brownies were really good, rich, but not the same as the college brownies. As a matter of fact, not as good.  I'll have to try again some day.  I think I would have had it if I'd used a chocolate buttercream frosting.  Oh, well... next time.