Brownies with Salted Caramel Chocolate Mousse

Another take on my beloved salted caramel, but this time it's gluten free! The trickiest part is the caramel, which is easy to make and easy to screw up, all at the same time. Everyone has there own way of making caramel, but I've found it's best to take it off the burner as soon as it turns amber...and I mean immediately! It's not difficult, but you do have to time it right or it's a disaster! Luckily, there aren't that many ingredients involved, so, if if turns into a big candy ball, you can just try again.

Recipe after the jump.

Adapted from Snippets in the Life of Chef Neufeld

Flourless Brownies

6 large eggs, room temp. (to quickly bring eggs to room temp. cover with hot tap water)
18 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, chopped (approx. 3 cups choc. chips)
1 cup butter
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. ground cinnamon

Prepare a 9×13 pan by lining it with foil. Spray it with cooking spray.

Melt chocolate and butter in a large bowl set over simmering water. Making sure that the bowl does not come in contact with the water. Stir until smooth.

Add the vanilla and cinnamon. Stir until thoroughly combined.

Cool to room temp. (To speed up the cooling process you can stick it in the fridge while you prepare the eggs… just make sure to check it once in a while so that it does not cool down too much.)

Beat eggs on high for approx. 5 min. or until tripled in volume.

Fold half of eggs into cooled chocolate mixture until no streaks remain, then fold in the other half.

Poor batter into prepared pan and smooth out top.

Place the brownie pan into a larger pan (such as a roasting pan). Fill larger pan with hot water until it comes halfway up the smaller pan that contains the batter.
Bake for 15 min on center rack at 425. Turn off oven and leave pan in there for an additional 10 min.

Remove brownies from the water bath and place on wire wrack to cool.

Cover and refrigerate brownies overnight.

Salted Caramel and Milk Chocolate Mousse

1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. water
2 Tbsp. salted butter, room temp
1 cup heavy cream, divided
3/4 cup milk chocolate chips

Heat 1/4 cup cream until it is hot, set aside. Melt chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water (making sure the bowl does not come in contact with the water), set aside.

In a heavy bottomed saucepan add the sugar and water. Cook on med-high heat without stirring until it is an amber color, making sure not to burn it. Take the pan off the heat and add the butter and the hot cream. It will bubble and spit, but as long as the butter and cream are not cold it should calm down fairly quickly. Stir with a wooden spoon until smooth. Let cool until lukewarm, then mix it with the chocolate until smooth.

Whip remaining 3/4 cup cream (making sure everything is very cold) until soft peaks form. Fold 1/3 of whipped cream into chocolate mixture to loosen it up. Fold in remaining whipped cream.