These Basement Brownies, also known as the best chocolate caramel brownies, are a big time favorite on RecipeGirl.com.
Watch the short video showing you how to make these Basement Brownies, then you can scroll down to the bottom to print out the complete recipe and make them yourself!
They’re so easy to make, and there is a great story behind them!
I love a recipe with a good story behind it. My family was recently visiting my brother and sister-in-law in beautiful Colorado. As usual with my snoopy nature, I scoured my sister-in-law Sarah’s personal recipes with hopes of finding some new treasures to try. These Basement Brownies caught my eye!
These Chocolate- Caramel brownies are called Basement Brownies because when Sarah was a little girl… she used to make them for her Dad, who used to sneak these brownies into the basement to hide them so he could have them all for himself.
The name, “Basement Brownies” has stuck! Don’t you love that?!
You’ve gotta love a recipe with only 5 ingredients. Super simple. They start with a boxed mix… which is not usually my style of baking, but these brownies turn out so awesome that you can’t even tell it starts with a box.
And sometimes starting with a boxed mix is just what we need in our busy day-to-day lives! It’s okay to take short-cuts once in a while.
How to Make Basement Brownies:
The caramels are melted with a little bit of evaporated milk to create a caramel sauce. Sarah says that in-a-pinch she has also used jarred caramel sauce in place of melting your own.
The cake mix is simply combined with evaporated milk and butter. A portion of the batter is slightly baked, then topped with chocolate chips and caramel, then topped with more batter and baked again.
The result is not so impressive-looking, right? Just you wait…!!
The inside brownie part is slightly gooey, and there are two layers in there that can put anyone into a delightful sugar coma: one layer of melted chocolate chips and one layer of ooey caramel too.
Oh YEAH. Basement brownies. After a few bites of these, I can completely understand how they got their name.
And here’s the culprit right here. This handsome guy is Sarah’s Dad, the brownie lover who gave these guys their deserved name– brownies-so-good-you’ve-gotta-hide-them-in-the-basement! We understand. Completely.
Thanks, Sarah… for a great recipe!
Here are a few more brownie recipes you might enjoy:
Basement Brownies
Ingredients
- 50 caramels, unwrapped
- One 15.25-ounce box German chocolate cake mix
- 1 cup evaporated milk, divided
- 3/4 cup (1½ sticks) salted butter, melted
- 12 ounces semi sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9x9-inch pan.
- Melt caramels and 1/3 cup evaporated milk in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir until caramels have completely melted and the mixture is smooth.
- In a large bowl, combine the dry cake mix, remaining 2/3 cup evaporated milk and butter. Mix by hand until batter is smooth and combined.
- Pour a little over 1/2 of the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 8 minutes only and then remove from the oven. Sprinkle chocolate chips evenly on top of the partially cooked brownie. Drizzle caramel on top of the chocolate chips. Drop spoonfuls of the remaining batter on top. You probably won't have enough to cover the caramel completely.
- Return the pan to the oven and bake for an additional 18 to 20 minutes until the brownies feel fairly set on top and the edges are lightly browned and crisp. Let the brownies cool completely before cutting. The longer they have time to cool, the more they will firm up.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I made these yesterday. The only bad thing about them is they only make a small pan! My son LOVES them, and my poor daughter can’t have them because she just got braces on. But I know she would love them! I will be making these again!
Made these AMAZING brownies last night – thought people might be interested to know that the Devil’s Food mix worked really well and tasted yummy! I also used a tin of Carnation Condensed milk boiled up into caramel instead of melting the sweets…came out perfectly. Thank you Lori!
Mmm… Making these IMMEDIATELY!
This recipe sounds so good but
I don’t have a German Chocolate cake mix. Do you think I could use a regular brownie mix.
Hard to say, since I have only tried it with a cake mix! I wouldn’t think it would turn out the same.
I make a recipe very similar called Snickers Bars, the only difference is that I add salted peanuts as a layer, I think the salted peanuts help to cut the sweetness a little. Very ooey gooey and delicious!!!!
I have caramel bits in my pantry at this moment…wow those look incredible!
These look so yummy. I usually do my brownies with some kind of mint but I know my house is going to love them with caramel in them.
Don’t know how I missed this post! Wonderful story about my favorite daughter-in-law. Great picture of them too,.
I need these to live. For real.
These look so amazing and sound easy to make! Thank you for sharing.