Brownies Topped with Pretzels & Homemade Caramel Sauce

Last night we went to a party at Citifield and even though the game got rained out, we had a great time at our annual gathering.

Citifield is super vegan friendly. We had lots of great ballpark eats including vegan hot dogs and burgers from Yves, vegan pizza with Daiya cheese and fruit for dessert.

But there was one thing my husband could not stop talking about on the ride home. He spied a salted caramel pretzel brownie. So I conjured up a recipe overnight and here is what I served after lunch today. Super easy and even the Mako sharky enjoyed them!

Brownies (depending on how you cut the brownies, you could have anywhere from 16 to 25)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups vegan sugar (I use coconut palm sugar)
3/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup water
1 cup sunflower oil

Preheat oven to 350.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Mix together with a fork. Add the water, oil, and vanilla. Mix well. Pour into a brownie pan (mine is 9×9) and bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool and then cut into squares.

Caramel Sauce (makes about 2 1/2 cups)
1 1/2 cups vegan sugar (I used Mascobado)
1/3 cup water
1 cup coconut milk
1 teaspoon sea salt

Combine the sugar and the water and place over medium heat. Cook for a few minutes until the sugar is dissolved. Note that most caramel recipes wait for the sugar to turn brown, but Mascobado sugar is already brown so there is no waiting for that.

Add the coconut milk and whisk together. Cook it down for a few minutes.

Take off the heat and let the sauce cool. (Store in a glass jar.)

To serve this decadent dessert, break pretzels up. My son loves Newman’s Own organic pretzels.

Place a brownie on a plate and top with the crushed pretzels. Drizzle with caramel sauce. Enjoy!