These rich and fudgy brownies are swirled with caramelized white chocolate, a miracle of baking science (and, let’s face it, part magic) that will please even the white chocolate haters that walk among us.

Buttery, nutty and almost toasty in flavor, the white chocolate swirl becomes delicately crispy on the top of a soft and fudgy brownie, a delightful textural contrast that’ll have you reaching for another.

Let me tell you the story of goldilocks and the three brownies. Excuse me, four brownies. And goldilocks in this case is a lovely golden white chocolate that’s been caramelized low and slow in the oven.

Anyway, the story. So I probably should have just let well enough alone and used my go-to brownie recipe (a downright perfect brownie recipe that works equally well with melted butter or olive oil), but instead I decided I would try to improve on perfect and started tweaking.

Four batches of tweaking later, we’re pretty much back at the beginning.

The first batch was too dense (too fudgy, which I would’ve said doesn’t exist but it turns out it does). Don’t worry, I still ate them.

The second batch I went way rogue and mixed in some cream cheese to the white chocolate, going for a filled and swirled effect. Bad idea – the brownie was way too thick and underbaked as a result, though the top was probably the shiniest, crinkliest brownie I’ve ever made. Oh well. I ate these too.

The third batch was too thin (see: overcompensation for the last batch). But getting closer. You can bet I didn’t waste these either.

Finally on the fourth try I managed to produce a thick (but not too thick) and fudgy (but not too fudgy) brownie with a beautifully crackled and swirled top. These brownies rise and fall a bit more than my go-to recipe, likely because of the air that is whipped into the eggs. But you know what that means? The edges are even more delightfully crispy (for you edge lovers) while the center pieces stay decadently dense and fudgy (back off, those pieces are mine).

Sure, they look like peanut butter swirled brownies, but don’t be deceived. These beauties are swirled with caramelized white chocolate (cue *hearteyes).

I’ve waxed poetic about caramelized white chocolate before, but just recently ‘rediscovered’ it. How I managed to forget about it for 3+ years I have no idea, but this time it’s here to stay.

It’s not a quick process (it takes about 2 hours) but the result is sweet and buttery, slightly nutty and almost toasty in flavor. It’s nothing like the boring white chocolate that you so love to hate. Trust me on this one.

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