[Photograph: Robyn Lee]

There are a few kinds of brownies I'm fond of in this world. There's the grown-up brownie, powerful dark chocolate with complementary flavors like roasted nuts or espresso, light on the sugar, heavier on the salt. But then there are the childhood-reminiscent brownies: the kind I want to settle down with a huge plate of, sticky and fudgy and sweet. The kind where you break off just a corner and end up eating the whole tray, a bite at a time.

Todd Kelly at Better Together Brownies outside Philly makes brownies in the latter camp. They're not the sultry, salty guys you'd find at an upscale bakery. But as homey, gooey brownies go, they're pretty excellent.

The standard brownies are great, the kind that prompt you to say "yum" through a full mouth of chocolate. They're just a little crusty on the edges, totally fudgy in the middle, the taste of real butter and sugar totally evident. There's a cookie-topped version, half brownie, half similarly just-underbaked chocolate chip cookie riding on top. But the real winner is the salted caramel, a thick ribbon of caramel hiding out in the middle of the brownie. At first it seems like the whole thing's just underbaked... but then you realize that gooey part in the middle is all delightfully runny caramel, and the whole thing sticks to your fingers, and a little nibble is total sugar rush but you still go back for more.

Better Together Brownies: order online »

About the author: Carey Jones is the Editor of Serious Eats New York and co-editor of Serious Eats: Sweets. Follow her on Twitter (@careyjones).