Chocolate Caramel Tart

This tart is not a fancy looker, but it is extravagantly rich and chocolatey. The short crust is not overly sweet, balancing the chocolate ganache* filling along with the salted caramel layer hidden underneath.

I would also characterize this dessert as simple and easy to prepare ahead of time - both good things in my book. You'll need to plan ahead to make of the three layers, since the crust, caramel, and chocolate ganache each need to set and cool before the subsequent layer can be added. There is more time necessary for cooling than for actual preparation. I've yet to master the art of making pie crust - and am unlikely to do so since I'm not super into pies - so a tart like this is an easy way of achieving something similar, but more to my taste.

I took it to an engagement party as the chocolate component of a trio of desserts (with a pistachio cake and a lemon parfait of cream and sponge cake, to be posted soon). In my opinion, providing sweets for an event involves trying to make as many people happy as possible, and that means knowing your audience and finding a variety that will appeal to them. For this event, I knew the attendees did not prefer overly sweet desserts, so I looked for less sweet options that were in different media (cake, tart, and creamy) and different taste profiles (nut, chocolate, and lemon). And to keep me happy, options that would be interesting but easy to make!

The tart crust may be used with a wide variety of fillings - glazed fresh berries, baked custard with fruits, nutty creams - you just want to bake the shell ahead of time and then add the filling, to be baked or served fresh.

Chocolate Caramel Tart

Tarte Chocolat Caramel, in Chocolate and Zucchini by Clotilde Dusoulier

Short Pastry (Pâte Sablée)

• 1/3 C plus sugar (unrefined or white)
• 1 C plus 2 T flour
• 7 T butter (salted, or unsalted plus a pinch of salt)
• 1-2 T ice-cold water or milk

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 10-inch tart pan with butter and set aside.

Prepare the pâte sablée. In the bowl of a mixer or blender, combine the sugar and flour. Add the butter and process in short pulses until the mixture resembles coarse meal. (Alternatively, rub the butter into the dry ingredients by hand with the tips of your fingers or a wire pastry blender.) Add a tablespoon of water or milk and mix again, in short pulses, until it is absorbed. The dough should still be crumbly, but it should clump if you gently squeeze a handful in your hand. If it doesn't, add a little more water -- teaspoon by teaspoon -- and give the dough a few more pulses until it reaches the desired consistency.

Pour the mixture evenly into the prepared tart pan. Using the heels of your hands and your fingers, press on the dough gently to form a thin layer, covering the surface of the pan and creating a rim all around. Don't worry if the dough feels a little dry, this is normal. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes, or up to one day.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden, keeping an eye on it. Transfer to a rack to cool.

Salted Caramel Filling (optional)

• 1/2 C light brown sugar
• 1 T honey
• 1/2 tsp fleur de sel or kosher salt
• 1/3 C crème fraîche or heavy cream**
• 2 T unsalted butter, diced

Once the tart crust is cooled, prepare the caramel filling. Make sure you have all the ingredients measured out before you start. Combine the brown sugar and 1 T water in a small heavy-bottomed saucepan and melt the sugar slowly over medium-low heat. Swish the pan around from time to time to ensure even melting, but don't stir. As soon as bubbles form on the surface (avoid overcooking the caramel, which would result in a bitter taste afterward), add the honey and stir to combine. Add the salt and cream and stir until blended. Remove from heat, add the butter, and stir to combine. Pour the caramel into the tart shell and tilt the pan slowly in a circular motion to coat the bottom of the shell evenly. Let set in the fridge for 40 minutes.

Chocolate Ganache Filling

• 10 oz. good-quality bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped**
• 1 C crème fraîche or heavy cream

Once the caramel is cooled, prepare the ganache filling. Put the chocolate in a medium mixing bowl, preferably stainless steel. Bring the cream to a simmer in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-low heat (turn off the heat just after you've seen bubbles appear around the edge of the surface of the cream). Pour half of the cream on the chocolate (cover the rest), let stand for 20 seconds, and stir gently in the center with a whisk, gradually blending the cream with the chocolate until smooth. Add half of the remaining cream, and stir again until combined. Repeat with the remaining cream. Remove the tart pan from the fridge, pour the chocolate filling into the shell, and level the surface with a spatula, covering all of the caramel layer and spreading the ganache to the edges of the shell. Return to the fridge to set for an hour.

Remove the tart from the fridge 15 minutes before serving. Cut in small slices, and serve on its own or with fresh berries. The leftovers will keep for several days, tightly wrapped and refrigerated.

*Ganache is a smooth and creamy combination of chocolate and cream, similar to what you might find in the middle of a See's Candy chocolate. This recipe details one of several approaches to its preparation, but it is always a simple method.

**The price of butter and heavy cream at Smart and Final is regularly excellent, as is Costco if you have a membership. Trader Joe's is a slightly more expensive option, but still cheaper than most regular grocery stores.

***I like Trader Joe's Pound Plus for an affordable option, which is available in milk, bittersweet, and dark.

Caramel-Draped Spiced Apples

I looooove caramel. Spoonfuls of caramel, all by themselves. I love it so much that caramel apples are usually a little disappointing - too much apple, too little caramel. And so darn hard to eat when you are eager to get that good stuff into your belly!

But I just discovered a way to provide more caramel with the apple, and make it easier to eat...and not unimportantly, to make this a dessert that you can plate for guests (at times that an apple on a stick is a little too informal).

Recent blog posts had me thinking about poaching fruit, since I had a great deal of mulled red wine sitting around, and the pears in this post looked especially appealing under their drapings of chocolate sauce. I also had some extra whipping cream in the fridge, but no chocolate in the kitchen, so when I stumbled upon this post for decadent-looking caramel-coated doughnuts, the caramel sauce recipe caught my eye right away. Apples in the fridge sealed the deal: I would poach the apples in the mulled wine, and coat them with thick caramel sauce.

I highly recommend mulling your own wine, since it is easy to just throw the ingredients into a pot and have the beverage on hand to enjoy - so full of comforting fall flavors! Once you've got a batch done, you can poach your fruit in it any time; if you don't have time to get some ready, follow the instructions on eHow.com for poaching fruit in wine that you add sugar and spices to just prior to poaching. I promise to post an orange-scented mulled wine recipe as soon as I have some photos to include, but meanwhile, you can still poach some fruit with the linked instructions - or buy the mulling mix at Trader Joe's for a quick solution.

Poaching the fruit:

~ 1 bottle mulled wine (red or white; you can use as little as half a bottle of wine and add water to make the liquid cover the fruit)

4 peeled apples (I used organic Gala, but any except for very soft apples will do)

Bring the wine (or wine and water combination) to a boil in a saucepan. Add the peeled fruit to the pan so that the liquid covers the fruit (add water until it's covered, if necessary), then place a small lid or a piece of parchment paper on the surface of the liquid to keep the fruit submerged. Simmer gently until fruit is soft enough to be easily pierced by a paring knife, but not mushy yet. Remove from pan with a slotted spoon. Cut out the cores prior to serving if desired.

Salted caramel sauce:

1 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons water
1 stick (115gr) salted butter at room temperature, cut into small pieces
1 cup heavy whipping cream

In a heavy saucepan set over low heat, combine the sugar and water. Cook just until the sugar is dissolved. Add the butter. Let it come to a boil and cook until it reaches a golden caramel color. Remove from the heat and add the cream ( it will splatter and get crazy). Whisk to combine and put back on the stove. Let it come to a boil again over low heat and cook 15-25 minutes until you reach a creamy consistency.
Let cool. Spoon liberally over poached fruit when ready to serve.

Sticky Toffee Cake

This is absolutely my favorite thing that I've made this summer. At least thus far. As you can see from the picture, there were others who agreed with my assessment of this gooey, caramely, moist cake: can't get enough of it until it's gone.

It is called a "pudding" by the Brits, who have a pudding category of dessert that I think is still a tad foreign/unappealing to the American ear, so I am deeming it a cake. For so it is - a cake that has wonderful texture and nuanced flavor smothered in toffee sauce.

This was a dessert that was very amenable to adaptation in the Middle East, since it called for dates in the cake (which provide the extra je ne sais quoi both to the moist texture and to the flavor), and the toffee sauce worked extraordinarily well with honey instead of the molasses/golden syrup originally called for. Ironically, the day that I made this I went to a store that did NOT have fresh dates, but it did have this date paste that saved me work in the end. The pits of the dates were mixed in with the paste, so I had to dig them out as I scraped the paste out of the package, but other than that the paste worked very well. If you use honey in the sauce, just be aware that honey has a strong flavor and will be noticeable in the final product. And if you're in Jerusalem and want to use molasses or corn syrup, either can be obtained at Anise (imported goods store with multiple locations, including one on Palmach and one on Yafo).

I adore both the sauce and the cake of this recipe (need I mention that I practically drank a whole cup of the sauce on its own?). You've got the option of making the cake and the sauce separately the day before you serve it, and reheating the cake with the sauce spread over the top, or just making it the day that you will serve it, in which case you will make the sauce, pour half of it into the cake pan, followed by the cake batter, later to be served with the remaining sauce spooned over the top. I had to make it a day ahead, so the sauce was poured over the top of the cake and reheated, but I'm dying to try it with the cake baked in the sauce - I think the absorption factor would be fantastic. And who doesn't want toffee sauce on both sides of their cake??

On a side note, I have also found chocolate-covered dates in the supermarkets here, and they are to die for. Yet another sweet that I overate this week. There were packages of them with pecans, walnuts, or almonds replacing the pit, so of course I had to try more than one of the three options (pecan and almond, yum!). There was a magical connection between the flavor of the dates and the chocolate that melded into another flavor altogether, and they offered the most satisfyingly chewy experience that a classmate of mine delighted in dubbing a "fusion" with a new Hebrew vocabulary word of ours. I think I had an instinct that these chocolate-dipped goodies would be amazing after eating this cake, since it made me realize that while dates are good on their own, they are surprisingly versatile in their ability to boost the flavor profile of another sweet - toffee, in the case of this cake.

Sticky Toffee Cake

For the toffee sauce:
2 C (500ml) heavy cream
1/2 C (120g) demerara or muscovado sugar (or another dark brown sugar)
2 1/2 T golden syrup or molasses (or honey)
pinch of salt

For the cake:
6 oz (180g) pitted dates, snipped or chopped, or date paste with pits removed
1 C (250ml) water
1 tsp baking soda
optional: 1/3 C (40g) candied ginger, chopped
1 1/4 C (175g) flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
4 T (55g) unsalted butter
3/4 C (150g) granulated sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350F (190C) and butter an 8 1/2-inch (about 24cm) porcelain soufflé mold, or similar-sized baking dish.
2. Make the toffee sauce by bringing the cream, demerara or turbinado sugar, golden syrup (or molasses) and salt to a boil in a medium saucepan, stirring often to melt the sugar.
3. Lower heat and simmer, stirring constantly for about 5 minutes, until the mixture is thick and coats the spoon. Pour half the sauce into the prepared soufflé mold and place the mold in the freezer, and reserve the other half for serving.
4. To make the pudding, in a medium saucepan, heat the dates and water. Once the water begins to boil, remove from heat and stir in the baking soda (this will foam up, as pictured above). Add the ginger, if using, then set aside, but keep it slightly warm.
5. In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
6. In the bowl of a standing electric mixer, or by hand, beat the butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs, then the vanilla. (Don't be alarmed if the mixture looks a bit curdled)
7. Stir in half of the flour mixture, then the date mixture, then add the remaining flour mixture until just mixed. Don't overbeat the batter.
8. Scrape the batter into the prepared baking dish and bake for 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with moist crumbs attached.
9. Remove the pudding from the oven, and let cool slightly before serving.

Serving: Spoon portions of the cake into serving bowls and top with remaining warm toffee sauce. Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream are optional toppings, but it's great on its own.

Note: To make the pudding in advance, bake the cake without the toffee in the bottom. Let cool, then cover until close to serving time. Poke the cake about fifteen times with a chopstick. Distribute half of the sauce over the top, cover with foil, then re-warm in a 300F (150C) oven, for 30 minutes.

Alfajores con dulce de leche

I just made these bad boys (from the beautiful blog flagrante delícia), and I have to say that I feel sorry for my roommate, whose gluten- and dairy-free life prevents her from indulging in the decadence of thick creamy caramel just barely contained by flaky shortbread. Add chocolate and coconut on top, and I've now consumed the amount of calories I burned in my 90 minute run today...thank goodness I ran!

I've always been hesitant to make caramel by boiling a closed can of sweetened condensed milk for hours, since I feel like I should be able to make real caramel (see Dave Leb's post on how to make it just right) from good ole sugar and cream. However, for dulce de leche I decided to give this method a try, and I see the merit: it produces a wholly different consistency and flavor than could be produced through scratch caramel creation, and the process couldn't be simpler. I would recommend making the caramel a day or two prior to making the cookies, since it takes so long to be done (3.5 hours) and needs to cool completely before you work with it.

A couple of pointers on the alfajores: the crumbly dough will need to be worked into a ball by hand, and then should be rolled out as thin as possible; if it is thicker than 3-4 mm, the cookies will take longer than 5 minutes to bake. To produce the tenderest cookies possible, you'll want to remove them from the oven before they're browned on top. You'll know that they're done when they've puffed a bit taller (as in the photos, you can see some layers on the side of each cookie) and when you poke at them they feel dry to the touch and slide on the parchment paper. They end up very delicate, so dipping in chocolate is difficult unless you have the right equipment. You can always drizzle with chocolate instead!

If you don't have a kitchen scale, I've converted the gram measurements into American volume measures in parenthesis.

Alfajores con dulce de leche

Makes 40 (20 pairs):

Dulce de leche

1 can sweetened condensed milk

Place the can totally immersed in water in a pan.
Bring to boil over high heat.
Reduce to low heat and keep boiling for 3 1/2 hours.
Add water as needed.
Open the can when completely cold (very important!).
You can also use a pressure cooker.

Alfajores:

112 g cornstarch (1 C)
125 g wheat flour (1 C)
1 egg
50 g butter, softened (~ 1/2 stick)
62 g icing sugar (1/2 C)
2 g baking powder (1/2 tsp)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Pre-heat the oven to 250ºC.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy.
Add the egg and the vanilla extract and continue mixing until well combined.
Add the sifted flour with the cornstarch and baking powder and mix until smooth.
Roll out the dough (3-4mm thick) over a floured worksurface.
Cut 5 cm diameter cookies.
Place the alfajores into the prepared baking sheet.
Bake for 4-5 minutes.
Transfer cookies to a wire rack until completely cool.

Spread the bottoms of half of the cookies with a generous layer of dulche de leche.
Sandwich together with remaining cookies.
Coat with chocolate or grated coconut.

Marshmallow Fun

Does the Green Lantern's power ring still have intergalactic power when it is molded out of....marshmallow?

All I know is that my brother was able to hold off eating it for a whole month after his birthday, which inconceivable self control must be due to a super power! The super power also improved the texture of the candy and maintained its flavor over that month, so it clearly was a legitimate power ring.

The first of my younger brothers is famous for having gone to a friend's birthday party when he was about four years old, and when invited to participate in the party games, saying "I just came for the cake." A story he is reminded of by our family friends constantly, I might add. But this year, when his always-anticipated birthday came around, he started to drop hints about caramel and mint marshmallows.

Green Lantern's icon came to mind when I tinted the mint marshmallow green and remembered that my brother's favorite comic book character was good ole' GL. He's already anticipating the release of the GL movie in TWO YEARS, to give you an idea of his passion for the character! The symbol is lined with caramel underneath, and the green background is mint, all dipped in chocolate. A great gift for someone on a budget (me) to give someone who likes personalized stuff (him).

I will note that it is much easier to cut shapes out of marshmallow than out of caramel - thank goodness for chocolate to hold everything together! Would have been a much cleaner shape had I left the cut marshmallow without caramel lining or chocolate dipping.


These 2-foot marshmallow batons from Surfas also appeared at my bro's birthday, and may have served as little guimauve swords before we gobbled them up...we both love cake, but marshmallows may be the party game/dessert compromise we need!

Pecan Pie Macarons

Hello, friends, I am back from a ridiculously long blogging hiatus! I have thought about blogging many times in the last month, but a busy schedule sucked my inspiration dry; even though I have baked a few times, and certainly gone out to eat, the creative energy to blog has been absent.

Meanwhile, I have figured out a few things about Parisian macarons...including the fact that people do like chewy macarons, despite my railings against such macaron texture. I have a theory that the chewiness results from overbaking the cookies, giving them a toughness that softens into chewiness when combined with the filling in the middle. A theory not entirely tested, but I did make some brandied macadamia nut coconut caramel macarons (gotta work on streamlining that name...) which I baked in a new oven, consequently producing less-baked, softer cookies.

These pecan pie macarons, based on Tartelette's macarons of the same name, were chewy, and yet, very popular. I have not had luck with Tartelette's macaron recipes in the past, so I used my tried-and-true NPR recipe and replaced the cocoa powder with the same volume (1/4 C) of ground pecans. I then used Tartelette's caramel sauce recipe and pecan brittle recipes, et voilà! Pecan pie macarons.

Tartelette often encases little bits of treats in the middle of the filling to enhance the flavor - in this case, the pecan brittle. I wasn't sure how I felt about that idea, feeling strongly as I do about the smooth delicateness that I think should be the essence of the macaron middle. In the end, however, it had a nice effect. I would say these are macarons of a different genre, a riff on the Parisian classic, but still lovely.

To be honest, the most difficult part of this macaron construction for me was the caramel sauce - probably the most often thrown-away item in my cooking history. I really want to be able to make this kind of caramel, with just sugar, cream, and butter and without using a candy thermometer, but the results have been erratic. Perhaps it is time to give in and find a recipe that takes corn syrup to interfere with the formation of sugar crystals, and has more specific instructions than "cook until caramel-colored." I may stubbornly continue to make this sometimes-successful sauce, but eventually I have a feeling that I'll give in to the more predictable versions.



As an alternative, however, how about some caramelized white chocolate ganache-filled macarons? Stay tuned...

Strawberry Macarons and AMANDINE!

This has been a week heavy on the baking, partially because of Mother's Day, but also because I just CANNOT STOP BAKING. I was proud of myself for waiting until today to bake something that I thought up on Sunday - two days is a long time to wait when you've got all the ingredients sitting in your kitchen! I almost made myself wait until next weekend, but then I thought "that's ridiculous! by then I won't even care about this idea and will have moved on to another!" And so I baked. Although I do believe that that particular recipe was improved by ideas I thought up in the tween time, but that is a story for another post.

In any case, my baking schemes do offer additional opportunities to procrastinate actual work that needs to get done (like I need more than the internet and TV afford!), so predictably the recent increase in my workload corresponds closely to the amount of goods my kitchen has been producing. It seemed a perfectly natural choice to make strawberry macarons for my sister's belated birthday gift, rather than simply purchasing a membership to REI (sorry, Amy, that may be a gift for another time...).

I think the macarons turned out wonderfully; I was nervous to tinker with the recipe that worked for me, but I did, and it did, so I'm all pumped up to try other flavors! I took the recommendations from Tartelette's strawberry macaron recipe by drying strawberries in the oven and processing them into powder, then replacing the cocoa powder in my chocolate recipe with the powdered strawberries.

Then came my real innovation: strawberry buttercream. The strawberry flavor in the macaron was rather subtle, and my sister LOVES strawberries, so I definitely wanted to kick the flavor up a notch. I basically added concentrated strawberry purée to a buttercream recipe, and the lovely pink cream in the macaron above came about. Here's a guesstimated outline of the recipe (I made no measurements when I was actually making the cream):

Strawberry Buttercream

1/2 lb strawberries
1/2 cube (4 T) butter
at least 2 C powdered sugar
1 T heavy cream

Wash the strawberries and cut their tops off. Throw them in your food processor and purée completely. Heat the purée in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring frequently to avoid burning, until the purée condenses down and thickens significantly (sorry I can't be more specific; think of this as reducing the water content of the berries and concentrating the flavor). Set purée aside to cool.

Once purée is cool, cream it with the butter in a stand mixer or with an electric hand mixer. The butter may not incorporate completely, but that's okay - it'll mix in better once the sugar is added. Add the powdered sugar bit by bit until the icing reaches the consistency you want. Make sure it is thick enough to hold its shape when spread, since you don't want it running out of the macarons or off the cupcakes or whatever. Mine was a little on the thin side. Add the heavy cream in just to make the mix more creamy. Yum!

I also finally made it to Amandine on Mother's Day, a bakery on Wilshire that I would have visited the previous week had it not been for a barricade of re-paving road work. The re-paving now finished, I successfully purchased some puff pastries that are certainly some of the best in L.A. I also bought my grandmother an almond raspberry tart, since she loves almonds, and the tart had a nice dense texture to it as well as good almond flavor.

These pastries, along with with the scotchmallows I made for my mom (layer of marshmallow, layer of caramel, glued together with chocolate) AND the dim sum feast we all ate together made for a nice Mother's Day. Not to sound completely selfish, but it's nice when our mother's desires coincide exactly with our own, isn't it?

Dessert Sushi: A Concept in Process

I have decided to share this work-in-progress with you. Of course, this food has been made and eaten already, but the concept is not finished in my mind.

I've been thinking about the idea of dessert sushi for months, ever since I discovered that I could cut out my marshmallows into shapes and build things with them. Since the marshmallow is so versatile, I thought that I could make dessert sushi in the manner of California rolls, with the marshmallow serving as the "rice" on the outside, and all sorts of nice things to fill it up: ganache, salted caramel, nuts, fruit, coconut - you get the idea. And why not dust the outside with nice things as well to replace the sesame seeds?

So here's how it went this time:


I made the marshmallow in a thin layer and let it sit for a day, having dusted the initially sticky top side with roasted nuts and chocolate shavings. The next day, I cut it into sections that I estimated would roll into the right size, and started laying down the fillings. Pictured above is a layer of ganache on the marshmallow, with dried raspberries (rehydrated a tad) down the middle.


I had been concerned that the individual rolls would not hold together, but the marshmallow amazed me: it not only stretched around the fillings, it also stuck to itself when pinched, as long as the edge did not get moistened by the filling.



Here are the rolls, ready to be cut: pistachio-dusted with white chocolate and diced dried apricots and bing cherries in the middle, walnut-dusted with ganache and crushed coconut cream candies, almond-dusted with caramel and almond slivers, chocolate-shaving-dusted with caramel and ganache, and chocolate-shaving-dusted with ganache and dried raspberries (Not Pictured: the ugliest but perhaps tastiest roll that was the unfortunate guinea pig: pecan-dusted with caramel, ganache, and pecans. I got ambitious and tried to stuff it way too full!).


Here is the messiness that resulted. The rolls being soft and the fillings being of different consistencies, they were difficult to cut evenly. The caramel layer was too thick in most of them, so next time I would make the caramel in a larger pan, or just roll slivers of caramel in the center of some. I would have loved to put toasted shredded coconut in some, but was unable to obtain some prior to making these.

I think it did work to dip the bottom of each cut piece into melted chocolate in order to keep the rolls together, and I am glad that I stuck them in the fridge in order to make them harden quickly and keep the ganache cool. They just had to sit at room temperature a little while before serving so that the caramel could become chewable rather than cooled stiff.



So many things to consider for next time! I definitely plan to scale back the rolls by making the fillings thinner and cutting the pieces smaller (and neater, hopefully). I look forward to serving them on beautiful sushi plates sometime, each roll topped with a fresh raspberry, toasted coconut, or mint leaves, but meanwhile, these tasted good. The scheming will continue until I am satisfied.

Caramels au Fleur de Sel

Introducing the recipe that caused me to finally buy a candy thermometer ($10 at Target!): Caramels au Fleur de Sel. I was watching the Barefoot Contessa's show, and I loved the idea of individually wrapped caramels served at a party. She made the recipe look easy, and I love fleur de sel, a French sea salt that I have been using in all my salted brown sugar caramel concoctions.

So I bought the thermometer and ingredients and went to it. The caramels turned out chewy and soft, with just the right amount of salt to compliment the sweetness.

Caramels au Fleur de Sel

1 1/2 C sugar
1/4 C corn syrup*
1/2 water
1 tsp fleur de sel (at Trader Joe's you can buy a similar Coarse Sea Salt for this)
1 C heavy cream
5 T butter
1/2 tsp vanilla

Prepare an 8x8 inch square pan by lining it with parchment paper on the bottom and sides and greasing the parchment paper (it will be sticky, so you won't be sorry you did this step).

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the sugar, corn syrup, and water. Stir until it is a warm brown caramel color as in the picture below. If you keep the stove burner at a low heat, this will take up to 30 minutes, but if you're willing to take a slight risk with your sugar syrup (which burns easily) you can speed up the process by turning the fire up to medium-high.

Once the caramel has reached the desired color, add the fleur de sel and the heavy cream. The cream will bubble violently when you add it, so be prepared to stir vigorously until it calms down. Stir in the butter and vanilla once the bubbling dies down.

Place the candy thermometer in the caramel according to the thermometer's instructions, and leave on the heat without stirring until it reaches 248 degrees. As soon as it gets to 248, turn off the heat, and pour the caramel into the prepared pan. Do not ever line the pan with foil as in the picture above - this caramel fought a fierce fight with the foil, and the caramel won!

Once the caramel has cooled, you can either cut it up into squares, or roll it into pieces by cutting the pan down the middle, and then rolling up the strip of caramel into a log. Sprinkle more fleur de sel lightly over the log or squares. If using the log roll method, cut the log into the size pieces you desire. Cut parchment paper into squares large enough to twist around each caramel piece, and serve!

By the way, this caramel went really well with my homemade marshmallows...


*I tried using agave syrup instead of the corn syrup once, and the caramel was slightly different in flavor (but still good), and much softer. That was great caramel to wrap around marshmallows!

Fall Cupcakes

Since I'm taking forever to write this post, I decided to just post the pictures without the full recipes, but you've got the idea from my previous cupcake posts: make a white cake mix and add flavors, decorate with buttercream or cream cheese frosting tinted with complementary flavors and colors!

Here we go:


These are the vanilla bean brandy and mint chip cupcakes. As you might guess, the former are flavored with the seeds of a vanilla bean and a small touch of brandy, and the latter were given a light touch of mint extract and sprinkled with dark chocolate chunks (and green food coloring reminiscent of the ice cream!).


On the left are the caramelized apple cupcakes, which are based on a Tarte Tatin idea; I caramelized an apple, puréed it, and mixed some in with the batter. Then I made some brown sugar caramel and coated the bottom of each cupcake liner with the caramel and poured the batter in on it. They stuck fantastically to the pan, so greasing it would have been good, but in the end I was able to peel the paper off each cupcake and turned them over into new liners, as pictured here. Since a Tarte Tatin is an upside-down cake, I thought it would be appropriate...and I added more caramel on top for good measure. On the right are pumpkin spice cupcakes, to which I added spices based on my family pumpkin pie recipe, plus some pumpkin purée. Both of these cupcakes were moister than the others because of the fruit purées, and the others were lighter.


Mint chocolate chip, topped with chocolate buttercream that had just a hint of mint extract (the stuff is strong, so be careful!) and dark chocolate chunks.


Pumpkin spice, swirled on top with cream cheese frosting that had a bit of the pumkin pie spice in it (see the flecks?), and an abstract pumpkin piped on with a few green sprinkles to insinuate a stem. The pumpkin decoration is a bit too abstract, since people still had to ask what the flavor was, but I still think it's cute.


I kept the vanilla bean decoration simple, adding more vanilla bean seeds to the buttercream, but again included brandy to keep a thematic kick to the cupcake.

And, finally, the caramelized apple took a squiggly dollop of cream cheese frosting on top, with more brown sugar caramel mixed in.

I've just learned that there is a book out there called The Cake Mix Doctor which basically does what I've been doing with these cupcakes - it tells you how to start with a cake mix and flavor it up in all sorts of ways. This reinforces for me the fact that cake mixes are fairly fool proof; you can do a lot to them and they'll still turn out great!

I've added fruit purées of varying densities, extracts, cocoa powder, coffee, caramel, fruit juice, spices, sprinkles, dried fruit, Oreos, coconut, nuts, honey, almond paste, and candy (i.e., all manner of liquids, fats, and sugars!) and every one has been a success. As my mom says, cake mixes are full of stabilizers that home cooks don't have access to for cakes from scratch, which means that cakes from scratch can be pretty difficult to get right (something I personally have proven with a number of dense, heavy cakes). It takes mastering a number of correct techniques in order to get a good scratch cake.

So, don't feel bad if you rely on cake mixes! Why not use a fool-proof method of achieving a moist and well-textured cake? Just get creative by doctoring the batter up a bit to satisfy your inner food artist. And make sure to use homemade frosting, since that part is super easy and makes an immeasurable difference in the final product.

Guimauve Flavoring: Orange, Vanilla, and Brown Sugar

I am learning that I should not ever announce that a particular food is my favorite, since it will invariably be unseated by the next fancy that captures me - hence the "FoodFancies of the Moment" sidebar of this blog!

While marshmallows have remained a consistent interest of mine this year, one of the reasons I find them so appealing is the fact that I can play with them. I can try out all manner of flavors with them, and can even shape and dip them as I please.

I have recently been enjoying orange, vanilla bean, and brown sugar flavored marshmallows, so I wanted to share these flavor possibilities with you. The orange is fresh and bright, the vanilla bean is sweetly vanilla with a hint of brandy, and the brown sugar is buttery with specks of fleur de sel.

Orange Guimauve Flavoring
Use 4 tsp. orange extract to flavor one half of the original recipe, colored by one drop of red food coloring and 2-3 drops of yellow food coloring. If you eat any of these marshmallows before coating them in sugar, they will taste bitter due to the amount of orange extract; the sugar coating will remove the bitter edge and make them pleasantly sweet.

To coat cut-up orange marshmallows, roll in granulated sugar mixed with the zest of one orange. The granulated sugar adds crunch and sparkle to the pieces, and the zest adds color, texture, and bright flavor.

Vanilla Bean Guimauve Flavoring
In a small bowl, combine 1 tsp. vanilla extract, 2 tsp. brandy, and the beans scraped from inside one vanilla pod. Let sit while you prepare the basic marshmallow recipe, and then add the flavoring to one half of the original recipe when called for.

To coat cut-up vanilla marshmallows, roll in powdered sugar (vanilla powdered sugar if you have it).

I have bought vanilla beans online from this website; it is my understanding that online purchase of vanilla beans is by far the cheapest way to obtain them.

Brown Sugar au Fleur de Sel Guimauve Flavoring
As with my cupcakes of the same flavor, make a caramel in a saucepan on the stovetop by heating 1/3 C brown sugar with 1 T water (do not stir, but swish pan around occasionally) until small bubbles appear on the surface. Pull the pan off the head before it burns, and stir in 1/4 tsp. fleur de sel and 3 T unsalted butter. Stir until thoroughly combined. Once cooled, mix 5 tsp. caramel into one half of the original recipe. After the marshmallow has settled into its pan, pour the remaining caramel over the marshmallow and allow to set with the marshmallow. It will run off the sides a little, but a thin layer should set on the surface.

Coat cut-out brown sugar au fleur de sel marshmallows with powdered sugar; additional fleur de sel may be added to the coating, but use sparingly as a small amount adds a lot of taste. Take care to coat the caramel side well, as the caramel tends to come off of the marshmallow surface easily, and the powdered sugar coating helps it to stick. The flavor is not strongly caramel, but a nice sweet/salty combination with buttery overtones.