I know, I know vampires are in style right now.  Twilight movies, Vampire Diaries television show, Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner – I haven’t been under a rock for the past couple of years.  Although, I have to admit that I am not smitten with the whole creatures of the night phenomenon that seems to be never ending.  But I am a big fan of Blood Oranges and their seductive blood red color and sweet flavor.

Earlier, I posted a Roasted Sweet Potato Salad with Blood Orange Salad Dressing.  You’ve got to love the deep red color the dressing adds to the dish.  Can’t get your kids to eat salads, make up this dressing and tell them its special Vampire Blood Orange dressing.  (Two can play the “I’m being difficult at dinner” game.)  But my favorite use of these little ruby gems, with a ridiculously short season, is making them into desserts.

Craig has recently become concerned with my obsession with puff pastry.  Every time he opens up the refrigerator he seems to find a box of the magical stuff. (What’s particularly funny about that is he can never seem to find his half and half, that’s always on the same shelf and he uses every day, and has to ask me where it is.)  But what can I say?  I really like the flaky buttery flavor of puff pastry and it works so well in both sweet and savory dishes.  He never seems to remember my obsession as he’s gobbling down whatever dish I put in front of him though.

I had recently seen some random cooking show, when I was in Australia, where they used puff pastry as the base for a tarte tartin made with tropical fruit.  This tarte tartin is a perfect mix of sweet blood oranges (and a hint of marmalade flavor from the rind) combined with a deep caramel and all nestled on to a piece of buttery puff pastry.  Add a bit of vanilla bean ice cream and you’ve got a dessert that you might find in a restaurant for $8 or more.

Relationship Advice

There’s obsession…and then there’s OBSESSION, like Glenn Close…rabbit in a pot obsession.  I’m not talking about that kind.  I’m talking about really loving someone and letting them know from time to time.  For the most part everyone has a cell phone now.  I am not suggesting that you start sexting or even texting one another.  This can get annoying, dangerous, illegal and embarrassing.  Why not put a little calendar item on their phone and schedule it so that it goes off when they are on their way to work or lunch time.  Something like “Thinking of you” or “Miss You.”  If you’re not up for the technology bit.  Write a note on a small piece of paper and tuck it into their pants pocket, wallet, purse or lunch.

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

• 1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter
• 1/2 Cup Firmly Packed Brown Sugar
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 3 Blood Oranges (sliced thin – use a mandoline or v-slicer)
• 1/2 Package Puff Pastry (1 sheet)
• Vanilla Bean Ice Cream (can also use whipped cream)

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Farenheit.

In a medium sized oven-proof skillet add butter, brown sugar and vanilla extract.  Heat over medium high heat.  Keep stirring while ingredients melt.  Contents will bubbly very strongly.  Keep stirring so that it doesn’t burn.  You will see it begin to turn brown and thicken.  You will also begin to smell it caramelize.

Once you begin to smell the caramel, turn the heat down to low and layer in the orange slices.  Arrange them in a circular motion starting from the outside of the pan working in to the center.

Let the oranges sit for 1 minute.

Unfold the pastry onto a lightly floured surface.  Roll the pastry into an 11″x17″ rectangle.  Cut the pastry in half (width-wise).

Lie the first piece of pastry over the caramel and oranges.  Lay the second piece of pastry perpendicular across the first piece of pastry.  Make sure that the entire surface is covered with puff pastry dough.

Slide the pan into the oven and cook for 20 minutes.  (Dough should be puffed and golden brown.)

Remove the pan from the oven and set aside until contents stop bubbling.

Put a large plate over the top of the pan.

While holding the plate, and the pan, flip the orange tarte tartin onto the plate.

Cut and serve with ice cream or whipped cream.

Technorati Tags: Blood Orange Recipes, Blood Oranges, Dessert, dessert recipes, Easy Cooking, easy dessert recipes, Easy Recipes, Orange Tarte Tartin, puff pastry, Tarte Tartin

If you remember the Green Tea Panna Cotta Notta that I made a while back, you may remember that I won a one pound bag of Matcha (Green Tea Powder). I still have LOTS of it left.  Not that I haven’t been using it, but a pound of that stuff is more than you can imagine.

So I thought that I might make some green tea cake…which evolved into cupcakes…which morphed into combining them with white chocolate mousse…so I then convinced myself that they were an early Valentine’s Day treat for Craig.  The mind of a foodie is a very strange and twisted place.

Since returning from China, we have both been drinking copious amounts of Jasmine tea, so I knew he would like these.  Truth be told Craig has yet to meet a cupcake he didn’t like (but I digress).  Unlike a lot of green tea baked goods I’ve tasted, these actually have the slightly grassy green tea flavor to them.  Un-frosted, these little green gems have a slightly crispy top from the sugar (so don’t feel obligated to frost them, but make the mousse anyway…read the Relationship Advice below).  But the white chocolate, in the mousse, compliments the flavors really well.

I don’t really have much of an explanation for the, ahem, “vivid” pink coloring of the mousse other than I thought pink would be cute with the green and it’s almost Valentine’s Day.  A word of caution would be to use the food coloring very sparingly.  I wasn’t thinking and poured the red coloring in.  I thought the container had a dropper on it.  I was wrong…oops…so helllllooooo pink.

Relationship Advice

This Valentine’s Day write your sweetie a love letter.  And no, you can’t just get yourself a greeting card from the store and write ‘I Love You’ on it and call it a love letter.  I mean sit down and write from your heart.  I realize that this isn’t easy and you probably won’t just jam it out in 5 minutes.  Get an early start on it and you can stop and start for a few days.  Be honest in your letter and dig deep inside yourself for the best stuff.  These are the kinds of things that are sometimes difficult to say face to face, without feeling strange, but when you put it in writing it seems to be a little bit easier.  Plus the recipient will understand and appreciate the depths of your feelings and the meaning of the letter.  Don’t write things that you’ve already said.  Like repeats on television, it tends to only get half absorbed or ignored completely.  You want to grab their attention and make them want to stop everything and only be with you.  And if you serve the letter with these cupcakes, be prepared to be licking white chocolate mousse from things other than the tops of the cupcakes.

Makes 18 Cupcakes/Frosts and Fills Cupcakes with Leftovers

Ingredients for Green Tea Cupcakes

• 3/4 Cup Butter (room temperature)
• 1 1/2 Cups Sugar
• 4 Eggs (room temperature)
• 3/4 Cup Cream
• 1 3/4 Cups All Purpose Flour
• 2 Tablespoons Green Tea Powder (Matcha)

Ingredients for White Chocolate Mousse

• 7-8 Ounces Good Quality White Chocolate (chopped into small pieces)
• 2 Egg Yolks
• 2 Tablespoons Sugar
• 1 1/4 Cups Heavy Cream (separated)
• Red Food Coloring

Directions for Green Tea Cupcakes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.

In a mixing bowl add butter and sugar.  Cream until butter is pale yellow and fluffy.  Add eggs and cream and mix to thoroughly combine.

Sift matcha (green tea powder) and flour into butter, cream and egg mixture.  Mix until dry and wet ingredients are combined.  Do not over mix the batter or the cupcakes will be tough.

Line cupcake pan with liners.  Fill liners 1/2 way with batter.  (I use an ice cream scoop for this because it’s less messy and I can control the amount of batter.)

Bake for 25-30 minutes.  Check doneness by inserting a toothpick into center of cupcake.  It should come out clean.

Remove from oven and let cool.

Directions for White Chocolate Mousse

In a small bowl add egg yolks and sugar.  Whisk until sugar is combined and mixture becomes pale yellow.

In a small saucepan, combine 1/4 cup of the cream and bring to a light simmer.  While continuously whisking, slowly pour the simmered cream into the egg and sugar mixture (if the eggs cook, you’ll need to start this part over again).  Pour this mixture back into the saucepan and stir over low heat until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. (It’s ready when you pull the spoon out and run your finger through the middle of the cream (on the spoon) and the line remains.)

Pour this mixture over the chopped white chocolate and stir until chocolate is completely melted and is smooth.

In the bowl of your mixer, add 1 cup of cream and enough red food coloring to get the color you prefer.  (Remember that the yellow from the eggs will change the color a bit.)  Whip the cream until almost stiff peaks form.  (The right consistency is when you pull up on the cream and you get a bit of a tip that then slightly bends over but holds it shape.)

Slowly fold 1/3 of the whipped cream into the chocolate mixture.  Once each batch of whipped cream is folded in, fold in the next batch until all of the cream is mixed in.  (Folding the cream means that you use a spatula to add it to the mixture and slowly stir from the bottom of the bowl to the top.  Turn the bowl as you do this.  Folding keeps the mixture light.)

To fill the cupcakes:

You can fill a pastry bag, that has a star tip attached and pipe the filling into the cakes by pushing the tip into the top of the cupcake and squeezing a bit of the mousse into it.

If you do not have a pastry bag you can cut a small piece out of the cupcake and fill it.

Frost cupcakes by dipping them into the mousse, piping the mousse onto the tops or using a spatula.

The remaining mousse can be put into serving glasses, refrigerated and served as mousse.

*Because of the ingredients, keep these refrigerated.

Technorati Tags: dessert recipes, Green Tea Cupcake, Matcha Green Tea, Matcha Green Tea Recipes, Valentine's Day Cupcakes, white chocolate

I’m back from my trip to China.  What an unbelievably gorgeous place!  My jet lag is slowly beginning to dissipate and I’m getting my cooking legs back.  I will definitely go more into the trip later this week when I talk about, and share a recipe for, my dim sum class I took in Shanghai.

But yesterday I put my ego aside, packed up a bag and headed out for the MasterChef casting call.

I only told a couple of people that I was even considering doing this because 1 – I wasn’t sure if my dessert recipe was going to turn out properly 2 – I wasn’t really sure that I wanted to live in a house, for 5 weeks, with the cast of Jersey Shore meets Gordon Ramsay 3 – I was not overly confident that I would even wake up in time to make the audition.  But I decided to take a cue from my friend Vicky “A bad experience is better than no experience at all.”

I made the salted chocolate caramel squares on Saturday….After going to 3 different stores trying to find the Droste dark chocolate that I wanted.  Earlier in the week everybody had the chocolate…but by Saturday (when I was desperate for it) no one had it.  Of course I thought that was a sign that I shouldn’t do this.  (That was after I had already made the recipe on Friday and had a semi-disasterous outcome and I thought then that I shouldn’t be doing this.)  So at my fourth stop, Trader Joe’s, I thought I would hit paydirt.  No. Such. Luck.  At least I found dark chocolate that was 54% cacao so I bought the big one pound Trader Joe’s brand of dark chocolate.  At that point I was happy I didn’t have to go to any more stores or concede defeat before even setting foot in front of a chef or casting director.

I was able to get the dish to come together and taste, in my humble opinion, FANTASTIC. Then I got to play with hot sugar.  They warn you not to play with matches, but no one warns you not to play with hot sugar – consider yourself warned.  By the time I made various shapes on my Silpat, I had fine strings of sugar trailing from my hair to elbow and attaching somewhere onto one of my burner grates.  Not to mention the lovely red burn marks on my wrists from where some water had hit the molten lava/hot sugar and proceeded to bubble and spit its scalding bits onto my person.  My next move was to take a picture of my fine creation (per the requirements – in case you didn’t get to plate your dish), find a recent picture of me (of which I have none except for the pictures we just took in China) and fill out the 12 page application.  I finally went to bed around 12:30 a.m. and got up at 5:30 a.m..

I packed up my bag with the extra caramel, carefully packaged pieces of the salted chocolate caramel squares and my sugar shapes.  I sort of had a bit of a checklist.  Which means I should have double checked that I included the paper towels…I didn’t.  And then off to Kinko’s to print off my pictures.  Nothing like waiting until the last minute.

I made it up to the audition location 2 hours before the starting time and got to chat with some other potential Jersey Shore MasterChef contestants.  Everyone was really nice and had some interesting stories about their dishes and how far they traveled to get there.  After getting inside I got shuffled off to a numbered position at a table with around 20 other people and had 5 minutes to plate my dish.  (No, you were not able to do any cooking or real prep work…everything had to be ready to go.)  Chef Neal Fraser (Grace, BLD) sampled my dish (and seemed to really like it) and asked me a few cooking questions to test my knowledge.  He asked a couple of other questions then told me to stay put.  I then talked to a casting director and another person, that also sampled my dish and said that he liked it.

I did not get chosen that day for an interview today, so I am presuming that my chances of appearing are about zero.  But, I have to say that I did have a nice time and am probably glad that I will not be berated on national television by Gordon Ramsay nor will I have to live my life in a fishbowl for all the world to watch me and find out about all of my neurosis.  Plus, I now have this great dessert to serve (and so do you…and just in time for Valentine’s day.)

Relationship Advice

If your significant other gets a hair brained idea that is not going to hurt anyone, is legal, and is not anything that involves you…support them and let them try.  They will thank regardless of the outcome just because you were positive and didn’t give them all of the reasons why what they wanted to do was ridiculous.

Serves 12

Ingredients

Salted Chocolate Cake

• 1 Pound (54% – 60%) Dark Chocolate (chopped)
• 1 Cup Unsalted Butter – 2 Cups (cut into pieces)
• 7 Large Eggs
• 1 Cup Light Brown Sugar (packed)
• 1/4 Cup Espresso (instant espresso powder works great)
• 1 Teaspoon Coarse Kosher Salt
• Coarse Sea Salt (for sprinkling)

Caramel

• 1 Tablespoon Water
• 1 1/2 Cups Granulated Sugar
• 1/2 Cup (1 stick) Unsalted Butter
• 1/2 Cup Cream

Directions

Place rack in center of the oven.  Place a half sheet pan (with sides) on rack and fill half way with water.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.

Line an 8″x8″ baking pan with parchment paper.  You will need to either cut or fold the paper so that it fits width wise.  Let the ends hang over the sides of the pan (you will use those later to lift the cake out of the pan for cutting and serving.)  Layer the pan with 2 pieces of the parchment paper so that they criss-cross and you have ends folded over all 4 sides of the 8″x8″ pan.  Sprinkle some of the coarse sea salt onto the parchment paper.  If using the coarse sea salt – sprinkle sparingly (a little goes a long way).  If using a less coarse sea salt, you can use a bit more.

Combine chopped chocolate and pieces of butter into a medium size glass or metal bowl.  Set bowl on top of saucepan that contains simmering water (do not let the bottom of the bowl touch the water).  Using a spatula, stir until the mixture is melted and smooth.  Remove the bowl from over the water.

In a large bowl whisk brown sugar, eggs, and espresso until thoroughly combined.  Add in chocolate and butter mixture and whisk until smooth.  Whisk in kosher salt.

Pour half of the batter into the parchment paper lined baking pan.  Place the baking pan into the water filled sheet pan that is in the oven.  Cook for 20 – 25 minutes.  The mixture will not be cooked, but it will be firmer than when you put it into the oven.

For Caramel

Add water and sugar to heavy saucepan and put it over medium high heat.  Leave the pan alone, but watch for the edges of the sugar to begin to brown and possibly some browning in the middle.  Using a high heat resistant spatula (silicon works well), fold the sugar from the edges into the middle and even out the layer of sugar.  Do this somewhat slowly while the sugar melts.  You will see it change from white, to gold, to amber and finally a deep amber/brown.  When the sugar just begins to smoke, remove it from the heat and add the stick of butter.  (It will bubble)  Stir the butter and sugar until the butter melts.  Add the cream.  (This will cause the mixture to bubble even more violently than the butter.)  Stir to combine the cream.  To firm the caramel sauce up, place the pot into ice cubes and stir gently from the bottom of the pan.  You don’t want the caramel to harden, just firm up into a thick sauce.  Remove from the ice when it has thickened.

Pour 1/2 cup of sauce into a container and set aside.  Gently pour the remaining caramel over the top of the semi-cooked chocolate cake.  The caramel will sit on top of the layer.  Smooth caramel over the cake.

Whisk the remaining batter to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed.  Pour this batter over the top of the caramel.

Return the pan to the water filled half sheet pan, tent with foil, and bake for 75 minutes.  Bake cake until cake is set in the center and the top is dry to the touch.  The top of this cake will remain shiny, even when done baking.

Remove from oven and sprinkle with more coarse sea salt.

To make the sugar decorations for the top of the cake, follow the caramel directions but omit the butter and cream.  Drizzle melted sugar onto a silicon mat (Silpat) or foil.  Let cool and peel off carefully when needed.

To plate the salted chocolate cake drizzle extra caramel on to the plate, add a small slice of cake (trust me…this stuff is really rich), drizzle with more caramel and top with sugar decoration.

A nice caramel tutorial by David Lebovitz

Technorati Tags: Caramel Sea Salt Brownies, Chocolate Dessert Recipes, Chocolate with Sea Salt, dessert recipes, Masterchef, Salted Chcolate Caramel, special occassion desserts, valentine's day cake recipes

Based on popular demand, I have created a new vegan panna cotta recipe.  I removed the cocoa and used green tea powder (matcha).  This time you will taste a rich combination of sweetened green tea, coconut and almond.  I served it on a melted mango sorbet that I had previously made, but you could also puree fresh fruit to put under it, over it, or just enjoy it on its own.

You do not need to use as much agave nectar in this one because the matcha is already sweetened.

And, this is an AWARD WINNING matcha recipe.

Ingredients

• 2 Cups Unsweetened Almond Milk
• 1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract*
• 4 Teaspoons Agar Agar Powder
• 3 Tablespoons Green Tea Powder (matcha)
• 1/4 Cup Coconut Oil
• 1/8 Cup Agave Nectar

Directions

In a saucepan add almond milk and agar agar, let it sit for 5 minutes to allow agar agar to soften.

In a medium bowl add green tea powder, coconut oil, and agave nectar – stir to combine ingredients thoroughly and set aside.

Bring almond milk, agar agar and vanilla to a simmer then reduce and cook for 8 minutes.  Add green tea mixture and stir to combine for 30 seconds.  Remove from heat.

Pour into 4 ramekins or small glasses.  (Use ramekins if you plan to turn out onto plates.  Use glasses if you intend to serve panna cotta’s in their own containers.)

Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

To release panna cotta from ramekins – run a knife around edges of panna cotta and place individual ramekin into warm water for approximately 30 seconds.  Put plate on top of ramekin and turn over to release panna cotta from ramekin.

Plate with melted fruit sorbet or pureed fresh fruit.

*You can also use a vanilla bean, instead of vanilla extract in this recipe.  Split the vanilla bean and scrape the seeds.  Place the pod and seeds in the almond milk and agar agar mixture just before you start to simmer the mixture.  Remove the pods before adding in the green tea mixture.

Technorati Tags: Easy Cooking, easy dessert recipes, Easy Recipes, gluten free recipe, gluten free recipes, Healthy Recipes, vegan recipes

A few days ago I promised to post up what I was doing with that fondant I made.  Well…here it is!  How cute are these little peanut butter candies.  Oh yeah, these are peanut butter balls disguised as snowmen.  A true Trojan Horse for the holidays.

I made these little guys last year, but they just had faces and buttons.  This year in my desire to obsessive compulsiveness do better , I decided to give them a bit more personality…and cuteness.  These are like those chocolate Easter bunnies that you can’t resist biting the ears off of.

If you are familiar with the peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate, also known as Buckeyes (for those of us from Ohio), these are those same peanut butter balls but are dipped in white chocolate and stacked up.  They are relatively easy to make, just a bit on the time consuming side.  Everyone is asking for their own candy snowman this year, especially now that they’ve got a bit more personality.

Relationship Advice

When you have totally had enough of your significant other, there are many options for the actions you can take.  While I could list several, why not get yourself something that tastes really good that has a head and body (like the candy snowman above) and just bite or rip the head off?  Of course depending on how you really feel at the moment, you could eat all of the carnage…or you could leave a stronger message by leaving the headless body of your candy victim on the counter out in plain site.  Just a thought.

Makes at least 30 snowmen

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 Cups Smooth Peanut Butter (do not use all natural peanut butter with the oil on top)
• 1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter (at room temperature)
• 1 Pound Powdered Sugar
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla
• White Chocolate Chips (melted)*
• Semi-Sweet or Bittersweet Chocolate (melted)
• Colored Fondant (recipe link above)

Directions

In mixer, blend peanut butter, butter, sugar and vanilla until thoroughly combined.

Shape mixture into 3 graduated balls.  I use a tablespoon to measure out the peanut butter mixture for the largest ball at the base.  All of the peanut butter balls should be placed onto a foil or parchment paper lined baking sheet(s).

After all the balls are rolled out, gently use your thumb to make a slight flat spot on the base and middle section balls.  The tiny balls, used for the heads should remain perfectly round.

Let peanut butter balls sit out overnight in a cool dry area.

Melt white chocolate in microwave in 30 second increments.  Stir chocolate every 30 seconds until melted.

Insert a toothpick 3/4 of the way through the large peanut butter ball and dredge in melted white chocolate.  Do not completely cover the ball in chocolate.  Only the exposed sides should be covered. (This also makes stacking easier.)  Remove toothpick and dip a middle ball into the chocolate.  Again, do not completely cover the ball in chocolate and stack on top of base ball.  Remove the toothpick and dip a small “head” ball into the chocolate.  On this one, you do not have to cover it completely with chocolate (it’s easier to remove the toothpick if you don’t cover it completely).  Place the head on top of the other 2 balls and remove the toothpick.  Dip another toothpick into the chocolate and swirl on top of the snowman’s head to cover the exposed hole and peanut butter.  You may find that you have some bare spots.  Use the toothpick to coax any extra chocolate into those areas or dip toothpick into more chocolate to cover.

Continue doing this until all the snowmen are complete.

Let sit at least 4 hours for the chocolate to set up.  Best if you can let it sit overnight to completely harden.

Melt the semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate in the microwave in 30 second increments.  Stir chocolate every 30 seconds until melted.

Insert toothpick into chocolate and make eyes, mouth and buttons.

The nose can be made with the same chocolate.  I melted more white chocolate and dipped decors into it and attached the noses that way.

Once all the chocolate decorations have dried, you can dress up your snowmen/snow people with the fondant.    The fondant will stick to the snowmen on its own.  This is the fun part!

* I use white chocolate chips, from Trader Joe’s, because I prefer the flavor of white chocolate over those candy melts.  But, if you want your snowmen to be a bright white, that’s what you’ll need to get.  If you use those, use the melting directions that come with them.

Technorati Tags: bittersweet chocolate, dessert recipes, Easy Cooking, easy dessert recipes, peanut butter candies, white chocolate

The Christmas candy making continues.  I’ve made six or seven candies for this year’s Christmas gifts.  As I posted previously, I got all ambitious last year and made a bunch of candy for Craig to take to work.  So I was drafted, again this year, to do the same.  Of course, I can’t make it all easy on myself and make the same things. Nooooooooo I have to make new stuff (except for the Snowmen).

Along with making chocolate fudge for the first time ever, I decided to make caramels.  I have to say, for all the hubbub people make about homemade marshmallows, they don’t even come close to the exquisiteness that is homemade caramels. (And yes, I also made marshmallows this year – so I do have a good solid comparison.)

These caramels aren’t your store bought caramels – to which I am never going back.  At first touch, these caramels appear to be like hard candies (and require a good knife and some strength to cut).  But once you put it into your mouth, they begin to soften and give up their buttery goodness.  Not being one to resist the urge to chew, they then give way to behaving like a caramel should…nice and chewy. (Please see edit below.)

I made half of the batch plain and the other half received a nice sprinkle of sea salt.  The crunchy crystals of salt really sets off of the buttery creamy sweetness of the caramel.  And because the sea salt crystals are large, they tend to stay around longer to play off the sweet flavors of the caramel.

While I am including both the plain caramels and the sea salt caramels into the gift boxes, you can be sure I’m squirreling away a few for myself.

Relationship Advice

Just like the sea salt caramels…sometimes the best relationships are made up of opposites.  I can vouch, from personal experience, that this can be a brilliant partnership.  It takes some work (just because he cares that everything is in its proper place at all times doesn’t mean that you do), but it’s never boring.  Like the salt highlights and enhances the sweetness in the caramels, couples that are opposite one another bring out the highlights in one another.  His ability to carry out complicated mathematical problems in his head isn’t overshadowed by her ability to put together fashionable ensembles that allow him to look like and adult and not a 3rd grader…they enhance his skill allowing for his mathematical prowess to be recognized as a positive and not that he’s Rain Man.

Makes approximately 100 pieces

Ingredients

• 2 Cups Whipping Cream
• 1/2 Cup Evaporated Milk
• 2 Cups Light Corn Syrup
• 1/2 Cup Water
• 2 Cups Granulated Sugar
• 1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter
• Coarse Sea Salt

Directions

Line a 12×17 pan with foil.  Make sure that the foil is fitted well into the corners and sides.  Liberally butter the foil, covering the bottom corners and sides.

In a small saucepan, over  low heat, combine whipping cream and evaporated milk.  Whisk to thoroughly combine cream and milk.  Mixture should become hot, but DO NOT BOIL.  Occasionally whisk mixture as long as it is on the heat.

In a heavy 4 quart saucepan (over medium heat) combine corn syrup, water and sugar.  Stir mixture with a wooden spoon until sugar is completely dissolved.  Increase heat and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium low, cover and boil for 3 minutes.

Remove the cover and attach candy thermometer to the saucepan.  Turn heat up to medium.  Continue to gently boil sugar-syrup mixture until it reaches 250 degrees Farenheit.  Do not stir the mixture while you are bringing it up to temperature.  Add the butter and hot cream and milk mixture-slowly.  Combining these will cause some serious bubbling (don’t panic-it’s fine).  The temperature will also drop.  Bring the temperature back up to 244 degrees Farenheit.  After adding the butter and milk mixture you will need to occasionally stir the mixture. Edit: if you continuously stir the mixture, until it gets to 244 degrees, your caramels will be the soft and chewy kind.  Excellent for dipping into chocolate.)

Remove from heat and carefully pour the hot mixture into prepared pan.  Do not scrape saucepan.  Gently rap pan to remove any air bubbles.

Let pan sit for 10 minutes.  Sprinkle caramel mixture with sea salt.  Let pan sit undisturbed for 24 hours.

To cut, remove caramels from pan by lifting the foil.  Place onto a cutting board.  Use a large heavy knife to cut into desired piece size.

Wrap each piece in waxed paper.

Caramels will keep up to one month in a tightly sealed container.

*Once caramels have been cut into pieces, you can drizzle or dunk into chocolate.  If you decide to completely cover the caramels with chocolate, do not put the sea salt directly onto the caramels…sprinkle it on top of the chocolate.

Technorati Tags: Candy Recipes, Christmas Candy Recipes, Easy Recipes, Homemade Candy, sea salt caramels

Yep, I know…this is not my usual yummy looking piece of food in the picture above.  But trust me, it is a delicious part of treats to come.

This white phallic looking blob is actually fondant.  While you may not know what fondant it is, you’ve seen it.  If you have seen any of those big fancy cakes, like the one’s on Ace of Cakes, that have a super smooth frosting.  That smooth covering isn’t really a frosting like you would normally think of, it’s a sheet of sugar and other things that is rolled out and then rolled over the cake.  And if you’ve ever tried to eat it, it usually doesn’t taste very good.  Most people peel it off and throw it on the side of their plate to get to the good stuff underneath it.

I have begrudgingly lovingly been asked to repeat my Christmas candy gifts again this year.  Last year, on a whim, I decided to make a bunch of Christmas candy to give to our neighbors, some friends, and Craig’s co-workers.  I made trays of truffles, peppermint bark, caramel and chocolate covered pretzels, buckeyes, and peanut butter snowmen.  My house looked and smelled like Willy Wonka’s factory.

This year I’ve cut back on the number of types of candies, but the one that remains (due to overwhelming demand) are the peanut butter snowmen.  Hence, the fondant.  I thought that last year’s model was cute, but was lacking something.  So I decided to make scarves and hats for the little guys. (I’ll post them up as soon as they’re finished.)

I could buy the fondant for $8 a pound or I could make it.  So I searched high and low looking for a recipe that was easy (that’s not a word that is usually associated with fondant) and not only edible but delicious.  Since I didn’t want people to have to stop and disrobe their snowman before shoveling him into their watering mouths.  I found a recipe by Peggy Weaver and tweaked it just a bit.

Relationship Advice

Think twice before doing something new.  This may become something you are expected to do again and again.  This advice can be applied to many different scenarios and I’ll let you decide where it fits best for you.

Ingredients

• 16 Ounces Mini Marshmallows
• 2-5 Tablespoons of Water
• 2 Pounds Powdered Sugar
• Vegetable Shortening (Crisco or a non-hydrogenated Vegetable Shortening – but it must be solid)
• 1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla

Directions

Put marshmallows and 2 tablespoons of water into a glass bowl and microwave on high for 30 seconds.  Remove bowl from microwave and stir.  Repeat this until all of the marshmallows are melted.  Only put it in for 30 seconds at a time.  Be careful – this mixture can get extremely hot during the melting process.

Once everything is melted, add 3/4 of the powdered sugar to the bowl and gently stir to lightly combine.

Using the shortening, liberally grease your hands (between your fingers, the palms and the backs of your hands – trust me on this).  Also, liberally grease your counter and pour the contents of the bowl out onto your greased work surface.

Start kneading the mixture like bread dough.  Add the remaining sugar.  Keep kneading until you get a firm smooth ball that is elastic and does not tear.  If you find that the fondant is tearing while you are kneading it, it is too dry, add 1/2 tablespoon of water and keep kneading.  If the mixture is sticking, re-apply the shortening to your hands.

You can use the fondant immediately, if you find that there are no spots of sugar in the mixture.  If there are clumps of sugar still apparent, keep kneading until they are no longer visible.  Then you can add your color (re-knead after adding color), roll it out and use it.

This will keep in your refrigerator for a week or two.  To store the fondant, cover it with shortening and then double wrap it in plastic wrap.  Place wrapped fondant into a re-sealable plastic bag with the air squeezed out of it.

Technorati Tags: Christmas Candy Recipe, Easy Cooking, Easy Recipes, Fondant Recipe