Showing posts with label Caramel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Caramel. Show all posts

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Caramel Week: Red Wine Caramel Sauce

Welcome back for my second recipe as part of Caramel Week!


Truth: caramel making always made me super nervous. The molten sugar? The burning? The crystalizing? Cleaning?!? No thanks. Obviously I was missing out on some crazy mouth parties.

I've seen a great many fruit-flavored caramels, and several booze caramels, but it wasn't until I had a half a bottle of red lying around (trust me - a rarity) that I wondered if I could combine that with caramel. Yes - it took booze to help me take the risk of making a caramel sauce. And I don't mind telling you that I failed THREE TIMES before I finished. But when I did...

 
So worth it. First I tried cooking a simple caramel before adding wine and butter... but without the fat to bind to the sugars, I got lumps of sugar in my wine. The second time, I tried a recipe without water in the sugar, it didn't melt - I just got a giant disc of hard sugar. The third time burned (from amber to burned in the blink of an eye). 


But the third time, I finally had it figured out. First the wine was reduced by half while being infused with a little bit of vanilla bean. Then, and a basic caramel was started (sugar with a little water). Then, the wine was added to the cooked caramel - the reduction helped create a homogynized mixture. A little cream, butter, and grey sea salt finished off the sauce. The dark wine (I happened to have malbec on hand) created a very deep flavor despite not creating a very deep caramel color. The final texture is somewhere between "pourable" and "spreadable". It would be great in pie, dipped with fruit, licked off fingers... really anything.

Be sure to check out the other caramel week contributors, as well!

  • Monday--Comfortably Domestic-Crockpot Dulce de Leche / La Petite Pancake-Caramel Banana Bread Pudding
  • Friday--Country Cleaver-Pear Caramel Mini Cheesecakes / Munching in the Mitten-Caramel Cake


    • Red Wine Caramel Sauce
    Adapted from Epicurious.com

    1/2 Vanilla Bean, halfed lengthwise and scraped
    1 cup red wine (I used malbec, but about anything would do)
    1 1/3 cup granulated sugar
    1/4 cup water
    2 Tbls butter
    2 Tbls heavy cream
    Pinch grey sea salt
    1.  Add the vanilla bean pod and scrapings into a small saucepan. Add the wine. Simmer over Medium-Low heat until reduced by about half (mine took ~10 minutes).
    2. Meanwhile, add the sugar and water to a separate pan. Stir to dissolve. Over Medium-High heat, melt the sugar until it forms a pale amber color - it will continue to deepen as you remove it from the heat.
    3. Remove the pods from the wine reduction discard. Add the wine to the caramel by pouring it down the side of the pan. Stir thoroughly to combine. Add the butter until melted and combined. Finish with the cream. Add a heavy pinch of grey sea salt (to taste, of course).
    4. Pour into a mason jar to cool. Will stay about 1 week in the refrigerator.
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    Monday, April 29, 2013

    Caramel Week: Caramel Apple Pie

    Iiittt'ssss..... CARAMEL WEEK!!


    I have to admit that while caramels have been my favorite addition to chocolate for as long as I can remember (Rolos and Milky Ways were GOLD at Halloween). Recently, the hubster and I took a mini-vacation to a nearby mountain town, Leavenworth, WA. The town is just adorable - it's a Bavarian style village that always has string lights up and a decorated tree, year-round. While it's not for everyone, it's one of our favorite little get-away spots - close to some other friends, and just far enough away to give us a break. Do you have any spots like that??

    On this recent trip, we found a chocolate shop we'd never found before: Schocolat. We tried some incredibly delicious, hand-made treats. In addition to the lovely chocolates (my favorite was an earl grey truffle - WHAT??), they also make a chocolate sauce and a caramel sauce. But the caramel sauce was not your ho-hum-run-of-the-mill jarred caramel sauce. Oh no. It is a scratch-made pear cinnamon caramel sauce. You can even buy if for yourself here (scroll down near the bottom).

    The sauce was incredibly complex and, at first, I was at a loss with what to do with it. There are obvious things like drizzling on ice cream (which I don't eat), in hot cocoa, on the tops of cakes... But for the first treat that popped into my head was a caramel dutch apple pie. While I'm not great at crusts, I didn't want to risk a top AND bottom going wonky, so I chose a crumble topping, instead. This dough did not come together recipe - so if you have dough that works well for you, I suggest you go with what you know.

    I demand pie, as well. K, thanks.
    I really enjoy the extra salt in the crumble topping to offset the added sweetness the caramel adds. Any caramel sauce would be excellent in this pie, as well - jarred or scratch-made. The pie itself I adapted from a caramel apple pie recipe from Tyler Florence. The serving size for a heaping 9" pie is 4-6 servings. I laughed and laughed when I read that. Eight servings would be the minimum, based on how I normally eat pie. I ate one slice, gave two to Megan, then told the hubster he could eat at will. Within 18 hours (lunch the next day), there was one teensy sliver left. He managed to consume over half the pie as breakfast and lunch, meaning the suggestion of 6 serving sizes was eerily accurate.


    I wouldn't recommend that two people consume an entire pie within 24 hours... but it happened. Good news: hubster actually liked a recipe. Bad news: he consumed the equivalent to a stick of butter on his own. He doesn't see a problem with this, though (maybe also a problem?). Looks like I'm going to have to better moderate his dessert portions...


    In addition to this beautiful pie, a bunch of my closest blogging buddies are also participating and creating some delicious creamy caramel alternatives:
  • Monday--Comfortably Domestic-Crockpot Dulce de Leche / La Petite Pancake-Caramel Banana Bread Pudding
  • Friday--Country Cleaver-Pear Caramel Mini Cheesecakes / Munching in the Mitten-Caramel Cake

    • Caramel Apply Pie

    Adapted from Tyler Florence and 365 Days of Baking & More
    1/2 recipe of your favorite pie crust (or the one from Tyler Florence) - let it rest in the fridge while continuing

    Prepare about 1/2 cup of caramel sauce (either store bought as I did or homemade). Set aside.

    3/4 cup light brown sugar
    1/2 cup flour
    1 teaspoon cinnamon
    3 Tablespoons melted butter

    1 lemon, halved
    8 Granny Smith Apples (or a combination of your favorites)
    1 Tablespoon flour
    2 teaspoons cinnamon
    1/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

    1. In  a medium bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, four, and cinnamon. Drizzle the melted butter over the mixture and use a fork or your fingers to cut together until well incorporated. Set aside.
    2. Preheat the oven to 350* F. 
    3. Fill a large bowl with cool water and squeeze the lemon into the water. Peel and core each apple and slice thinly by hand or with a mandolin. Add the slices to the water (the lemon prevents browning so you don't have to rush!)
    4. On a well-floured surface, roll out your dough and press into a 9" pie pan.
    5. Drain the apples and sprinkle with flour and cinnamon. Toss to make sure they're all coated.
    6. Place one layer of apples in the dough. Dollop caramel all over the apples, then put another layer of apples over the caramel. Repeat until you run out of apples and and caramel. Dot the top of the pie with the remaining 1/4 cup butter.
    7. Press the crumble over the top of the pie.
    8. Place the pie on a baking sheet and pop into the oven for 45-50 minutes, or until top is deep golden brown.
    9. Let the pie cool, then serve. It may be hard to resist - but cooling will REALLY help with cutting!
    10. Enjoy!

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