Pro-Tip: Boxed Brownie

Okay, I know I already posted today, but I just had to share.

Today, I made brownies. Not for any special reason, except that the boxed mix in my cupboard was just past expiration so I thought I ought to use it.

I also had a half-used package of toffee bit left over from last holiday's Bake-All-The-Things adventures. I prepared the mix per the box, and folded in the remaining package (about a scant cup) just before pouring the whole thing into the prepared greased pan.

The end result is delicious. Rich, yet still simple without the mess of cream cheese or spooning peanut butter into the batter. Added benefit of using up odds from the pantry. Downside: now I have to eat a pan of brownies. Luckily the Hubster likes them, so he can bring them to work. I can't wait to be back in an office where I can pawn these things off on my coworkers...

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

Tuesday--Decadent Philistines Save the World-Salted Caramel Pork Loin with Shaved Brussel Sprout and Apple Salad / Bakeaholic Mama-Chewy Rolo Brownies

Wednesday--Inside NanaBread's Head-Chocolate Alfajores with Salted Vanilla Bean Caramels / Comfortably Domestic-Alfajores Caramel Sandwich Cookies / The Girly Girl Cooks-Caramel Ice Cream Crunch Bars / Climbing Grier Mountain-Dulce de Leche Milkshakes with Caramel Drizzle

Thursday--Tenaciously Yours-Popcorn Crunch Sundae  / Kvetchin' Kitchen - Red Wine Caramel Sauce

Friday--Country Cleaver-Pear Caramel Mini Cheesecakes / Munching in the Mitten-Caramel Cake

Saturday--Comfortably Domestic-DIY Dulce de Leche Coffee Creamer

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.

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

Tuesday--Decadent Philistines Save the World-Salted Caramel Pork Loin with Shaved Brussel Sprout and Apple Salad / Bakeaholic Mama-Chewy Rolo Brownies

Wednesday--Inside NanaBread's Head-Chocolate Alfajores with Salted Vanilla Bean Caramels / Comfortably Domestic-Alfajores Caramel Sandwich Cookies / The Girly Girl Cooks-Caramel Ice Cream Crunch Bars / Climbing Grier Mountain-Dulce de Leche Milkshakes with Caramel Drizzle

Thursday--Tenaciously Yours-Popcorn Crunch Sundae  / Kvetchin' Kitchen - Red Wine Caramel Sauce

Friday--Country Cleaver-Pear Caramel Mini Cheesecakes / Munching in the Mitten-Caramel Cake

Saturday--Comfortably Domestic-DIY Dulce de Leche Coffee Creamer

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!

April OKMH

It's that time again!

It was a very happy month! Mostly because Allison really embraced my nerdom and spent so much lovely time on mine! I don't have much to say on it because there was so very much squeeling and screaming during the opening process. Megan helped with many of the photos, so there's a lot of my face squeeling, as well.

For starters there was a hilarious cat card. Who doesn't love static cats?

Then I had a little jamming karaoke time with a highly realistic microphone that was HAND CRAFTED just for me by a certain lovely 4 year old.

And then, squeeling of all squeels... where... here's the video.

 

I was excited. For those who can't understand the video... she made me a scarf. Which is an EXACT. REPLICA. Of the 4th Doctor Who's scarf!!! And if you don't watch The Doctor, we can't even be friends anymore. Okay, fine, we can be friends, but I'm going to talk about it a lot and try to get you to watch it ALL. THE. TIME. So buckle up.

I also got some of these (also hand crafted just for ME) - TARDIS coasters. The drink is bigger on the inside.

And to keep in theme with our shared interest in #catsarejerk (Because... obviously.) So Allison also sent an adorable, hand-made Jewish kitty that I can vent to about my jerky cats (who have most recently eaten a foam roller for my running stretches...).

Finally, this woman knows her audience. She handmade a whole mess of class mustached disguises to warm my upper lip on my chilly runs. Believe me, my clever disguises might confuse you, but that's actually me in every snap below!! (gasp)

And not pictured because I eated it all... a homemade assortment of lemon and raspberry marshmallow and some prickly pear jammy jam (GET IN MAI BELLY).

Thank you SO MUCH to my friend Allison for sending me so many incredible treats. 

Check out my "box" to Megan here.
Check out Mads' reveal from Megan here.
Check out Jeanne's reveal from Mads here.
Check out Kat's reveal from Jeanne here.
Check out Kirsten's reveal from Kat here.
And check out Allison's reveal from Kirsten here!

All The Feels!

As you may have seen from my previous post, I was in Israel last month. Not for the whole month, but for 10 days in the middle. Writing about my time has been a battle, and I've refused to write about anything else in the meantime, which is a silly rule and I should just move on. But also delayed in part because I couldn't decide how much you all (some friends and some interweb followers) really wanted to know about my travels.

I saw and felt and tasted many things. However, as I finally down to describe my journey, I am still so outrageously hurt by the events of this week that I decided to break my original lengthy post into two shorter ones. I ate many things. I will talk about those later. For now... The Feels.

Jerusalem

I've been in Israel for 1 week. I am tired, as its approaching midnight. I am sore. I am full - in my belly, in my head, in my heart, and in my spirit. I am so full, I can't even process individual events.

Our tour guides are insisting that we post photos almost constantly throughout the trip (and provide regular access to wifi). This is hard for me. I want to be present. But I want to share as I go so significant moments don't lose meaning later.

I have been journaling (with a pen) throughout the journey. I hope this will help me collect my thoughts when it comes time to actually share this journey with others.

For now, please to enjoy a panoramic from the City of David in Jerusalem, looking over an ancient cemetery and Olive Mountain (Mountain of Olives? Sorry, it's late). And, an updated count of my waiting messages from some amazing friends. The temptation is great, but I will save those for the plane.

P.S. I taught the whole group #sorrynotsorry and it may be our motto. Or a close second to SABABA!!!

Aged Booze for an Ageless Friend

If you know me, you know that one of my very favorite things in the whole world is cahoots. Specifically birthday cahoots, though to be fair, I'll take any form of cahoots in a pinch. 

And today we're throwing a virtual birthday party for the one and only Jeanne from Inside NanaBread's Head and we've been cahooting about this for a few weeks now. And not just about today's virtual party... Stay tuned for more details on Saturday. But here for the party...

Of course I added a mustache.

Jeanne has been an incredible influence on my blogging. Her huge Texas heart, sense of humor, delicious food, and wonderful care boxes have inspired me to blog better and to care more. All online (through the Twitterverse, email, and blogging), we have come to know little bits about each other by sharing whiney days, terrible puns, virtual drinks, and even the frequent good day. And even though she turns the big 5-0 today, she'll always be young at heart!

Manhattan Makin'

Let's be honest - what's a blowout half-century birthday party without some drinks? In honor of a classy lady, I aged a classic cocktail. With age comes wisdom, refinement, and class. All of which describes Jeanne, and I hope that this drink represents her just a little bit. It's in a small batch: wisdom not to over-do it. During the aging, the flavors marry together increase complexity; just like a lady. Aging can sometimes be fickle. Just like a lady (though not necessarily Jeanne...). And each batch comes out just a little different - making each cocktail a unique flower. The small batch, smokey flavor of this cocktail will impress your guests (or just you). I'm hooked on aging cocktails. They speak to me. As a lady.

I first read about this method in Food & Wine magazine this fall, and I've been just itching to try it! I did have to buy some supplies, but luckily the Tuthilltown Distillery sells small batch aging kits so I didn't need to splurge on a large cask. The bottle shown about holds about 1.5 cups (3-4 generous drinks) and comes with one aging honeycomb to submerge. For less than the cost of a cocktail shaker, you can barrel-age at home! After doing some research, it turns out that aged cocktails are all the hipster-rage right now. Bartenders are aging everything. And it's so easy! Aged cocktails are the crockpots of the bar. Just set it, and forget it! For my first run, I tried something simple and classic - an aged manhattan. 

This was just the first in a long line of aged experiments - I'll be sure to share more as I test them. Once you've had your fill of old drinks here, keep the party going checking out these other old broads: Kirsten's Orange Cream Pie, Allison's Coca Cola Cake, Megan's Nutella Turnovers, Madelyn's Cheesey Chorizo Dip, Anne's Mexican Vanilla Ice Cream Cones, Monica's Tropical Ice Cream, Katie's Chocolate Cake with Cooked Flour Frosting, Lauren's Mini Key Lime Pies with an Animal Cracker Crust, Madeline's Fig, Fontina and Pecan Flatbread, Kat's Guacamole, and Carrie's Coconut Banana Brownie Pie.

A target I can hit.

A couple of tips in case you do try this:

• Fresh fruit or rind will probably go rancid before the cocktail finishes aging. These additions are best saved until serving.
• Vodka is not a great choice. Because it takes on so much flavor of the ingredients around it, it ages much quicker than other brown liquors. I'd recommend staying with darker liquors until you get a hang of it.
• Test the cocktail. Darn. I mean, what a terrible rule, right? But like any dish, there is an aging-sweet-spot. The label said to age for about 2 weeks. I tried mine at Days 7, 9, and 11 - and found that it was perfect to my taste at Day 11. My second batch of the same cocktail went for 16 days to get the same effect. You only need a few drops to taste - don't want to taste the whole batch away before it's ready! 
• The recipe below is technically for a Perfect Manhattan - for a traditional manhattan (which I found too sweet), use 1/2 cup sweet vermouth

Macro phone lens on the lip of the cocktail kit.

Recipe! Aged Manhattan
Adapted from the recipe suggestion from Tuthilltown Spirits that came with the cocktail kit.

1 cup Whiskey (I chose Irish Whiskey)
1/4 cup Sweet Vermouth
1/4 cup Dry Vermouth
dash of bitters
For serving (optional): Maraschino Cherry

In a large measuring cup (or bowl with a spout) combine the whiskey and vermouth. Add a dash of bitters (just a few drops). Gently mix together with a spoon. Pour into your aging vehicle and add the aging insert. Cork. Place on the counter and forget for 10-20 days (depending on preference)

To serve: Pour 3 or 4 ounces of the cocktail into a highball glass. Garnish with cherry. Enjoy slowly. Stay classy, Internet.

Macro phone lens on the cocktail kit cork.

More fun with macro phone lens on the aging insert.