Real Caramel Sauce

This started as a dally into cake making but ended with unfortunate results (in regards to the cake at least). However, I DID create a fantastic recipe for real homemade caramel sauce.

Real Caramel Sauce

2 cups of sugar
1/2 cup of water

1 cup of water

Combine in sauce pan with high sides (the higher the better) sugar and water. Make sure you're wearing long sleeves and have a bowl of ice water available (in case things go badly). Turn the heat up all the way and stir occasionally. The second cup of water is for "stopping" and should be close to the the stove. The mixture will go through a variety of stages as it boils and reduces away. Watch in wonder, stir occasionally and wait until the mixture has thickened up, about ten minutes. It will start to turn from a light brown blush to a deep caramely brown. Turn the heat off, wait a few seconds and add half of the "stopping" water, when you have reached the shade of caramel that makes your heart sing AND stand back. There will be hissing and bubbles and lots of opportunity to get burned. Wait a few seconds and than whisk,whisk, whisk the mixture. Voila - caramel syrup.

Pour off and reserve for another occasion about 1/2 the caramel syrup. Return to low heat and add,
2 tablespoons of butter

Whisk and add,
1/3 cup of heavy whipping cream

Whisk, whisk, whisk and add,
1 tablespoon of corn starch.

Continue to whisk over low-to-medium heat until the sauce reaches a thickened, delicious consistency. Do not fret if its a little thin, it will thicken a lot as it cools. Allow to cool a bit before drizzling onto or into whatever you like caramel sauce on. The sauce can be re-warmed in the microwave for a few seconds if it get too thick.

Peach Ice Cream

4 fresh peaches (2 very ripe, 2 ripe but firm)
1/4 sugar

Lemon juice

Turn on your broiler and position rack approximately 4 inches from the top. Cut the peaches in half, remove the pit and sprinkle the cut side with sugar. Place on a baking sheet and broil until brown spots start to appear on surface, approximately 5 minutes. If the skins easily slip off the peaches, remove them. If they do not, don't worry about. Cut the peaches into bite-sized pieces and place in a bowl. If your some of your peaches are mushy enough, macerate with a fork or hand. If they are not, don't worry about it. Sprinkle with lemon juice (to prevent discoloring). Set to the side and allow to cool.

1 1/2 cups milk (1 or 2%)
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a large sauce pan, over low-medium heat, warm the milk, and cream until steam starts to rise. Do not allow to boil.

2 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
1 - 3 tablespoons of water
Combine yolks and sugar in a small bowl. Mix to combine. Add enough water to make if just barely pourable. Add several tablespoons of the warm milk-cream to the eggs, stirring constantly to temper. Pour slowly into the saucepan, stirring constantly to avoid cooking the egg. You can slowly raise the temperature but be very careful to avoid boiling the mixture. Stir constantly until mixture thickens (think think pudding). If you think you have cooked the egg, you can strain to remove bits. Transfer to a bowl, stir in vanilla and refrigerate until completely cool.

Once cool, add peaches and freeze according to your ice cream maker's directions.
Towards the end (about 20 minutes), watch your bowl to avoid over-flowing and making a mess. The addition of the peaches was at the the limit of what my ice cream maker could accommodate (but worth it).

Time: More than an hour (I forced the custard to cool in the freezer), less than two
Yield: Generous quart

AB's Unbirthday Cake

So.... a certain someone left for Italy today....for a MONTH. His birthday is next week while he's away so I made this unbirthday cake for him early and we ate it during a fierce game of twelve-letter Scrabble last night.

I combined two recipes into:

Chocolate Mint Ice Cream Sandwiches
from Fresh Mint Ice Cream via Orangette
This ice cream is the best mint ice cream you have ever had. Very minty without being artificial in any way. I described it as "floral", Andy said "it's just goood".

1 cup 2 % milk
¾ cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
Pinch of salt
2 cups lightly packed fresh mint leaves
4 large egg yolks

Warm the milk, sugar, 1 cup of the cream, and salt in a small saucepan. Over low heat, warm until small wisps of steam are visible but not bubbles in the liquid. You do not want the liquid to come anywhere near a boil. So, go slow. Once steam is seen, turn off the heat and add the mint leaves. Stir until they’re immersed in the liquid. Cover and let steep at room temperature for about 1 hour.

Strain the mint-infused mixture through a mesh strainer into a medium saucepan. Press on the mint leaves to extract as much of the flavor as possible, then discard the mint leaves. Pour the remaining 1 cup heavy cream into a large bowl, and set the strainer on top.

Rewarm the mint-infused mixture. Again go slow with the heat. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly add the warm mint liquid into the egg yolks about 1/4 cup at a time, whisking constantly; then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

Stir the mixture constantly over low-medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. You do not want to scramble the egg mixture so its essential to go low on the heat and constantly stir. It’s done when your finger leaves a definite trail that doesn’t flow back together. Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the remaining cream. Stir until cool over an ice bath.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. In the last 2 minutes in the ice cream maker I added a 1/2 cup of chopped semi-sweet chocolate chips.

AND

Chocolate Sandwich Cookies
from Chocolate Sandwich Cookies with Vanilla Cream filling via Nosheteria

1 1/4 cups all-purpose white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) room- temperature, unsalted butter
1 large egg

Set rack in the middle of oven and pre-heat to 375 F.

In a bowl of an electric mixer, thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. On low speed, add the butter, and then the egg. Continue mixing until dough comes together in a mass. (I was skeptical that the dough would come together but it did perfectly without any finessing)

Roll small round teaspoons of dough between your palms and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately 2 inches apart. With palm, slightly flatten the dough. (The cookies will spread a lot. Even for ice cream sandwiches make the initial balls slightly smaller than a ping-pong ball.) Bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Due to the dark nature of chocolate cookies be careful not to burn the edges. Check quite frequently if you add any minutes to the baking. Set baking sheets on a rack to cool. Wait a few minutes to let cookies set before removing from sheet.

ASSEMBLY
Once the two component have been made and respectively frozen and cooled. Remove the ice-cream from the freezer and allow to soften for about ten minutes on the counter, assemble into sandwiches and re-freeze.


Pictures... you ask?? We ate them too quick!

Strawberry Ice Cream

I have lived in a house with an ice-cream maker for almost three years and haven't made homemade ice-cream till now. To be honest, I thought it was difficult to make ice-cream, it is NOT. However, it IS delicious.

Simple Strawberry Ice-cream

about 1 lb of fresh strawberries, hulled and cut into large chunks
8 oz of cream cheese
3/4 cup of sugar
1 cup of milk
1 Tablespoon of lemon juice
dash of salt

1/2 cup of cream

Into a large, somewhat powerful blender hull and quarter the strawberries. Add cream cheese, sugar, milk, lemon juice, and salt. Blend until thoroughly combined, check the strawberry chunks, stop when pleased. Stir in the cream.

Transfer liquid to ice cream maker and follow manufacturer's directions.
Basically, after freezing the metal bowl at least over-night, add the liquid, insert the paddle and turn it on. I found this on-line resource for real manufacturer's directions. About twenty-five minutes later, voila, soft-serve ice-cream. Can be placed in the freezer till desired hardness. Careful, it gets really hard!

From Epicurious

Lemon Curd

From 1 or 2 Photos

In a medium size, heavy-bottomed sauce pan over low-heat, whisk together 3/4 cup of lemon juice (I used wonderfully flavorful Meyer lemons), 1 tablespoon of lemon zest, 3/4 cup of sugar and 3 eggs. Cut 1 stick of unsalted butter into small bits and add. Cook stirring very regularly until quite thick like pudding, about 10 - 12 minutes. Resist the urge to raise the heat past medium, you do not want cooked egg in the finished product.

I have double this recipe on more than one occasion, substituting some of the juice for orange juice, the same with the zest.

You can use the curd to sweeten yogurt, as a decadent treat on toast, in a layer cake or with just a spoon.

Time: not more than a half-hour

Yields: 1 2/3 cup of curd

From this recipe at Epicurious.