Caramel Popcorn

Making caramel was a bit scary to me. Why? I'm not sure, but it might involve the several times I have attempted something with caramel and ended up with a mess. So I decided to conquer the caramel popcorn last night as part of family movie night.

I picked a recipe on Allrecipes with over 700 great reviews, figuring it must work out if over 700 people have rated it well. I also read the comments to get suggestions and tips for making it easier to do.


Caramel Popcorn

1/2 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 quarts popped popcorn

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (95 degrees C). Line 2 shallow baking dishes (jelly roll pans) with foil and spray with cooking spray. Divide popcorn between them.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in brown sugar, corn syrup and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil without stirring 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in soda and vanilla. Pour in a thin stream over popcorn, stirring to coat.

Bake in preheated oven, stirring every 15 minutes, for 1 hour. Remove from oven and let cool completely before breaking into pieces.

Pumpkin Butterscotch Muffins

In my house, we love pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and make many batches each fall. They are like little pumpkin flavor clouds with bursts of chocolate in them. So delicious.

So when I saw these pumpkin butterscotch muffins at Confabulation in the Kitchen, I just had to try them. So yummy looking!

They did not disappoint. The flavor was great, they are delicious. A wonderful fall treat, and a fun provider of variety in our pumpkin consumption. :)

I used nutmeg instead of mace b/c that's what I had on hand and I used whole wheat pastry flour for about half of the flour amount, like I do in most recipes. As much fun as the pecans sound, DH is allergic, and loves pumpkin, so no pecans here. Oh, and I added 1/2 tsp cloves, but I don't think most people would like the cloves, which is why they are probably not in the ingredient list though they are in the directions.

So here's the recipe:

Butterscotch Pumpkin Muffins

1-3/4 cups flour, sifted
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground mace
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
1 cup butterscotch chips
1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted (optional)

TO PREPARE:

In a large bowl, mix flour, sugars, ginger, mace, cinnamon, cloves, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Create a well in the middle of the mixture.

In another bowl, whisk together eggs, pumpkin and butter. Stir in butterscotch chips and pecans and pour into the well of dry ingredients. Fold together just until dry ingredients are moistened. Do not overmix.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spoon batter evenly into greased muffin tins. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centers comes out clean. Place on a rack to cool.

YIELDS: 18 muffins

Pain Au Chocolat (Chocolate Croissants)

Almost a week late (as usual?) I started the recipe for this month's Chocolate Therapy challenge between my friend at Create Cakes and me. I had stuff come up last weekend, and then there is the mental block that accompanies a recipe that takes all day. Luckily, I overcame that fear, partially by figuring out when I could leave the dough as long as I needed. So this recipe is taking 2 days for me instead of 1. :P

I have wanted to try croissants for years. Trying them with chocolate and with a friend for guidance is definitely a bonus.

Below is the recipe, intermixed with my commentary and thoughts while making them.

Pain Au Chocolat (Chocolate Croissants)

Dough
3	cups unbleached all-purpose flour (15 ounces), plus more for dusting work surface
1	tablespoon instant yeast
1/4	cup sugar (1 3/4 ounces)
1 1/4	teaspoons table salt
1 1/4	cups whole milk , cold
2	tablespoons unsalted butter , cut into 1/2-inch pieces
Butter Square
24	tablespoons cold unsalted butter (3 sticks), cut into 24 pieces
2	tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
Chocolate Filling
8	ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate , chopped fine
Egg Wash
1	large egg , lightly beaten

1. For the dough: Whisk 2 3/4 cups of flour together with yeast, sugar, and salt in medium bowl. Place milk in bowl of standing mixer fitted with dough hook. Add flour mixture and knead at low speed until ball of dough forms, about 5 minutes. Add butter pieces to dough. Continue to knead until butter becomes fully incorporated and dough becomes smooth, begins to form ball, and clears sides of bowl, an additional 5 to 6 minutes. (Dough should be sticky, but if more dough is sticking to sides of bowl than to itself, add remaining 1/4 cup flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, as necessary.) Wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Umm, figuring out how sticky to let it be was the hardest thing here. Also - do NOT stick your hand into sticky dough. Find another way to get it into the plastic wrap. Yikes!

2. For the butter square: Using bench scraper, toss together butter pieces and flour on clean work surface. Smear butter and flour back and forth against work surface until they have combined into smooth, homogenous mixture. Wrap butter mixture in plastic wrap and use edges of plastic wrap to form even 7-inch square. Refrigerate until firm, at least 30 minutes.

Wow that is a lot of butter! But what an amusing process. I don't have a bench scraper, so I improvised with the back of a plastic knife and ruler. Forming the butter into a square in the plastic is easier said than done. Beating it homogenous with a few tablespoons of flour I don't know the purpose.


3. Lightly dust work surface with flour. Roll dough into 11-inch square. Place chilled butter square diagonally onto dough. Fold corners of dough up over butter square so that they meet in middle and pinch ends of dough together to seal them.

Part I am dreading that turned out to be amazingly easy. The dough rolled out silkily and didn't stick. Yay!

4. Using rolling pin, gently tap dough, starting from center of dough and going outward, until square becomes larger and butter begins to soften. At this point, start gently rolling dough into 14-inch square, checking often to make sure dough is not sticking and dusting with additional flour as necessary. Fold square into thirds to form long rectangle. (This method of folding is called a “turn” and resembles folding a business letter.) Starting from narrow ends, fold rectangle into thirds again to form square. You have now given dough 2 turns. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.

5. Repeat step 4, giving dough 2 additional turns (for total of 4 turns) and chilling again for at least 2 hours.

Again, surprisingly easy. The butter is in pockets when I'm doing this - not evenly distributed per se, and I don't know if that's okay or not, but it looks alright! I was surprised at how easy rolling it out and folding it was. I did let it sit overnight after step 5. It got really large.

6. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Place chilled dough on floured work surface and gently roll dough into 20-inch square. Use pizza cutter and ruler to cut dough into 4 equal 10-inch squares. Cut each square into thirds to make total of 12 rectangles, each approximately 10 by 31/4 inches. Place 1/2 ounce (about 1 tablespoon) chocolate in middle of each rectangle. Fold each rectangle into thirds and place it seam-side down on baking sheet.

That is A LOT of chocolate! These should be pretty good with that much chocolate in them. I'm surprised that it only makes 12, when there are over 3 sticks of butter involved. Mmmm... these are going to be good! I didn't want to chop the chocolate, but was worried that the large pieces wouldn't work out, so I tried the mini food processor and didn't have too much luck overall so I have some chocolate powder and some chunks of chocolate in each croissant. Hope it works out!

7. Cover croissants loosely with plastic wrap and let them rise at room temperature until puffy (they will not double in size), 45 to 60 minutes.

Another thing this recipe uses a lot of is plastic wrap! How did people make these before plastic wrap and parchment paper?

8. Meanwhile, adjust oven racks to upper- and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 400 degrees. Using pastry brush, brush croissants with beaten egg. Bake until croissants are golden brown, 18 to 22 minutes, rotating baking sheets from front to back and top to bottom halfway through baking time. Cool croissants on wire rack until warm, about 20 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Mine started smelling done and looking totally done at 14 min. I blame the egg wash, which I'm not a huge fan of. I left them in until 18 and they didn't burn (I think they needed it to set up the layers) but I was nervous!

Flavor? Amazing. Definitely fluffy and layery and delicate like croissants. The huge amount of chocolate seems like not much when eating it, though more would probably overwhelm it. It really melted down! Yummmm. I think making smaller ones next time might be nice. I could halve them easily. I even think it would be fun to try them without anything in them. Wow. I want to eat them all day! LOL.

I used a combination of Lindt dark chocolate and Hershey's special dark (since that's what I have on hand!) and it was great. Dark and flavorful. Mmmm. Good chocolate therapy.

Foodie Blogroll

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Pain au chocolat later today! :)

Chocolate Molasses Cookies

My first memories of molasses is having it on a hot buttered biscuit. Beyond that it is an ingredient I use in whole wheat bread sometimes and also in gingerbread cookies. It is a unique flavor perhaps, strong and sweet.

When I saw the recipe for Chocolate Molasses cookies in the newspaper this week, I immediately wanted to try them. They looked fantastic, and definitely were.

Chocolate Molasses Cookies
2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 Tblsp dark molasses
1 tsp vanilla extract
powdered sugar (optional dusting)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Melt chocolate and butter in microwave-safe glass mixing bowl on high power in 30-second increments, until almost melted. Stir to len well, then left cool. (About 1 minute total in microwave)
In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.
Stir brown sugar, egg, molasses and vanilla into cooled chocolate mixture. Add flour mixture, stirring until combined.
Place scant tablespoons of dough on ungreased cookie sheet, 2 inches apart. Bake 10-11 minutes until tops begin to crack and cookies are still soft to the touch. Let cool 5 minutes; transfer to wire rack and dust lightly with confectioners' sugar. makes 36 cookies.
Source listed: Kansas City-Star

Indian Curry in a hurry dinner

For those college siblings of mine, wanting to eat good food, but not having much time. How to look like an amazing chef, the easy way. :)

Buy a stack of fresh tortillas, a sweet potato & a jar of Patak's Curry Sauce (I like the Korma, Tikka Masala or Jalfrezi sauces). Also, some plain yogurt & frozen berries. (I'm assuming you have rice on hand at home.)

Now peel and dice the sweet potato and saute in oil until it starts to soften. Add the sauce and cover and simmer. Put the rice in the microwave or on the stove and cook it. Turn the oven on to broil and put the tortillas on a baking sheet and put them under the broiler.

Make the laasi, mixing up the yogurt, berries, a bit of sugar and water in the blender. (Recipe) Check on the tortillas (making them more like naan in the oven) and set the table.

In about 20 minutes you have an awesome dinner on the table! :) So yummy!

You could use chicken or beef, but sweet potatoes are cheap and taste wonderful in the dish. Watch out for steam in the puffed up "naan".

Orange Marmalade

Ahh, the lovely taste of Orange marmalade...

I have never made orange marmalade, and since I didn't make any jam earlier this summer (I'm blaming the whole moving thing) I had to figure out some sort of homemade spread to make for my toast and sandwiches and such. But buying lots of frozen berries isn't exactly cost effective.

I actually love the taste of orange marmalade, even with the peels in, so that was a plus too.

I still had to buy oranges and lemons but I think that is a bit cheaper than the frozen berries. Next I had to peel the zest off of all those fruits. Fun! The lemons were considerably more cranky about being peeled than the oranges.

Next was peeling off all the yucky white pith and cutting the fruit into slices. Tip - remove the white stuff inside the fruit too. I forgot. D'oh! I was fishing it out later which was totally not effective.

Next, mix up the fruit and pectin and set aside. Boil the peels in water (or juice) until they are soft. Then add the fruit and heat up and add the sugar. Bring to a hard boil for atleast a minute and then put into jars for canning.

It went marvelously, but never set up completely. Marmalades are harder to set, and maybe I should have used extra pectin. Though some recipes use pectin from the seeds only, and not commercial pectin!

Marmalades can take up to 2 weeks to set. Mine never completely did, guess I needed more pectin. It works fine though as a sauce/loose jam. Tastes great. I plan to make another batch once oranges are really in season, maybe that will help!

Ultimate Flourless Chocolate Cake

Continuing our challenge of new recipes we want to try, my friend and I tried recipe #2 of the flourless chocolate cake.

So I seem to benefit from doing the recipes after my friend at Create Cakes. I finally made this recipe and it was AMAZING. I loved it so much.

I made it with a blueberry coulis that was also amazing and made this dessert awesome.

The flavor was wonderful, not too rich and sweet, as the Chocolate Nemesis was sometimes for me, but a smooth, creamy, clean chocolate flavor. The coulis added a tangy complementary flavor when consuming the dessert that was simple and wonderful.

I had my doubts, since my dear friend didn't love it, but I love chocolate truffles much more than puddings, and the flavor of the chocolate really comes through in this recipe.

I did use the Hersheys Special Dark, just like I did in the Chocolate Nemesis recipe, and I think that was key. The flavor of the chocolate used is what you will get. Cooks Illustrated rated the Hersheys Special Dark highly in use for cakes, plus there is the cheap cost, so that's why I used it. :)

I was obedient and followed the recipe, checking the temperature with my little thermometer and even waiting until the next day to eat it. It was hard to not taste it right after it came out, especially since it was so soupy, but worth the wait. The blueberry coulis was tangy and fruity and complemented the chocolate really well.

The other thing I liked about this recipe is the quantity made. It makes one cake. It doesn't make so much that I'm trying to figure out what to do with the leftovers. Gone in a day, like a good dessert.

Without further commentary, here are the recipes:

The Ultimate Flourless Chocolate Cake
Serves 12 to 16

8 large eggs, cold
1 pound bittersweet chocolate or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 pound unsalted butter (2 sticks), cut into 1/2-inch chunks

1. Adjust oven rack to lower middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Line bottom of 8-inch springform pan with parchment and grease pan sides. Cover pan underneath and along sides with sheet of heavy-duty foil and set in large roasting pan. Bring kettle of water to boil.

2. Beat eggs with hand-held mixer at high speed until volume doubles to approximately 1 quart, about 5 minutes. Alternately, beat in bowl of electric mixer fitted with wire whip attachment at medium speed (speed 6 on a KitchenAid) to achieve same result, about 5 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, melt chocolate and butter (adding coffee or liqueur, if using) in large heat-proof bowl set over pan of almost simmering water, until smooth and very warm (about 115 degrees on an instant-read thermometer), stirring once or twice. (For the microwave, melt chocolate and butter together at 50 percent power until smooth and warm, 4 to 6 minutes, stirring once or twice.) Fold 1/3 of egg foam into chocolate mixture using large rubber spatula until only a few streaks of egg are visible; fold in half of remaining foam, then last of remaining foam, until mixture is totally homogenous.

4. Scrape batter into prepared springform pan and smooth surface with rubber spatula. Set roasting pan on oven rack and pour enough boiling water to come about halfway up side of springform pan. Bake until cake has risen slightly, edges are just beginning to set, a thin glazed crust (like a brownie) has formed on surface, and an instant read thermometer inserted halfway through center of cake registers 140 degrees, 22 to 25 minutes. Remove cake pan from water bath and set on wire rack; cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate overnight to mellow (can be covered and refrigerated for up to 4 days).

5. About 30 minutes before serving, remove springform pan sides, invert cake on sheet of waxed paper, peel off parchment pan liner, and turn cake right side up on serving platter. Sieve light sprinkling of Confectioners’ sugar or unsweetened cocoa powder over cake to decorate, if desired.


Berry Coulis
Makes 1 1/2 cups

12	ounces fresh raspberries (or thawed if frozen), or blueberries, blackberries, or strawberries (fresh strawberries hulled and sliced, if using)
5	tablespoons granulated sugar
1/8	teaspoon table salt
2	teaspoons lemon juice

1. In medium saucepan, bring berries, 1/4 cup water, 5 tablespoons sugar, and salt to bare simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally; cook until sugar is dissolved and berries are heated through, about 1 minute longer.

2. Transfer mixture to blender or food processor; puree until smooth, about 20 seconds. Strain through fine-mesh strainer into small bowl, pressing and stirring puree with rubber spatula to extract as much seedless puree as possible. Stir in lemon juice and additional sugar, if desired. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold, at least 1 hour. Stir to recombine before serving. (If too thick after chilling, add 1 to 2 teaspoons water.) Can be refrigerated in airtight container for up to 4 days.

Chocolate Nemesis

The challenge for September between my friend at Create Cakes and I is flourless chocolate cakes. The first recipe we decided to try was a popular one from the River Cafe in London called the Chocolate Nemesis.

If you have read my other blog, you may know that I do not usually make cakes. I prefer cookies & brownies, which I almost always succeed at. It's not that I can't make cakes, but until recently, I couldn't frost them at all.

Then there is the extravagance of the ingredients in this cake. I probably would have attempted it sooner, but the amount of chocolate alone is staggering! Luckily in a taste test at Cooks illustrated, Hershey's Special dark came out in the top three and is the cheapest, so I decided to go with that from a cost perspective. It was given high marks in cake by them too.

Here is the recipe adjusted for American measuring, with the directions re-ordered a bit.

Chocolate Nemesis
Serves 10-12

24 oz bitter-sweet chocolate, broken into small pieces
10 whole eggs
2 3/4 C + 2 Tbs sugar
2 C unsalted butter, softened
1 C water

1. Preheat the oven to 325F. Pick your pan sizes and line the bottom with parchment paper and the sides with pam. You can use a 12 inch, or 2 8 inch pans.

2. Heat 2 cups of the sugar in a small pan with the water until the sugar has completely dissolved to a syrup.

3. Place the chocolate and butter in the hot syrup and stir to combine until the chocolate melts and the mixture is smooth. Remove from heat and cool slightly.

4. Beat the eggs with the rest of the sugar until the volume quadruples-this will take at least 10 minutes in an electric mixer.

5. Add warm chocolate mixture to the eggs and continue to beat, more gently, until completely combined- about 20 seconds.

6. Pour into the cake tin and place in a water bath. It is vital for even baking. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until set. Let it cool in the tin before turning out.

There is a lot of detail missing in these directions. Questions that came to mind while I was baking: How long do you let the sugar syrup boil when it becomes clear? How do you best add the chocolate & butter to the sugar syrup to prevent separation of the chocolate (or worse - burning)? Can you over cook this mixture in trying to get it smooth? How do you best mix the chocolate mixture and egg mixture without causing the egg to curdle? How do you know if the cake is set? Because the top is set, or by toothpick or what? How long do you let them cool before trying to invert them? How do you keep from spilling the water bath all over the place? Why did I try to do this while my kids were awake?

I chose to keep the mixer running on low and slowly add the chocolate mixture to it to try and help prevent curdling and cause better incorporation. Unfortunately my pan didn't want to cooperate and I spilled chocolate mixture on my counter. I tried a funnel but it didn't help much. Putting the lip of the pan on the mixer and pouring carefully was the best I could do and then salvage the rest off of my (thankfully) clean countertop. (This is part of what I consider a major design flaw on kitchen aid mixers that is only remedied by buying a pouring shield to help add mixtures that I do not own.)

I was warned that it would take more than 30 minutes for the cakes to set, and I'm grateful for those warnings because the top was set at 30 minutes, even though under the top it was totally liquid. At 45 minutes the tops had risen up higher but it was still a bit jiggly, so 10 more minutes. At 55 minutes they were ready to come out. (The smaller square one came out at 40 minutes.)

Oh, I had way more batter than would fit in my 2 8-inch pans. So I quickly pammed an 8 in square pyrex pan and started it with the rest. I didn't take the time to cut a parchment square, figuring I'd just claw it out like brownies if it wouldn't come out easily.

My lack of cake baking also translates into a lack of cake pans. The two tiny 8 inch pans, the 8" square and 9x13 rectangle pyrex pans are all I've got. If I'm going to be making many more cakes in the future, I think new pans are going to be necessary. :) Yay, a shopping excuse!

The photos: First is a slice of the finished cake and then the sliced cake. Next is the sugar syrup boiling and my prepared work surface. Following is the egg/sugar mixing up, and then the chocolate butter mixture. Next is the pans going into the oven, followed by how they rose coming out of the oven. Then a slice from the thin 8" square pan and finally the finished cake before being sliced.

Taste: Amazing. Smooth and creamy. Like a firm pudding or a chocolate custard. Rich chocolate flavor, but not bitter or intense. Tastes similar to the chocolate bar. I'm happy that I used the Hershey's Special Dark because it will appeal to more people flavor wise. A Lindt 70% cacao bar flavor might be enjoyed by my DH & I, but not many others like intense chocolate bite. Maybe something to try one day.

Apple Butter Canning

Hee hee. Did you catch my corny joke in the title? :P

It is Apple season again and that means applesauce and apple butter in our house. I did try apple jelly this year which was interesting, but not my favorite. I don't think I will ever do it again. That would probably be a better topic for another post.

So my favorite Apple Butter recipe actually comes from a random Crockpot cookbook I got one year for Christmas from brother in law. The book can be found here: Slow Cooker Recipes.

I checked out the copyright in the front of the book and it says that I can't quote anything in the book without written permission so I can't write the recipe here. Boo.

But I googled the title and found it published somewhere else so here is a link to the recipe: Chunky Sweet Spiced Apple Butter.

Note - mine isn't chunky ever, at least in my opinion. But the flavor is awesome. We love it in our oatmeal for homemade apple cinnamon oatmeal.

The beauty of this recipe is how easy it is. Peel apples. Pile stuff in crockpot, leave for 8 hours on low and then mash up a little more before canning it.

I always double the recipe, I'm going to try quadrupling it next week, as the original recipe just makes enough to fill one regular mason jar. I use the larger jars because we use it so quickly and because they are cheaper.