Caramel – Page 2 – Baking with Gab

Chai chocolate fudge and acceptance

A friend of mine refuses to accept that white chocolate is chocolate. She also refuses to eat it because of its ambiguity, the fact that it masquerades as something that it isn’t.

This is fine, it’s her choice (actually it’s rather advantageous to me, more white chocolate consumption on my part), but she is definitely missing out. I never really sided with my friend until this recipe, when I actually contemplated white chocolate.

White chocolate, I’ve realised, is not really chocolatey tasting at all – it’s smooth and sweet and that’s about it…not that there’s anything wrong with this! In being so indistinct, white chocolate lends itself perfectly to other flavours, it welcomes them openly – it works perfectly with the caramel of the sweetened condensed milk, and also complements the spicy, warm notes of the chai flavouring. Continue reading “Chai chocolate fudge and acceptance”

Dark chocolate caramel and popcorn biscuit

The title of this post looks like two unrelated things, right? “Oh,” you though, “Gab has made some dark chocolate caramel and she has also made some popcorn biscuits, whatever they are.”

“It’s such a smoosh of words that they couldn’t all possibly be referring to one baked product,” I hear you thinking.

Well, your internal monologue is wrong. I made biscuits with dark chocolate caramel popcorn in them.

It’s like a zillion delicious things jam packed into one gloriously ugly little package.

Continue reading “Dark chocolate caramel and popcorn biscuit”

Caramel and high tea

I’m a big fan of caramel. Actually, that’s kind of a redundant statement, because I don’t know anybody who isn’t a fan of caramel. If you happen to know someone who doesn’t like it, please send them my way, I’ll remedy their ailment.

I’ve made caramel sauces and icings for the blog, but I realised today that I hadn’t posted a chewy caramel recipe. For that, I apologise. Caramel is pretty simple to make – it has a reputation for being difficult, but as long as you’re careful you should be fine.

So I’m fixing this right now. With these delicious, chewy delights. They’re just the right amount of chewy – not teeth-shatteringly hard, but not too soft either. (Insider tip: the longer your boil the mixture, the harder they’ll set; I boiled mine for ten and they were in the middle. Boil them for more than that and they’ll be harder, boil them for less and they’ll be gooier.)

These gorgeous little mouthfuls were the top tier of my high tea set up, (the high tea that I threw to celebrate having Cristina Re tea cups on loan!) I’ll post the other two recipes from the high tea in the coming days, so keep your eyes peeled!

Chewy caramels

Makes 24 pieces

395g can sweetened condensed milk
¾ cup cup caster sugar
125g butter, chopped
1/2 cup golden syrup

Grease and line a 20cm square cake tin with baking paper.

Toss the condensed milk, sugar, butter and golden syrup into a medium sized pan. Turn the heat up to medium so that the butter melts, the sugar dissolves and the mixture combines, mixing regularly. Bring the mixture to a boil and continue to boil for 10 minutes, making sure you stir consistently to avoid burning the mixture.

Take the mixture off the heat and set aside to let the bubbles subside.

Pour into your prepared pan and allow to cool briefly before putting in the freezer for at least an hour. Be careful, because your tin will heat up because the caramel is so hot. If you want salted caramel, take a pinch or two of salt flakes and sprinkle liberally.

Remove from the freezer about ten minutes before cutting. When it comes to cutting, lightly oil a knife so that it glides through the caramel more easily when you’re cutting. Personally, I like to allow the caramel to shatter slightly – when cutting, put pressure on the tip of the knife while it’s in the caramel without pressing the rest of the blade down, this should cause little fractures in the caramel.

Caramel filled cinnamon men and little things:

Today was one of those days where small tasks were accomplished. I had to stay at home because a cabinet fitter spent all morning fitting a wall unit in our lounge room, so I pottered about, baked and did little jobs that usually get overlooked in favour of Christmas shopping/preparations at this time of year.

Somewhat inspired by the small tasks, I made small gingerbread men… except they aren’t gingerbread men, they’re cinnamon men.

Cinnamen?

I think I’ll stick with Cinnamon men, I like the repetition. Continue reading “Caramel filled cinnamon men and little things:”

Double chocolate biscuits and salted caramel

These biscuits are divine. They’re like little bites of cake; they’re just the right amount of chocolateyness and they have these perfect seams of chocolate running through them… topped with the salted caramel, these may just be the answer to every first world problem you can think of.

Internet stopped working? Have a biscuit.

Significant other not texting back? Have a biscuit.

Wasted your study time perusing Pinterest? Pin this recipe, then have a biscuit. Continue reading “Double chocolate biscuits and salted caramel”

Doughnut cakes and delicious sprinkles

I’ve got a thing for doughnuts at the moment. It’s coming into Summer here, and I think I just love the idea of a cinnamon doughnut on hot days. I’m always disappointed with the quality of bakery doughnuts – why don’t they ever taste like they did when I was younger?

I’ve started to wonder whether my standards were lower on my childhood, or whether doughnuts actually did just taste better. I made mini jam doughnut cupcakes recently, which satisfied my desire for crunchy, cinnamon sweetness, but Sunday afternoon calls for something a little bit special. This cake is moist and cinnamony and really sticky! I recommend cutting it with a sharp, thin knife so that your icing doesn’t cling to the knife too much! Continue reading “Doughnut cakes and delicious sprinkles”

Rewards and caramel slice

As a little reward for starting this blog I treated myself to a tea set that I did not need. Technically I bought it before I even started posting words on this blog, but I had resolved to finally start it, and I figured that was good enough to deserve a reward. In my defence, I have never owned a full tea set!

And this was a thing of such beauty that after knowing of its existence, I don’t think I could have survived a single day longer without it.

Aren’t humans funny creatures? I got to wondering whether other species reward themselves like we do. Does a dog ever give itself five more minutes in front of the heater after it feels it has barked sufficiently at a potentially threatening bird? Do birds commend themselves on especially sing-song chirps by finding a new leaf to furnish the nest with?

I don’t think they do. We are unique. And my tea set is a masterpiece.

How many people can say they drink tea with Monet ladies?

I have no desire to promote the make of the set (because I’m not being paid to do this!), but I will show it off in all of its fabulousness by including it in photos to accompany this week’s recipe.

This is a food blog, so I should talk about the caramel slice now! I find few things more rewarding than sweetened condensed milk, which is why I consider this recipe a little treat. The Boy’s family call caramel slice Millionaire’s Short Bread, which I just love – it makes it sound like even more of an indulgence!

I like the proportions of this recipe, it’s got similar amounts of base and caramel and just a thin covering of chocolate– this doesn’t mean that yours has to be as well. The Boy likes his caramel slice big on base, some people like lots of chocolate on top. Bake it once and play around with the proportions the next time!

Twice-baked caramel slice

Base:

1 ½ cups plain flour
125g butter, melted
½ cup sugar

Caramel filling

70g butter
400g can sweetened condensed milk
½ cup brown sugar
2 tbsp golden syrup

Topping

200g dark cooking chocolate
1 teaspoons vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 180°C and line a 20cm x 20cm tin with baking paper.

Place the flour and sugar in a bowl and mix to combine. Melt your butter in the microwave and mix it into your dry ingredients.

Butter

Press the mixture into your lined tin with your fingers, then roll it out flat with a floured glass.

Pop it in the oven to bake for 20 minutes. It’s a pale biscuit, so it won’t brown overly – don’t worry, after 20 minutes it is definitely ready. Remove base from the oven and take it out so that it cools.

As it’s cooling, make a start on the caramel filling.Put your butter and sweetened condensed milk in a small pan over a medium flame and allow the butter to melt, stirring regularly. Add in the golden syrup and brown sugar. Once the sugar has dissolved turn up the heat so that the caramel comes to a slow boil. Stir consistently for 6-8 minutes as it bubbles away – mind it doesn’t burn. Take it off the heat and allow it to cool before pouring it over the cooled base.

Ensure that your base has cooled sufficiently before pouring the caramel over, otherwise it will seep into the base and ruin the layered effect that you want!

Spread the caramel evenly over the base and return it the oven for 15 minutes so that the caramel will set properly. When you remove it from the oven the caramel should have formed a skin – it’s ready to go into the fridge now.

Pop it in the fridge while you melt the chocolate in the microwave. Put it in for 20-30 second intervals and give it a stir after each time so that it doesn’t burn. Once its completely cooled add the oil and give it a good stir. The oil gives it an extra glossy finish and also makes it a little easier to cut.