caramel Tag

I've decided to change the idiom from "watching paint dry" to "waiting for sugar to caramelize". It doesn't roll off the tongue, but it's a fair description of the process. This recipe for Burnt Caramel Nut Brittle calls for deeply caramelized sugar. While it doesn’t...

This post will come as a surprise to those who know me. I'm not a beer drinker. Yet here I am creating a recipe using ale. Samuel Adams Latitude 48 IPA to be precise. Why? Because I was asked. And they specifically wanted a dessert,...

This post isn't what I intended. I had planned on doing a round-up of my favourite cold-weather soup recipes. Healthy, economical, waste-free, toe-warming soup. But after poking about the Internet for a minute or two, I realized everyone had the same idea. So instead, I'm sharing...

The holidays are rushing in and the panicked questions have begun. With crazed eyes and shaking voices, friends ask me for easy holiday recipes to take to a party or serve their own guests. They always say "easy" with extra emphasis, pausing before and after...

To help celebrate the 200th anniversary of the McIntosh apple, I'm taking part in The Ontario Apple Growers' challenge. They're looking for the best candy apple recipe -- ever. After careful consideration, a bit of testing and a second-degree burn to my index finger, I have determined that caramel-coated apples are the Kobayashi Maru of fun food. For those who don't know their Star Trek (or fail to get their sci-fi references second-hand from The Big Bang Theory) this is geek-speak for "no-win scenario." Since I was more a Caramel Apple Kid than one who liked to crack her teeth on flaming red, rock hard candy apples, I decided to play with a grown-up salted caramel version, maybe with a sprinkling of crystallized ginger for those who want a bit o' zing along with their sweet & salty. How'd it go? You be the judge. Here's my enthusiastic set-up shot. Imagine the Macs dipped in obedient caramel. Here's the reality.
Don't get me wrong, I like pancakes. But sometimes the expression "Flat as a pancake," describes my enthusiasm for this dish. Unadorned, they're pallid, uneven, and large-pored. This describes my skin without make-up. It's not something you should be serving guests before noon. Oh, sure I can drizzle them with maple syrup, but sometimes you need to shake things up a bit. It's apple season and since I put apples in the pancakes, why not put apples on the pancakes as well. The results?  A pan of goopy, butterscotchy fruit that cooked in the time it takes to make a supporting batch of flap jacks. So decadent and sweet, it's enough to make the maple syrup sulk.

Ahhhh. That's better. Nothing like the taste of sweet success to make me forget last week's garbanzo gaffe. Back in university I used to make caramel corn on a 20-inch electric stovetop with only three functioning burners. My recipe said to cook the sugar until it...