caramel Archives - Page 3 of 6

Salted Caramel Baguette

by Kate | Aug 25, 2017 | 1 comment

This Salted Caramel Baguette recipe, from famous pastry chef, Chrisophe Adam of L'Eclair de Genie fame, is something a little different. In fact, it's so genius that I'm jealous that I didn't think of it first! It starts with a dark caramel which is turned into caramel water and then used to make the bread dough. The result is a chewy, crusty bread with faint toffee/salted caramel flavour that's not sweet. It is ridiculously moreish. On cold days, I love to bake bread! This is one of my favourites and so is this. Baking bread not only fills the house with the most wonderful smell, but being in front of the warm oven gives me that snuggly feeling. There is nothing more satisfactory than pulling your own bread out the oven. Nothing except devouring said fresh, handmade loaf with ridiculous amounts of butter, that is. I urge you to give this salted caramel baguette a try - it may seem daunting, but with a little practice, you'll hopefully find bread-baking as therapeutic as I do!

SALTED CARAMEL BAGUETTE

Makes 2 loaves

Caramel water:

100g white sugar

400ml water

Salted Caramel Baguette Dough:

300ml caramel water, cooled

5g active dry yeast

350g strong bread flour

1 tsp fine salt

Salted butter, to serve

Start by making the caramel water; place the sugar in a small saucepan with enough water to wet the sugar and give it the consistency of wet sand. Place the saucepan over medium heat and allow the sugar to caramelize to 160 degrees celcius (if you don't have a sugar thermometer, it should start smoking slightly and be quite dark). Carefully pour in the rest of the water and allow it to dissolve. Set aside to cool completely.

To make the salted caramel baguette dough, place the cooled caramel water in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook (you could also do this by hand). Add the yeast and mix to dissolve completely. Add the flour and salt and mix until a sticky dough forms - it will be stickier than what feels comfortable but hang in there. Knead for 8 minutes or until the dough is smooth (it will still be sticky, that’s okay). Cover the bowl with a plastic bag or clingwrap and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in size. Remove the dough from the bowl and knock it down by kneading it gently. Divide the dough into two balls. Using your palms, press each ball out into a rectangle about 10cm wide. Roll the rectangle up lengthwise, pressing the edges down with your palm each time, to form a sausage. Roll the sausage back and forth to form a baguette about 25cm long. Place on a floured baking sheet, cover again and allow to double in size. Preheat your oven to it’s highest setting, 250 degrees Celcius is ideal. Bake the baguette for 13-15 minutes or until the bottom sounds hollow when tapped. Allow to cool slightly then devour it with lashings of salted butter.

TIP If it’s a cold day, turn your oven into a prover by setting the temperature to 50 degrees celcius. Place an oven dish of water in the bottom to create humidity then allow your dough to rise inside.

Image of a salted caramel baguette broken in half on a dark blue background served with a bowl of butter

Roasted White Chocolate Truffles with Coconut

by Kate | Mar 15, 2017 | 0 comments

Introducing my latest obsession. Caramelised white chocolate. It deserves it's own sentence it's just that good. I stumbled upon this creation one night by pure accident (I like to call it good chocolate karma) while reading through my twitter feed. I accidentally clicked on a tweet and before I knew it I was transported via a blog into the realm of golden caramel-coloured goodness. It was love at first sight and I knew I simply had to recreate this so-called caramelised white chocolate and make it my own. The main reason it's so charming (I mean other than the fact that it's chocolate), is that it consists of just two ingredients: white chocolate and a drizzle of oil. My secret ingredient though, which makes it even more delicious, is a sprinkle of sea salt flakes. Other than eating it straight out of a jar with a spoon, I have also day-dreamed about drizzling it over ice cream, spreading it between cookies or cakes, making cake pops from it, blobbing it on top of vanilla cupcakes and stirring it into hot milk on a chilly evening. How I lived my life up until this point, without caramelised white chocolate in my life, is a mystery, but now that I've found it, I want to share the delicious secret with everyone, and I hope once you have tried it, you will do the same!

Roasted White Chocolate Truffles with Coconut

Makes 12

200g The Kate Tin White Baking Chocolate, chopped

2 tbsp vegetable oil

55g cream, heated

pinch of sea salt flakes

toasted coconut, for rolling

Arrange the broken-up white chocolate on a baking sheet and drizzle with the oil. Place in an oven preheated to 150C for 40-50 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes until it reaches a rich caramel colour. If the chocolate is lumpy, simply blend it in a food processor or pass it through a sieve. If it’s too thick, add a little more oil until it reaches melted chocolate consistency. Heat the cream to just below boiling point then pour over the caramelized chocolate and stir until smooth. Pour into a shallow container, sprinkle with the salt and allow to set for 1-2 hours. Roll teaspoonfuls of the mixture into truffles then roll in the toasted coconut. Chill in the refrigerator to set.

TIP Skip the rolling and pour the mixture into jars for a delicious better-than-Nutella spread!

Christmas Bun Wreath with Sherry Caramel

by Kate | Dec 21, 2016 | 0 comments

#SPONSORED

There are a few things that define being a South African; if you use the word ‘Ja’ instead of ‘yes’, if you know what a ‘bakkie’ is, if you call it a granadilla instead of a passion fruit and, if you have at least one memory of OBS (Old Brown Sherry). Mine specifically revolves around Christmas and the generous glug my Great Aunty Margot always adds to the family trifle, but my story isn’t nearly as exciting as the one’s Sedgwick’s have compiled in a sweet little book to celebrate their 100-year birthday! One story, specifically, had me in fits of giggles because it sounded exactly like something my late grandmother would do! It’s called ‘The Undefeatable Tipsy Tart’ and was submitted by A. Nel.

“For over 15 years, my Grandmother was the reigning Tipsy Tart Queen of the local Agricultural Show. No other tannie could come close and every year, as she walked away with another first-prize ribbon, you would see them flocking around, fishing for her “secret ingredient”. Ouma would just laugh and say: “It’s made with love”.

Two years ago, my Gran passed away and my mother inherited all of her cookbooks and the hand-written recipes she had collected over the decades. Obviously the first dish my mother tried to replicate was the Undefeatable Tipsy Tart and while it tasted delicious, well, it wasn’t THAT good.

It was only 6 months later, after the gentleman who had been the judge for all those years stepped down, that Grandma’s trick was finally revealed. Turns out, the “secret ingredient” wasn’t actually part of her recipe – it was the shot of Sedgwick’s she always gave him beforehand that sealed the deal!”

If you’d love to get your hands on this special book (and a bottle of Sedgwick’s to drink while you mull over the stories), ~~I’m giving away a gift set over on my Facebook page this week so click here to enter!~~ You can also read all the funny OBS tales over on Sedgwick’s website here. But before you head on over, I’ve made some deliciously sticky Christmas buns stuffed with proper almond marzipan and fruit mince and drizzled with a Sedgwicks caramel which, if I could, I would bath in! Make them on Christmas eve, pop them in the fridge to prove overnight and bake them on Christmas morning to nibble on while you open presents! Merry Christmas everyone!

Sticky Christmas Bun Wreath with Marzipan and Sedgwick's Caramel

Makes 12

DOUGH

500g flour

2 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp mixed spice

75g muscovado sugar

75g butter, softened

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

10g instant dry yeast

10g salt

175ml lukewarm milk (or water)

FILLING

60g butter, softened

½ cup fruit mince

100g almond marzipan (not persipan*) – optional, grated, plus extra for star cut-outs

SHERRY CARAMEL

1 cup light brown sugar

½ cup Sedgwick’s OBS

60g butter

1 tbsp cream

Make the dough by placing all the ingredients in a mixing bowl (I use a stand mixer to make it easier) and combine until a soft dough forms. Knead the dough for 8-10 minutes or until it’s smooth and springs back when poked with a finger. Cover the dough and leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in size (about 1 hour). You can also do this in the fridge overnight which gives it a lovely sourdough flavour. In the meantime, prepare the baking tray by rubbing a large 30cm spring form cake tin with butter. Knock down the dough and knead it lightly to press out the air then roll out into a 20x30cm rectangle. Spread the dough with the softened butter then spread with fruit mince and sprinkle with grated marzipan. Roll the dough up tightly (from the longest side) to form a sausage then slice into 2cm thick wheels. Pack the buns around the outside of the prepared cake tin and place a small ramekin in the middle (to keep the wreath shape. Then cover loosely with cling wrap and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in size. In the meantime, make the caramel; place the sugar in a pan or saucepan with 2 tbsp water and heat gently until dissolved. Bring to the boil and simmer until deep golden brown. Add the OBS, butter and cream and swirl to combine. Allow to cool. Preheat the oven to 200C (conventional, 180 fan-forced) and bake for 20-30 minutes until golden (with the ramekin in the middle). Allow to cool slightly before serving warm, drizzled with the sherry caramel. Decorate with marzipan stars.

TIP You know when people say they hate marzipan? What they really mean is they hate persipan – the fake marzipan sold in most shops which is actually made from peach and apricot kernels and tastes like almond essence (also fake). Woolies now sell proper marzipan so do yourself a favour and give the real deal a try.

Caramel Peppermint Crisp Mousse Cake

by Kate | Sep 22, 2016 | 25 comments

Is there anything more South African than the classic peppermint crisp tart? Well, I hope this Caramel Peppermint Crisp Cake comes close! I've basically made a hobby out of coming up with new riffs on the combination of tinned caramel, whipped cream, coconut biscuits and peppermint crisp - cakes, ice cream sandwiches, fridge cakes - and I'll probably come up with a few more creations to add to that, but in the meantime, this Caramel Peppermint Crisp Cake is my favourite! Layers of coconut sponge cake, light and creamy mousse made from tinned caramel, flecks of crushed up peppermint crisp and it's all covered in more of all of that!

While I realise I might upset quite a few purists, not for the fact that I turned a tart into a cake, but that I use whipped cream in mine. Guys, we need to sit down and talk about that Orley Whip nonsense. It needs to stop. True friends don't let friends eat Orley Whip. (Loophole: unless you're a vegan friend, then, by all means, go ahead and get your fix).

I made this Caramel Peppermint Crisp Cake for the September issue of Essentials Magazine - they've given me a page in every issue called #KateBakes and they've been mad enough to basically let me loose and make whatever my heart desires! So this month, my heart desired a big fat decadent cake with a hint of local heritage and something that you can take to a braai. Because if you go to a bring 'n braai and there's no peppermint crisp tart, was it really a braai after all?

Caramel Peppermint Crisp Cake

Serves 8

120g butter, softened

400g Natura Golden Caster Sugar

360g cake flour

1 ½ tbsp baking powder

40g desiccated coconut, toasted

pinch of salt

3 large eggs

360ml coconut milk

Caramel Mousse Filling

2 tsp gelatine powdered (3 gelatine sheets)

3 tbsp water

2 x 400g tins condensed milk, boiled (or take a shortcut and use tinned caramel)

1 tsp vanilla

pinch of salt

500ml cream, whipped to stiff peaks

400g peppermint crisp chocolate, crushed

200g coconut tea biscuits, crumbled

Preheat the oven to 170C and line 3 x 20cm springform tins with baking paper. Beat the butter, caster sugar, flour, baking powder, coconut and salt together on a low speed until a sandy texture forms. Whisk the eggs and coconut milk together in a jug then slowly add to the dry ingredients while the mixer is running, to form a batter. Divide the cake batter evenly between the prepared tins and bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean, and the cakes are golden. Allow to cool a little in the tin before turning out onto a cake rack. Trim the cooled cakes by levelling the tops. Place one cake layer back inside one of the cleaned springform cake tin.

Next, make the mousse; sprinkle the gelatine over the water and allow to bloom. Microwave in short bursts until just melted the stir in half the tin of cooked condensed milk (reserve the rest), vanilla and salt. Fold in the cream until no streaks remain. Spread the remaining caramel on top of the sponge then pour half of the mousse on top. Crumble over 1/3 of the peppermint crisp and biscuits and top with another cake layer. Repeat with the remaining caramel, mousse, peppermint crisp and biscuits, ending with a cake layer. Refrigerate for 2 hours or until set. To unmould, run a warm palette knife around the edges. Decorate with peppermint crisp shards, tennis biscuits and caramel.

Homemade Tinned Caramel (Dulce De Leche)

by Kate | Sep 16, 2016 | 3 comments

If I had to pick one food that completely represented my childhood it would be boiled, tinned caramel (dulce de leche). On the first day of every school holiday, my mother would put 6 tins of condensed milk in a massive pot of boiling water and simmer them away for hours on end until the contents turned golden and caramelised.

Each tin would then get our names scribbled on in permanent marker; Sarah-Jane, Leigh-Anne, Dale, Lynne, Steve and Katelyn before being put in the fridge. No room for 'Oh I'm sorry I ate yours - I thought it was mine' which had been my sneaky plan for years until my mother figured out what I was up to. Once your tin of caramel was finished, that was it. Obviously I finished mine in the first day or two, my sisters however would eat theirs for WEEKS! How is that even possible?!

If you've ever made your own boiled condensed milk caramel, then you will know that it doesn't even come close to the store-bought tinned caramel! Peppermint crisp tart, made with homemade caramel? Total game-changer. While my usual way of making boiled caramel is in the tin, I also stumbled upon a second method from Donna Hay which is just as effective - especially if the idea of boiling tins makes you nervous!

Method 1: The Williams Way

After the pressure cooker explosion of 1994 my mother and I decided it's safer to rather ditch my grandmother's method and do it in a vessel that won't risk our lives. Remove the labels, place the tins in a large pot, completely cover with water, place the lid on and simmer for 2-3 hours (topping up with water every now and then). I like to boil mine a little longer so it really goes dark - it's less sweet and with a pinch of salt, it's just mind-blowingly good.

WARNING: Whatever you do, do not let the tins boil dry. No water in the pot will cause the tins to overheat and explode. Also, while I realise you may be so excited to eat the caramel that you'll want to crack the tin open asap. Do so at your peril! Allow the tins to cool completely before tucking in. Trust me on this one. I've been there (and got the scars to prove it!)

Method 2: The Donna Hay Way

Ah Donna, my hero, my inspiration - and after I spotted her way of making dulce de leche, I loved her even more! Open the tin of condensed milk and pour the contents out into a 20 x 20cm baking tin. Cover the surface with baking paper and then cover the whole tin with foil. Place the tin in a bain marie with water coming up halfway to the sides and bake in a preheated oven at 220 degrees celsius for 1 1/2 hours - 2 hours. Whisk the cooled caramel until smooth and place into jars - although I don't think the last part is necessary ('cos you're going to eat it straight away anyway!)

Chocolate Peanut Butterscotch Milkshake

by Kate | Aug 24, 2016 | 0 comments

#SPONSORED

If I had to be any dessert in the world, I’d be a freakshake. If you don’t know why then you’re obviously new around here so I’ll just go ahead and introduce myself anyway; Freakshakes are the ultimate anti-diet dessert, they’re totally over-the-top ridiculously decadent and most importantly, they’re the epitome of ‘life’s too short just order the damn dessert’. I love anything that involves 5 desserts in one, and I also love it when I can sip my dessert through a straw – minimum effort for maximum pleasure. Freakshakes seem to have taken over the internet, restaurants and our lives and I’m totally okay with that. Topped with basically every sweet, chocolate, biscuit or sauce you can get your hands on – there’s even a place that tops the milkshake with a HAMBURGER and FRIES! Get outta here. Seriously though, who came up with that? I want to be friends with them.

Something else you won’t say no to is this double thick shake loaded with peanut butter and chocolate. The folks over at First Choice challenged me to create my own take on a shake (no rhyme intended) using their new Chocolate Velvet which coincidentally, I discovered makes the easiest cheat’s no-churn ice cream in the world – see the tip below on how! This milkshake makes the perfect late-night snack when you NEED something sweet and decadent but don’t want to waste time fussing about – simply whip the chocolate velvet, add milk, a shot of cold espresso and then load it up with peanut brittle, butterscotch sauce and whatever takes your fancy, which in my case, is a lot of things! This milkshake reminds me of the double thick malt I had as a child when we visited a proper old-school drive-in in Port Elizabeth – it was delivered to our car by a waiter on roller skates, people! And now I’m giving away my age so I’m going to change the subject: If you had to create your own freakshake, what would you pile onto it?

Chocolate Peanut Butterscotch Milkshake

Serves 2

4 tbsp soft brown sugar

4 tbsp cream

40g peanut butter

2 cups First Choice Chocolate Velvet, chilled overnight

1 cup First Choice milk, chilled

50g The Kate Tin Dark Baking Chocolate, melted

First Choice cream, whipped, for topping

Chopped peanut butter chocolate bars, to decorate

Crushed peanut brittle, to decorate

Start by making the peanut butterscotch sauce, melt the sugar in a pan over medium heat until the sugar turns a dark caramel brown – about 3-4 minutes. Swirl in the cream until combined and allow that to cool completely. Stir in the peanut butter. Smear the melted chocolate onto the sides of 2 glasses. Place the chocolate velvet in a medium bowl and whip on high speed for 5 minutes until fluffy. Add the milk and mix to combine. Pour into the prepared glasses. Top with whipped cream, chopped chocolate bars, crushed peanut brittle and drizzle with the peanut butterscotch sauce.

TIP The chocolate velvet makes ridiculously easy no-churn ice cream. Just whip it, flavour it with whatever you like - espresso swirl, chopped nuts, chocolate chips, peanut butter - then pour into a bowl and freeze!

Disclaimer: This post has been sponsored by First Choice, however, I only work with brands I think are awesome and that I actually use myself.

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