Perfectly salted

Note: in response to the requests for my recipe...I'm really very sorry, but since this is a potential business venture for me, I won't be publicizing the recipe. However, if somehow/some way it is successful and grows - you could then order some! :)

It's a slow afternoon.  That doesn't happen too often as is perhaps illustrated by the amount of time that has passed since my last blog post.  I know I've made these empty promises over the last year that I *will* get back to my blog and *will* try to post with more frequency.  But I guess I'm not gonna say that anymore since clearly - I won't.  But it doesn't mean I'm gone forever!  It just means that life is so busy and full that you will have to be patient between postings!!

I'm really not cooking a whole lot of new stuff.  And only baking for special occasions.  But you know what I AM making a lot of?  Like literally by the hundreds?  Caramels...

This might be the perfect little candy...

Vanilla Bean Salted Caramels to be exact.  This is an old, old recipe that my aunties have been making for my entire life (and I suppose, longer).  Originally there was no vanilla bean, no salt, and included walnuts.  The aunties would make huge batches around the holidays and they were given out as gifts.  And occasionally off-season, if you showed up at someone's house they'd bring a bag out of the freezer and you had to be PATIENT as the caramels warmed to room temperature...or just chip a tooth (they're just about worth the sacrifice.)

I don't precisely recall when I started playing with the recipe.  It was probably a few years ago when I was making marshmallows and decided I wanted to attempt a "Scotch Kiss" à la See's Candy.  The scotch kisses (caramel covered marshmallows) didn't work so well due to the caramel hardening too quickly, but one thing I did discover is that the family caramel recipe is incredible!!

For the Bake Sale I made about 240 caramels - that is one HUGE batch

I had a large batch of vanilla beans -- Costco had been selling them.  And this was also about the time salted-fill-in-the-blank was becoming so popular on the dessert scene.  It of course started with caramel (salted caramel ice cream practically went viral), but I was also seeing salt sprinkled on chocolate and various chocolate tarts and even over unsalted butter to serve with bread at restaurants.  I personally love the flavor and crunch a sprinkling of salt adds to an item.

And there we have it.  I took out the nuts (woulda been a lot going on in there), threw in some vanilla bean, sprinkled them with sea salt and watched them get devoured.

The cutting and wrapping really is the hardest part - takes FOREVER

I've always said one of the reasons I love to cook and bake so much is to watch people enjoy the food I make.  Maybe it's an ego-boost, so maybe it's semi-selfish of me.  But who cares.  Making people happy is making people happy!  And I have not seen people get quite so happy about something I've turned out of my kitchen since the latest batch of macs!  People LOVE these caramels.  How simple it is to toss a few in a baggie and deliver them to a friend over lunch, dinner, coffee and then watch them smile!

Call me crazy and oddly frugal, but I cut my own wrappers out of wax paper too

They're very tedious to make (all that cutting and wrapping) but they keep forever in the freezer!  And they don't get crushed under the weight of a tissue (like macarons, I swear...)  So I'm loving my salted caramels.

In fact, I'm loving them so much - and so is everyone else - that I'm thinking I might start selling them to friends locally.  Just to test out the demand.  So friends - stay tuned!!  And watch Facebook!  And if you're not on Facebook - then I guess you won't get any... but who's not on Facebook?!!

I don't always enjoy eating my creations, but these I will devour!!

Depending on how this goes, maybe I'll expand and *gasp* ship.  And try new flavors - chocolate has already been attempted and is... fabulous!  But for now - the operation will remain small.  Small is good.  Small means I might actually still be able to blog once every few months...  like I just did, here!!

Colorful cookies

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter, yesterday.  Remember these?  I made them again yesterday.  SO pretty!!

I'm going to briefly veer away from my Costa Rica recap and head back to the reason I originally started this blog: to talk about food!  Baking in particular!  You all know I love tea.  I. Love. Tea.  I'm not talking about a good ole cup of Earl Grey, but afternoon tea and all the frilly girlie goodness that goes along with it: silver, china, tablecloths, cloth napkins, finger sandwiches, lemon curd, scones, sugar cubes, clotted cream, petit fours...  Frequently you'll also find cookies served at the end of afternoon tea, along with the petit fours (or in lieu of).  I'm hot and cold about cookies in general.  I know that sounds crazy since I'm a baker.  But bakers don't have to love everything they bake...  I mean, I don't even love eating my own macarons!  (I know - I know... there's something wrong with me).

Cranberry tea cookies with.... tea!

However, these cranberry tea cookies are ridiculous.  I can't stop eating them.  In fact, I think I can't make them anymore because I will NOT STOP EATING them.  To make matters worse, they're super easy to make.  So combine easy-to-make with delicious and you're in a dangerous spot.

It's kinda crazy how good these cookies are - especially for how simple they are to make

I'm not sure why I don't love cookies.  I also don't love cake - but I guess that's another blog post...  Cookies are boring to me, maybe.  They're not always very pretty - even when they taste great.  I think cookies are frequently done poorly too - especially homemade ones.  OK, ok... I know - now I'm just getting snobby.  But it seems people so often over-bake cookies that I just no longer trust I'm gonna get a tasty morsel when I'm offered one.  Instead, by default - I always turn them down. *sigh*

I ate all of these after I took this photo... seriously.

OK, so less tooting of the horn and more discussion on the blog post topic, yes?  The cranberry tea cookies.  These are technically called Cranberry Noel Cookies and I believe the original recipe has coconut in it.  Um, no thanks.  With a name like cranberry NOEL cookies - these are really a Christmas cookie.  But I love them.  And I wanted some in April.  So I'm calling them Cranberry Tea Cookies.  Problem solved.

Of course you can eat these cookies with coffee instead of tea.  Or a glass of milk.  Or like I do, out of the cookie jar with no accompanying beverage.

The original recipe doesn't call for this - but I thought it was a nice touch

I decided to make a little change to the original recipe which was given to us by a family friend... I roll the edges of the cookies in sugar before baking.  I originally did this because I thought I'd been a bit too generous with my cranberries and nuts in one batch and made the cookies not-sweet-enough.  So I rolled them in granulated sugar.  I loved how they turned out though; the sugar made them sparkle and the little crunch it added was very lovely.  I continue to roll them in sugar whether I'm heavy handed with the accouterments, or not!

Want the recipe?  I know you do...

Cranberry Noel Tea Cookies
Makes 35-40 cookies

2-4 oz sticks salted butter at room temperature (8 oz total)
1/2 cup sugar
2 T milk or cream
1 t vanilla
1/2 t salt
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 c chopped pecans
3/4 c chopped dried cranberries
1/4 c extra sugar

Cream butter and sugar til fluffy. Add milk and vanilla - mix. Add flour and salt - mix well.  It might seem crumbly at this point but if you keep blending it will come together eventually.  Add the cranberries and pecans.

Add cranberries and pecans...

Roll into 2 logs about 8 x 1 1/2".  Wrap and chill for 2 hours in the fridge.  I've also put them in the freezer for 30-60 minutes and this works the same way.  You just want it to be firm enough to cut without misshaping the round cookie.

Roll into logs

Wrap and chill for 2 hours

Slice cookies about 1/4" thick.  Roll edges of cookie in sugar (if you want.  But I highly recommend!)

Place on lightly greased cookie sheets, or Silpats. Bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes.  DON'T OVER-BAKE (well, unless you like hard hockey puck type cookies...)

Place on cookie sheet

Eat.  Eat more.  Eat a few more.  Give some to friends - wait, just kidding.

Eat...

A Passion

I can't even begin to explain where I've been the last month. So much is going on but so much of it is fantastic - that I'm almost not too apologetic. There are things going on at work and things going on personally and they're just keeping me busier than I've been in an extremely long time. Then in the midst of all of this craziness - my hard drive decided to die and I basically had to rebuild my entire computer. It was....fun... to say the least. But let's stop with the excuses and just get to what you REALLY want to read about:

Tart and sweet and simply, perfect

I was just a little bit obsessed with passionfruit this past summer. I think this post still holds the highest number of hits on my entire blog. But even outside my blog I'd find myself ordering passionfruit cocktails and tarts and pâte de fruit... and loving them! Then I did this and got to sample Jen's passionfruit ice cream à la David Lebovitz when we had dinner at her house. Uh oh - you mean this recipe is in my "The Perfect Scoop" book at home? We're about to be in trouble.

Passionfruit might just be my new obsession

It didn't take long for me to start thinking about that ice cream once I got home. And I even had tubs of passionfruit puree in my freezer just *waiting*. But what I didn't have, yet really wanted was passionfruit SEEDS to add that tiny crunch to the ice cream. And those basically only come from real passionfruits (duh)! I looked but didn't very obviously find any fresh passionfruits at local grocery stores - even the Asian ones. It's possible I needed to go INTO San Francisco for this, but I never made the time.

~I can find the Perfect Puree at Draegers in the Bay Area
~Combining the puree and cream

Then I was reading my cousin Courtney's blog. She and her husband have been living in Melbourne, Australia for the better part of the last year. Well, in one of her entries she talked about a pavlova she made. And what did I spy on top of her pavlova? Passionfruit puree WITH SEEDS! (Please re-read the title of this blog post in case you're wondering why I'm getting so excited.)

Tempering the egg yolks with the hot milk mixture - work fast!

Cook until you can draw a "line" on your spatula

At this point I knew I'd be seeing Courtney for our other cousin's wedding just a few weeks later and sweetly asked her if she could buy and bring me a can or two of this wondrous passionfruit puree! Of course she did - and I LOVE HER FOR IT!! *Thanks Snort!!*

If we had a Woolworths selling passionfruit pulp here in The States,
you can bet I'd be there buying it

How beautiful is that passionfruit pulp?
Anyone going to Australia and wanna pick some up for me?...

So I was ready! I finally had all my ingredients and I could make this fantastical passionfruit ice cream. Gosh - it takes a village doesn't it? Jen, Courtney and I guess even Mr. Lebovitz!

~The original recipe made *so* little I doubled it for you!
~Of course after churning, the volume is greater due to all the air mixed in

I made it more per Jen than Lebovitz, tho the differences were small. She omitted the orange oil/zest and I decided I wanted to as well. I'd also personally suggest a TAD more sugar, like probably a full half cup instead of 7 T. I do tend to like things a bit more sweet than tart though.

Oh shucks I have to clean the rest of this out...

This ice cream is phenomenal. And in all seriousness - it NEEDS the seeds. I don't know what I'll do when my small stash of Australian passionfruit puree is gone. But for now I'm portioning it out to each batch of ice cream in a manner where the LEAST amount possible goes in to still have a few bites of seeds in a serving. Did I hear someone say anal retentive?!?

So make this ice cream. Seriously. No, seriously. It's incredible.

Sublime.

I doubled the original recipe:

1 cup fresh or frozen passion fruit pulp or concentrate (12-16 passion fruits – strain the pulp to separate from the seeds)
2 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup whole milk
1 cup sugar
1/4 t salt
5 large egg yolks
couple spoonfuls of passion fruit seeds (optional – but I’d highly recommend it)

Combine the passion fruit pulp and 1 cup of cream in a large bowl. Warm the milk, sugar, salt and 1 cup of cream in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Be sure the sugar dissolves.

Temper the egg yolks with the warmed liquid; whisking constantly to keep the yolks from cooking. Return the entire mixture to the saucepan and heat over medium. Stir constantly with a heatproof spatula making sure to scrape the bottom and sides of the pan. When the mixture coats the back of a spoon or spatula, strain the custard through a sieve into the passion fruit and cream mixture.

Stir until blended. You could cool it over an ice bath but not necessary. Chill the custard in the refrigerator (I try to chill it at least overnight) and then churn in your ice cream machine. Stir a few spoonfuls of passion fruit seeds (or seeds and pulp) into the ice cream just before it is done. Makes about 1 1/2 quarts (6 cups).

Thanks for breakfast

I love breakfast foods. There's something so incredibly comforting about breakfast foods. Although I suppose I love MORE the homemade pancakes, waffles, Dutch babies, croissants, bagels, French Toast, scones, blueberry muffins, biscuits, cinnamon rolls, coffee cake, crepes, hot cereal and Danishes we'd get on weekend mornings growing up, as opposed to the cold cereal we'd get on weekdays. My mom has a very simple French Toast she's done for as long as I can remember. Just white bread plunged in beaten egg, lightly fried in butter and eaten with lemon juice and powdered sugar. Yum.

Well this isn't that recipe...

Mom and I do "Girls' Weekends". If you've been reading for a while, I think you know this. The first of these was while I was in college and reasonable driving distance to Santa Barbara. We fell in love with the Bath Street Inn and even returned there a year or two later. The folks at Bath Street are/were FANTASTIC cooks (it was quite a few years ago - but I must assume they still are!) This is partly why we returned. Santa Barbara's not too shabby either... The inn is an old Victorian with all the charm one expects from a B&B. I love all those little nooks you can find to hide out in and read a book. And best of all - it's about a mile walk to the gorgeous downtown shops and restaurants one imagines when they think of Santa Barbara.

Crumbled butter, sugar and nuts ~~ Drizzled with [real] maple syrup

I like my bread slices a tad wider so I cut on a bit of a diagonal

Of course there are breakfasts. Unbelievable breakfasts! We'd wake up each morning wondering what we were going to get that day and LOVED the anticipation of knowing it'd be mouthwatering. Two recipes we happily trotted away with were for their scones and their Baked French Toast. I love when B&Bs not only prepare scrumptious food, but have recipes printed up and ready to share with their guests when asked. Fabulous of you Bath Street!!

As it sits overnight a lot of that egg will be absorbed into the bread

In the morning - they're like sponges!

I don't very often make the Baked French Toast. Not 'cuz it's not ridiculously heavenly, but because it contains scary amounts of sugar, eggs, butter and carbs. However, this past weekend the gloves came off. I ran 10 miles on Saturday. Now that's no feat compared to my marathon-training buds running 16+. But it's still a friggin' lot. I decided Sunday morning I could consume a bit lot of sugar, eggs, butter and carbs.

Coming out of the oven all bubbly and delicious smelling!

Is that a cinnamon bun or a piece of baked French toast?

Ohhhh... breakfast comfort food. Why is there so often so much *bad stuff* in comfort food? Seriously - is the word "salad" in anyone's definition of comfort food? Not unless you're a huge, weird freak! So needless to say, the Baked French Toast was a hit this weekend. I think it comforted all who partook. And even drove some to seconds. Thank you Bath Street Inn!

It really didn't take long...

Bath Street Inn's Baked French Toast c. 1998

6-8 tablespoons butter (salted/unsalted - not a big diff)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup ground nuts
1/2 cup maple syrup
3/4 loaf of French bread cut into 1-1/2" slices
8 eggs
1 cup milk

*Note: the overall recipe came from Bath Street, but I have reduced the amounts of butter, sugar and maple syrup

Cut the first 3 ingredients together until crumbly. Sprinkle over a 9x13 dish. Drizzle with maple syrup. Place the bread over the syrup. Beat eggs with the milk and pour over. Press the bread down to help absorb the egg. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Bake covered for 35-50 minutes in a 325° oven until it's bubbling. Serve upside down.

'Cots and crunch

I had some friends over for dinner the other night. And while the reason I invited them over was to thank them for continually and repeatedly taking care of Lucca for me while I'm out of town, they showed up on my doorstep with a bucket full of apricots. Freshly picked THAT day. In fact they ran a little late arriving 'cuz they were out picking apricots. How wonderful does that sound?? I mean first off - how dare they show up with "gifts" but could I turn them away? OF COURSE NOT!

The cream is there to dress it up, but really, it needed no dressing

Gorgeous. Simple, rustic and gorgeous.

The apricots were small, but perfect. I'm not a huge fan of fresh apricots but I seriously love them cooked into things desserts. And these apricots were so fresh and perfect that even this "non-apricot-lover" enjoyed a few uncooked ones!

Fresh picked the day before

I knew I needed to make them into something quickly since there was no way I was going to let them get past their prime when they were a gift and started off so beautiful the day I received them. So I got down to it the very next day. But what to make them into??

Yup, throw an egg yolk into your crust

Yup, throw some cornmeal in there too...

It's summer. I'm currently training for a half marathon (note the Team in Training badge to the right). I will likely be donning a bathing suit in the near future. Therefore, I didn't want to make anything too heavy and sweet like an apricot pie. I also didn't have any social functions at which I could "get rid of this" dessert, so I wanted to keep it small and simple.

It's quite a crumbly crust, but it DOES come together

I was thinking a lot about apricot tarts but didn't want the typical apricot and almond tart with the almond filling. I was craving just fruit and crust. I finally put a whole bunch of epicurious recipes together and made up my own: Honey Vanilla Poached Apricot Cornmeal Galette. Yes, when you put 3 different recipes together you get a mouthful of a title. And no, you do not poach the baked apricot galette in honey and vanilla...

I just rolled it out on the Silpat, assembled, then baked. Très facile.

I've been reading about cornmeal pie crusts a lot and they intrigued me. I ♥ cornmeal. I ♥ the crunchiness cornmeal adds to muffins and breads. I ♥ it! So I wanted to make a cornmeal crust. But I didn't want a double crust since I was trying to keep this a little light. So I used this crust recipe, but halved it and left some of the sugar out.

Beautiful color on those 'cots

I also didn't want to fuss around with a pie plate or baking dish and figuring out if I had enough filling and what not. So I decided to make a galette. Making a pie into a galette suddenly allows you to call it "rustic" and "earthy". I liked the freedom a galette gave me. Just make it as big as I had filling for. So I kinda studied this recipe a little, but didn't use any of the elements from it.

I cheated with peach preserves *ssshhhh*

For my apricot filling I again didn't want a super thick and sweet pie-filling type apricot mixture, so gently poaching them sounded like a much better idea to me. I found this recipe and like it a lot, though next time I might throw a cinnamon stick in as well?...

It's okay that I drank that syrup afterward, right?
I KID!!!

And here's how I put them all together: made up the cornmeal crust and let it sit in the fridge. While it sat, I poached the apricots (though I'd probably suggest a full pound instead of 3/4). While the poached apricots drained, I rolled my crust dough on a Silpat, to a 9-10" circle and spread 1/3-1/2 cup of peach preserves over it (I didn't have apricot in the fridge - peach worked just fine). Next was the layer of poached apricots. Yum. And finally, I didn't like how those poached apricots looked, so I cut up some fresh apricots and arranged them on the top. Folded the edges of the crust over, sprinkled with "big sugar". And voilà!

Definitely needed those "prettily" arranged apricots on top

Ready for baking!

I baked around 400° for half an hour and it came out GORGEOUS (I mean, if I do say so...) It was just as I wanted it. Not too heavy. Not too much "pie filling". Not too sweet. Mostly just fruit and crust. And oh, that WONDERFUL cornmeal crunch... I immediately fell in love with it. Immediately. I could have made cookies out of just that crust (ok you might want to add an additional egg or egg yolk in if you do that - too crumbly otherwise!) Yes, I dolloped some whipped cream on for my photo shoot - but it really didn't need it.

When something is so colorful and delicious looking, it's hard to get a bad photo

Let's not forget to mention that I did not eat this in its entirety for Monday night's dinner. I fed some to a friend and sent a huge chunk home with her. Whew! Crisis averted!

But highly recommend. Highly. And what I'd recommend even more? Getting some fantastic friends who not only take care of your dog, but bring you fresh apricots when you're in the middle of thanking THEM. Priceless.