Whoop(s)ie Pies

Since returning to work, I find that I don’t have much time for keeping up with the blog right now – my own nor others’ I like to follow.  I miss it; but sometimes life forces us to prioritize (first world problems).  I still manage to catch glimpses of what comes through my e-mail and make mental notes of what I want to try. 

I Heart Cookies

Valentine’s Day can bring out the romantic sap in many of us.  Others, however, will often rant on about commercialization and another day to make corporate America more money.  I’m going to go the romantic sap route.  Whether or not I go overboard with it, I will leave to others to judge.  I can take it.

red hearts for the romantic saps

My first V-Day project was cookies.  Most of these will be boxed up and sent off to my dad tomorrow. 

Yesterday I made my favorite butter cookies from my Grandma’s recipe, using large and small heart-shaped cookies cutters.  The large hearts were brushed with honey and covered with cut outs of vanilla-flavored red fondant mixed with candy clay.  I used a Wilton imprint mat for the vines and flowers. 



it didn't take long to give up
this exercise in futility



The original idea was to pipe white confectionery coating in the imprints, but it was a little too chilly in our kitchen this morning and the coating kept solidifying in my piping bag.  I forfeited that battle. 

 

The smaller cookies were drizzled with honey and covered in Pettinice chocolate fondant.  I was really surprised when I opened the package.  This fondant was so dark it almost looked black - which was okay because I had planned on adding black gel color to it.

In both cases, but sure the fondant cut outs are where you want them before letting go.  Once they touch the sticky honey, they aren't easily repositioned.  For that reason, I usually cut a couple of extras for when I have to scrape off one I've completely skewed.



black hearts for the "others" or for romantic saps who also
happen to be die-hard Joan Jett fans (such as myself)



Today I made caramel filled molasses cookies.  This is the recipe that makes the stickiest cookie dough ever that needs to be piped.  I thought this a good opportunity to use a Wilton heart piping tip I had purchased years ago.  Not so much.  I've not used it for icing yet, but I hope it works better for icing than it did for the cookie dough.  I gave up and went back to my Ateco large round tip.  Since I still wanted hearts, I matched the cookies up in pairs and cut out tiny hearts in the middle of the tops before filling them with caramel filling. 

plan b

Tug and I have things to get done this weekend, so I’m not sure if any more baking will occur until next week.  For Tug – who could care less about cookies and sweets, but nearly swoons over bread – I’m going to revisit the focaccia recipe, but try baking it in a heart-shaped pan.  And maybe make a Caesar salad . . . with heart-shaped croutons.



I used vanilla extract this time instead of almond, but I prefer the almond on purely sentimental grounds.





Caramels for a Cause

Back in November, I signed up as a volunteer with an organization called Icing Smiles.  In a nutshell, Icing Smiles is a non-profit organization that coordinates local volunteer bakers with families of terminally and critically ill children to provide an amazing celebratory cake (or other treat) at no charge to the family.  It offers the opportunity for the family to create a positive memorable occasion.  Thus far, I’ve not been called on to provide a cake and, while it would be a privilege to provide this service for a family, I truly hope that for the sake of children and families that there’s never a need. 

But in the meantime, there are needs elsewhere and despite being an organization composed primarily of volunteers, there are still expenses to be met.  This Saturday, Icing Smiles will be hosting its first fundraising event, the Magic of a Smile Gala.  The gala is in Maryland, where the organization is headquartered, which precludes my attendance.  To help the cause, options were offered of purchasing tickets to the gala, making a cash donation, or providing sweets for the dessert buffet.  I went with the latter.    

They were seeking donations of items that could be easily shipped:  homemade marshmallows, brownie bites, macaroons (I think they’re actually looking for macarons), cake pops, meringues, chocolate pretzels or sandwich cookies, candy or candy bark.  I seriously considered marshmallows because I’ve not yet made homemade marshmallows and they’re on my “to accomplish” list, but humidity can be a problem anytime you’re dealing with egg whites.  Instead I chose to make caramels.

this was one large mold until I took the scissors to it

As you may have read in some of my previous posts, I’m a big fan of making caramels.  The fanaticism wanes when it comes time to cut them, however.  I’ve searched online for caramel cutters, and all that I’ve found are apparently very expensive given that one must call to obtain a price.  As they say, “if you have to ask, you can’t afford it.”  Instead of an incredibly expensive caramel cutter, after some gnashing of teeth, I opted for a moderately expensive silicone mold.



chocolate caramels waiting to be boxed



My thought process was that I could just pour the caramel over the mold, spread it into the cavities, let it set and pop out perfectly shaped caramels.  I found this process was much easier in theory than in practicality.  Trying to pour the screaming hot caramel from a six-quart, heavy copper-clad pan cleanly into the tiny cavities of the mold is a challenge I’ve not yet mastered.  The molded caramels had rough edges that needed to be trimmed off, but that was much easier than trying to cut through a one-half inch thick slab of caramel. 

I thought little hearts
would be super cute
for the chocolate
caramels, but way too
time consuming

The production schedule I had set for myself had to be slightly altered due to illness.  (At least once a year Tug brings home cooties from school and shares them with me.)  For a few days I didn’t have ambition to do much more than make the short journey from the bed to the sofa.  Even if I did have ambition, I couldn’t prepare food for others while coughing, sniffling and sneezing.  I managed to get everything finished up this afternoon and even made it on time to get them shipped out this evening to arrive by Friday. 



goat milk caramels with coarse sea salt



I nearly fainted when the clerk told me how much the shipping cost was.  It was totally outrageous, but I had made a promise.  So I paid it.  When I got home, I told Tug the next time I have the brilliant idea to donate something I’ve made, he should gently, but firmly place his hands on my shoulders, look me squarely in the eye, and say, “Love, just write a check.”



Chocolate Caramels

Yield:  depends on how big you cut your caramels

1 tablespoon butter *

1 cup evaporated milk

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk

1/2 cup water

2 cups light corn syrup

2 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 ounces unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces

6 ounces bittersweet (60%) chocolate pieces

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Lightly spray a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with cooking spray and line bottom and sides of the pan with parchment.  Rub the parchment with the one tablespoon of butter, paying particular attention to the corners.  You can also melt the butter and brush it on the parchment.*

 In a small heavy saucepan, combine the evaporated milk, heavy cream and sweetened condensed milk.  

Pour the water and corn syrup into a large (5 or 6 quart), heavy saucepan.  Pour the sugar into the center, avoiding contact with the sides of the pan.  Add the salt.  Let sit for 15 – 20 minutes, then bring to a boil over medium-high heat, and cook until the sugar is dissolved, about 6 to 8 minutes.  Stir as little as possible.  If necessary, brush down the sides of pan with a pastry brush dipped in water to remove any sugar crystals on the sides of the pan.  Stop stirring, insert a candy thermometer, reduce the heat to medium and let come to a boil.  Cook, without stirring, until temperature reaches 260°F (hard-ball stage).  This may take anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes, depending on your pan, stove and altitude.

Meanwhile, place the milk/cream mixture over low heat and stir until warm.  Keep warm but do not boil.

When the sugar mixture reaches 260°F, stir in the warm milk mixture and the pieces of butter.   This will drop the temperature.  When the temperature comes back up to 230°F, add the chocolate pieces.  Stirring constantly, cook over medium heat until the thermometer reaches 244°F (firm ball stage), 30 to 60 minutes.  Stir in the vanilla.  Immediately pour the caramel into the prepared pan without scraping the pot.  (Scrape the pot into a separate container if you’d like.)  Allow to rest, uncovered, at room temperature for 12 to 24 hours without disturbing.  

Unmold caramel by lifting the parchment paper out of the pan.  Place the caramel slab on a cutting board and cut into pieces with a very sharp, heavy knife.  If necessary, rub the knife with butter or spray with cooking spray.*  Wrap the caramels with waxed paper squares, twisting ends to seal, or place in individual candy cups.  The caramels will stick together if not individually wrapped.

*These steps are not necessary if you are using silicone molds.  Additionally, the caramels in molds will not take as long to set.



Ice Cream and Cake and a Relapse

I need to test a cupcake recipe.  The Cupcake Project and Scoopalicious are sponsoring an Ice Cream Cupcake Contest.  I have an idea I think is really awesome and I want to enter, thus the need to test the recipe.  But I'm less enthusiastic about turning on my oven.  We are experiencing "near record temperatures" (as The Weather Channel keeps reminding me) and the idea of turning on the oven isn't so appealing.  I guess I'll have to stay up until wee hours of the night or get up at 0:dark:30 to prevent overheating the kitchen.  I won't spill the beans entirely yet, but I'm calling them "A Taste of India".  Curious?  I am.  The recipe and photos will be posted here after I enter.

In other news, a relapse of my caramel addiction was inevitable.  After finishing the caramels for the Food Blogger Bake Sale, I verbalized something along the lines of not wanting to think about, see, smell, eat, etc., caramels again for quite some time.  In the lyrics of Elvis Presley, "well that was just a lie".  To be completely honest, I don't think I've ever stopped thinking about caramels. 

I'm thinking about chocolate stout caramels.  I'm thinking about goat milk and buckwheat honey caramels.  I'm thinking about caramels made with apple juice.  I'm thinking about how to incorporate peanut butter into caramels.  I'm thinking . . .

I'm thinking I need to learn to make smaller batches of caramels.

Almost Forgot

I intended to include the caramel recipe(s) with the last post but, well, I did forget - no almost about it.  Since all of my caramels thus far are adapted from the same recipe, I'll give you the recipe for basic caramels and tell you what I've done differently.

So here's the recipe:

Basic Caramels

Recipe adapted from Charlotte Albright

Yield:  depends on how big you cut your caramels

1 Tbs butter

1 cup evaporated milk

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk

1/2 cup water

2 cups light corn syrup

2 cups sugar

1/2 tsp salt

4 oz (one stick) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Lightly spray a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with cooking spray and line bottom and sides of the pan with parchment.  Rub the parchment with the one tablespoon of butter, paying particular attention to the corners.  You can also melt the butter and brush it on the parchment.

 In a small heavy saucepan, combine the evaporated milk, heavy cream and sweetened condensed milk.  

Pour the water and corn syrup into a large, heavy saucepan.  Pour the sugar into the center, avoiding contact with the sides of the pan.  Add the salt.  Let sit for 15 – 20 minutes, then bring to a boil over medium-high heat, and cook and stir until the sugar is dissolved, about 6 to 8 minutes. Brush down the sides of pan with a pastry brush dipped in water to remove any sugar crystals.  Stop stirring, insert a candy thermometer, reduce heat to medium and let come to a boil.  Cook, without stirring, until temperature reaches 260°F (hard-ball stage).  This may take anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes, depending on your pan, stove and altitude.

Meanwhile, place milk mixture over low heat and stir until warm.  Do not boil.

When the sugar mixture reaches 260°F, stir in the warm cream and the pieces of butter.   Stirring constantly, cook over medium heat until the thermometer reaches 244°F (firm ball stage), 30 to 60 minutes.  Stir in the vanilla.  Immediately pour the caramel into the prepared pan without scraping the pot.  Allow to rest, uncovered, at room temperature for 12 to 24 hours without disturbing.  

Unmold caramel by lifting the parchment paper out of the pan.  Place the caramel slab on a cutting board and cut into pieces with a very sharp, heavy knife.  If necessary, rub the knife with butter or spray with cooking spray.  Wrap the caramels with waxed paper squares, twisting ends to seal, or with foil candy wrappers.  The caramels will stick together if not individually wrapped.

And here are the variations:

For the red wine caramels, I reduced two cups of red wine (in this case, Merlot) down to half of a cup.  Keep a heat-proof measuring cup nearby to check your progress.  If you go too far, just add a little water to make it half of a cup.  The red wine reduction replaces the half cup of water in the recipe.  Everything else is the same.


For the bourbon-vanilla bean caramels, I reduced one cup of bourbon down to a quarter of a cup and decreased the water in the recipe to a quarter of a cup.  (You could also just reduce the bourbon to half a cup, but I got a little carried away with my reduction.)  This takes the place of the half cup of water in the recipe.  I split one vanilla bean lengthwise, scraped the seeds out and tossed the pod in with the milk mixture.  The seeds were reserved and added with two teaspoons of bourbon (instead of two teaspoons vanilla) at the end.

There you go.  And there will be more variations to come.

Caramel Overload

Yesterday I did drag myself to the store as I absolutely had to do; and I did make the second batch of caramels I wanted to test.  These caramels were bourbon and vanilla bean.  I didn't bother taking photos of the process, because one batch of caramel doesn't look that much different than any other (except the mauve thing).

What I wasn't thinking about in my zeal to try these caramels, was that eventually I was going to have to cut them.  Two hours and four knives later, they're finally done.  Just in time because I think my patience was about done, too.

The bourbon-vanilla bean caramels had to be poured into two 8" square pans because the Merlot caramels weren't ready to come out of the 9" x 13" yet.  I tried to pour the caramel evenly between the pans, but one of them was slighted a bit which left me with some skinny caramels.  I wanted to cut hearts like I did for Valentine's Day, but the caramel wasn't cooperating with that idea enough for me to pursue it beyond the three it begrudgingly gave up.  These caramels were definitely the most difficult to cut of all the caramels I've made. 

Until I tried cutting the Merlot caramels.  These were just a bit softer than the bourbon-vanilla bean caramels so I thought since I had three bourbon-vanilla bean hearts, I'd cut three Merlot hearts.  The first one attempted made it quite clear there would be no Merlot caramel hearts.  The generously buttered cutter is still soaking.  I managed to get about six squares cut before my thoughts started turning to caramel sauce.  These things stuck to everything.  I buttered the knife; they still stuck.  I buttered the cutting board; they still stuck.  I buttered my fingers; they still stuck.



Now while I thought cutting all of these caramels was a major pain in the posterior, you want to know what's even worse?  WRAPPING THEM!!!  I think I'll be buying some mini cupcake liners or candy cups or . . . something other than wrapping each and every one of these in little foil squares!

I still have more ideas for caramels.  They're going to wait awhile.  And I'm going to see how much a caramel cutter costs.

Practice Makes Caramels



Finished - finally!



I could have said perfect, but caramel doesn't have to be perfect to be good, as evidenced by some of my previous shortcomings.  There have been some ideas for caramels rumbling around in my head for awhile now, kept in place by the time and attention necessary for finishing the wedding cake flowers.  The flowers I actually need for the cake are done (but I still need to finish one or two for the back ups).  So today, I released one of the caramel ideas from its imprisonment inside my head.  Today I made red wine caramels.

Given that the original caramel recipe only called for half of a cup of water, I chose to reduce two cups of red wine (Merlot) down to one-half cup.  I didn't think half of a cup of wine would give me the flavor I was looking for.  But then again, I'm not sure the two cups reduced did either. 

The wine reduction, corn syrup and sugar was so beautiful while it was cooking. 



So pretty . . .



Then the cream, evaporated and sweetened condensed milks were added.  It turned mauve:  a color I find neither appealing nor appetizing. 



so not.



Fortunately the caramelization of the sugars helped the color a bit, and it still has a slight pink tint to it. 



And now we wait.



From what I chewed off of the spatula though, I'm not tasting much of anything that resembles wine.  We'll see what they taste like tomorrow when they're ready to cut.  If I can wait that long.



The reason I have all of these caramel ideas floating around is that I am donating caramels to a food-blogger bake sale for Share our Strength to be held in St. Louis on May 14.  This particular sale is being organized in part by Stef at the Cupcake Project.  I'm donating goat milk caramels with sea salt for sure.  Others are still awaiting testing/results.  The jury is still out on this one.  I really want to get to one of the other recipes today, but I absolutely must get myself to the grocery store.  It can be a bit irritating when the "need to do's" trump the "want to do's". 

Maybe there's a different w(h)ine about these caramels.

Will I ever learn?

Yesterday brought about a couple of lessons, at least one of which I should have already known.  *Sigh*

I'm an early riser for the most part.  (Here is where I need to point out that getting out of bed doesn't necessarily mean that I'm functioning.)  I like getting up a bit early and having the house to myself; the quiet mornings before the dogs bark and the birds start vocalizing.  My usual routine is to make/drink some coffee, check my messages, stare blankly out the window.  You notice that coffee is the first thing.  Yesterday it wasn't. 

Lesson One: 

Do not attempt anything requiring concentration until coffee has been consumed.

While waiting for the coffee to brew, I looked at the pot of tangerine/orange peels on the stove and thought it would be a good time to give them a one last little simmer while the kitchen was still cool.  I then took my finished cup of coffee to check my messages, thinking 15 minutes should be just perfect for the peels to come up to temp and simmer for a bit.  In theory.  While my brain kept telling me that I turned the heat on to medium low; reality showed me that it was on medium. 

This is what greeted me when I returned to the kitchen:

Lesson Two: 

Never, NEVER walk away from a pot of cooking sugar (regardless of cooking temperature).

Where have we heard this before?  In the January 18 post where I confessed to the same offense having boiled citrus-ginger marmalade all over the stove. 

I knew this and did it anyway.

So the recipe I was conjuring up with the candied peels?  Well, there's been some change to that plan.  The peels themselves were not salvageable.  I did, however, save the burnt orange syrup and am thinking of incorporating it into a caramel.  Not sure how yet, but it will come to me.  And maybe I'll have learned not to walk away while the caramel is cooking.  I can only hope.

Coconut. Caramel. Cupcakes.

They didn't turn out exactly as I had imagined, but in no way, shape or form is that a complaint.  I think this may be the best cupcake I've made.



Hiding the treasure inside.



I was slightly disappointed that the caramel sank to
the bottom, but I got over it quickly.

  

All dressed up and no place to go.




Yes, those are my teeth marks. 
I guess it had someplace to go after all.



















The Recipes:

Caramel Coconut Cupcakes

Makes approximately 18 cupcakes

1-1/2 cups all purpose flour

½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

1-1/2 cups shredded unsweetened coconut

¼ cup plus 3 Tbs coconut milk

1 Tbs white vinegar

1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract

½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup packed brown sugar

3 large eggs, beaten, room temperature

20 soft caramels

Preheat oven to 350°F for at least 20 minutes.  Line cupcake tins with paper or foil liners.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and coconut in a large bowl.  Whisk to combine and set aside.   In a measuring cup, combine the coconut milk, vinegar and vanilla extract and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and brown sugar on medium-high speed for 3 minutes.  Stop and scrape the bowl and paddle.  Cream an additional 2 – 3 minutes.  Stop and scrape the bowl and paddle again.  On medium speed, slowly drizzle in the beat egg, no more than 2 tablespoons at a time and mixing each in completely before adding more.  Stop and scrape the bowl and paddle halfway through and after all the egg is incorporated.

On low speed, add half of the flour mixture, followed by the coconut milk mixture, and then the remaining flour.  Mix just until combined.  Use a spatula to fold in any remaining flour, making sure to get down to the bottom of the bowl. 

Using an ice cream scoop, portion batter into prepared pan.  Push a caramel into each cupcake and swirl the batter over the top.  Eat any remaining caramels.  Bake the cupcakes for 18 – 20 minutes, or until lightly browned on top.  Immediately and carefully remove the cupcakes from the pan to a wire rack.  Cool completely.  Ice with white chocolate caramel buttercream.

White Chocolate Buttercream

Makes about 6 cups

¾ cup milk

1-1/2 cups granulated sugar

2 Tbs all purpose flour

1 tsp vanilla

6 Tbs heavy whipping cream

5 sticks unsalted butter, cubed, room temperature

3-1/2 oz white chocolate, melted and cooled

Heat the milk and sugar over medium-low heat until the sugar is dissolved, about 15 – 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Remove from heat and whisk in flour.  Pour into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on medium speed until cooled to room temperature.  Reduce speed to low and add the vanilla, cream and butter.  Mix to combine and then gradually begin increasing the speed to medium-high.  Go slowly so you don’t end up wearing it.  Beat on medium-high for 7 to 10 minutes.  Reduce speed to medium and slowly drizzle in the melted white chocolate.  Mix just until combined. 

If not using immediately, refrigerate for up to a week or freeze for up to two months.  Allow to come to room temperature and re-beat before using.

White Chocolate Caramel Buttercream

3 cups white chocolate buttercream

½ cup caramel sauce

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the white chocolate buttercream on medium-high speed until smooth and creamy.  Reduce speed to medium and slowly drizzle in the caramel sauce.

Projects for Valentine's Day

Last night as I'm lying wide awake in bed thinking about the pan of caramel upstairs, my mind began to wander toward Valentine's Day coming up (and on a Monday, puh-leaze!).  Could I use some of my heart-shaped cutters to make cute little caramel hearts?  Indeed I could.  And indeed I did.  I would have preferred a cutter sized somewhere in between the two I had, so that's something to keep in mind when I get to Hobby Lobby.



The wooden tenderizer (which has never touched a piece of meat)

was for pressing the cutter into the caramel and saving my fingers.

 

Little caramel beauties ready to be boxed up.



I also started thinking about some of the cake pieces I had in the freezer.  Yes, I freeze cake scraps.  It's really difficult for me to throw away cake.  I've made cake balls before, but how about making more little hearts out of chocolate chile cake scraps?  So I did.  They're not finished yet. 


All lined up and waiting to take a dip.

 Meanwhile I was also thinking about the strawberry-hibiscus cupcakes with lemongrass buttercream.  They were still sitting boxed on the counter waiting for the requisite number of days to pass before I could force myself to throw them away.  (It's an ordeal I have to work up to.)  Maybe they would make some nice little cake hearts as well.  No, not really.  I even added a little ginger syrup as I was mixing them up.  Didn't help.  So with a heavy heart, it was finally time to send it to the trash.  Experiment status:  failed.  Redemption is needed.

Test Results Pending

One test is done.  The prognosis looks good, although the results won't be known until tomorrow.  So far, it looks like my caramel made with homemade sweetened condensed goat milk is going to be okay.  As much as I like experimenting and testing recipes, this one actually had me a little nervous.  Nervous not that it would be an epic tragedy if it didn't work out, but not knowing how my homemade sweetened condensed goat milk would react in violently boiling hot caramel.  Cleaning burnt marmalade off the stove was not something I enjoyed and I wasn't imagining caramel being any easier.

Pan before.  Most recipes I've read just call for

buttering the pan.  I'm not going to spend that

kind of time and effort and then not be able

to get the caramel out of the pan. 

I love parchment!  Absolute must have.

This is my fourth batch of caramel, and I'm learning a few things as I go.  The most important is that preparation is imperative.  Don't even think about turning any burners on until everything is ready to go at the very second it's needed.  Today I forgot to measure out my vanilla and decided at the last minute that I would add some instant coffee.  If I use coffee in the future, I believe I'll dissolve it in some milk or water first.  There are going to be a few caramels that have a much stronger coffee kick since the granules didn't dissolve the way I thought they should.

Not quite ready to pour.  Learned that

lesson the hard way. 

If this test is truly successful I can then move on to testing using the evaporated goat milk and goat butter.  I chose not to this time because I didn't want to waste the more expensive ingredients if it was a massive failure I couldn't recover.  But it would have to be a really big failure for me to throw out caramel.  (Of note though, I did make it all day yesterday without eating caramel.)

Pan after.  Waiting until tomorrow

to reveal its secrets.  Do you see the

little dark spots of undissolved

coffee granules?

And my stock is done; reduced and strained.  I'm going to leave the fat instead of skimming since I'm not planning on making consomme.  But since the hubs won't let me use the pressure canner without doing a safety check first, I had to go ahead and put the stock in the freezer for now.  But that's okay.  I already have a couple of other containers in there, so when I do get to can, I'll just do all of them at the same time.  And hope their appearances are different enough that I can tell them apart when I'm done.  Chicken noodle soup with seafood stock doesn't sound all that appealing to me.



Caramel in Two Acts

While the better part of the Midwest is being blanketed in snow, it's raining here.  Dreary, drizzly, grey, cold-to-your-bones raining.  If I'd had any citrus I would have made some more lovely, sunny marmalade.  But I didn't.  So instead I made more caramels.

Act I was an attempt to do half of a batch of goat's milk caramels.  Other than scorching them slightly, I thought they were going to turn out well.  When I gave one corner a poke to see how they were setting up, I knew I had a problem.  This was confirmed when I attempted to cut them.  They didn't cut so much as they broke.  Instead of caramel, apparently I made toffee.  Before I had a chance to get all disgruntled about this, inspiration hit me as I was staring at some of the small shards on my cutting board:  toffee chips.  Goat's milk toffee chips.  Brilliant!  I will now be in search of the perfect recipe for which to use my goat's milk toffee chips.

Shards of goat's milk toffee waiting to be broken into chips.

Act II was a departure from goat's milk caramels.  I made the same recipe (the full recipe this time) but used cow's milk and butter instead.  And I added some ancho chile powder right before I poured them.  I won't really know how these turn out until tomorrow, but from what I chewed off the spatula, I'm predicting two outcomes:  1) the ancho chile is not coming through the way I had hoped and 2) I am so infatuated with the goat's milk caramels that I may never make caramels with cow's milk again.  Actually three outcomes.  The third being that I should probably stop making/eating caramels in light of the fact that I've pulled my crown off - again.  Oh Dr. Milligan . . . .


The mess waiting for me in the kitchen and ancho chile caramels waiting to cool.



Score!! I think.

This morning I attempted to resurrect the coffee bean brittle.  The jury is still out on that and I'm not holding my breath that the verdict will be positive.  I will, however, find something to do with this stuff because I am NOT wasting a cup and a half of perfectly good coffee beans!

Since that took all of about five minutes, I decided to go forward with the goat's milk caramels.  (Thanks to the hubs for picking up corn syrup last night.)  This time I was a good girl and made sure I had all of my ingredients before doing any measuring, mixing or pouring.  I'm optimistic about this recipe.  I have to wait until tomorrow to cut the caramels, but what I scraped out of the pan is tasting pretty darn good.  I found the evaporated goat milk and goat milk butter at the Neighborhood Co-op in Carbondale. 

Goat's Milk Caramels

Recipe adapted from Charlotte Albright

Yield:  depends on how big you cut your caramels

1 tablespoon butter

1 cup heavy cream

1 cup evaporated goat milk

1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk

2 cups light corn syrup

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup water

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 ounces unsalted goats milk butter, cut into 6 pieces

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Coarse sea salt, optional

Spray the bottom of a 9 by 13-inch baking pan with cooking spray and line bottom and sides of the pan with parchment.  Rub with the one tablespoon of butter, paying particular attention to the corners.

 In a small heavy saucepan, combine cream, evaporated milk, and sweetened condensed milk.  

In a large, heavy saucepan, combine corn syrup, sugar, water, and salt.  Over high heat, bring to a boil and cook until sugar is dissolved, about 6 to 8 minutes, brushing down sides of pan with a pastry brush dipped in water to remove any sugar crystals.  Stop stirring, insert candy thermometer, reduce heat to medium and let come to a boil.  Cook, without stirring, until temperature reaches 250°F (hard-ball stage).  This may take anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes.

Meanwhile, place cream and milk mixture over low heat and stir until warm.  Do not boil.

When the sugar mixture reaches 250°F, stir in the warm cream and the pieces of butter.   Stirring constantly, cook over medium heat until thermometer reaches 244° (firm ball stage), 30 to 60 minutes.  Stir in vanilla.  Immediately pour into prepared pan without scraping the pot.  Let the caramel cool for 2 to 3 minutes, then sprinkle the top with coarse sea salt, if desired.  Allow to rest, uncovered, at room temperature for 12 to 24 hours without disturbing.  

Unmold caramel by lifting the parchment paper out of the pan.  Cut into pieces with a very sharp, heavy knife.  If necessary, spray the knife with cooking spray.  Wrap with precut waxed paper squares, twisting ends to seal.  The caramel pieces will stick together if not individually wrapped.

ADDENDUM:
After pouring your caramels into the prepared pan, immediately scrape the remnants from the cooking pan into another dish and fill the pan with hot water.  Otherwise, you'll be spending much more time than necessary trying to get hardened caramel out of the pan.  Like me.  Oh, and what you scrape out is perfectly edible.  It's my consolation while I'm trying to clean the pan.