Autumn Cheese Board with Bourbon Crackling Caramel.

Oh how I live for a fall cheese board! And this one is better than the rest because of… bourbon crackling caramel. WOW. Yes, say it with me! Oh man guys. When we shot this cheeseboard… it was just SO good. So incredibly good. Let’s just say that 2020 is NOT the year of the […]

The post Autumn Cheese Board with Bourbon Crackling Caramel. appeared first on How Sweet Eats.

Oh how I live for a fall cheese board!

autumn cheese board with bourbon crackling caramel and honey roasted pepitas

And this one is better than the rest because of… bourbon crackling caramel. WOW.

Yes, say it with me!

pouring bourbon crackling caramel on cheese

Oh man guys. When we shot this cheeseboard… it was just SO good.

So incredibly good.

Let’s just say that 2020 is NOT the year of the cheeseboard. Obviously. At least, not a giant mind-blowing cheeseboard. 

It has been nearly a year since I made a big entertaining cheeseboard because it’s been nearly a year since I entertained with a huge group of guests! I guess I could have made a smaller one for us, and I probably should have, but I just… didn’t.

And I couldn’t believe how much I’ve missed them. I mean, I could not stay away from this board. It was sooooo delicious. 

The combo between the salty and the sweet? Couldn’t handle it. 

autumn cheese board with bourbon crackling caramel and honey roasted pepitas

Now, before you freak over caramel and cheese, let me tell you! It’s not really any different from a wheel of brie topped with some sort of sweet jam. Or if you’ve ever made a sweet topping for brie, like a brown sugar kahlua version or something, then you’ll get it. 

The caramel on top of the salty, creamy cheese is the best combination. Then add a crunchy cracker? Sold.

autumn cheese board with bourbon crackling caramel and honey roasted pepitas

And because of the caramel, I don’t include my usual honeycomb (another staple I love on boards) or fig jam. Or any sort of sweet spread. The cracking caramel is enough!

To make it, you let sugar, water and bourbon bubble on the stovetop for 5ish minutes. I like to let it cool slightly – for just one minute or so – and then you pour it over your cheese. It slightly hardens and creates almost a crust of sorts over top of the cheese. But it’s still easy enough to slice into and twirl on your cracker.

OH MY GOSH.

autumn cheese board with bourbon crackling caramel and honey roasted pepitas

I am 99% certain I will never make a cheeseboard without this again. It is a game changer. It elevates the whole board, and I don’t even like to use that term. Especially when it comes to cheese boards because let’s be real, unless you’re eating a Lunchable, a cheeseboard is already elevated. 

But it does just that. 

For the actual board, I like to use two creamier cheeses, like a brie and a creamy goat. I also absolutely love this caramelized cheese – it’s incredible and so warming for fall. However! The wonderful part of this board (or really, any board) is that you can use whatever cheese you like. If you’d rather use a hard cheese (hello drunken goat!), that works too. As long as you love the cheese and enjoy a savory + sweet combo, it will work.

autumn cheese board with bourbon crackling caramel and honey roasted pepitas

Now for the next fun part: smoky honey roasted pepitas. Yessssss. I love them.

These pepitas come from my honeycrisp harvest salad which is one of my favorites this (and every) time of year. Roast the pepitas then let them cool and break them into clusters. You can throw them on top of the cheese or simply scatter them on the board. 

With the pepita clusters, I also skip the nuts. I almost always do a marcona almond on my cheese boards but these are divine.

Also! I made the sweet and spicy walnuts from the salad too (in the salad I use pecans, but was out, so walnuts it was!) and they added so much crunch and flavor. I don’t think you have to make both sets of nuts for a cheese board, but it sure is fun because they are GOOD. 

autumn cheese board with bourbon crackling caramel and honey roasted pepitas

Now I hope I’ve convinced you that this should be dinner tonight.

autumn cheese board with bourbon crackling caramel and honey roasted pepitas

Fall Cheese Board with Bourbon Crackling Caramel

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Autumn Cheese Board with Bourbon Crackling Caramel

This fall cheeseboard is extra special, with creamy cheese drizzled in bourbon cracking caramel and topped with smoky honey roasted pepitas.
Course Appetizer
Cuisine American
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings 8 to 10 people
Author How Sweet Eats

Ingredients

  • 1 wheel brie cheese
  • 1 wheel goat cheese
  • 1 block ski queen gjetost cheese, (this is a caramel cheese)
  • salami slices
  • baguettes and crackers
  • apple wedges
  • grapes
  • figs

smoky honey roasted pepitas

  • 1/2 cup pepitas
  • 1/2 tablespoons coconut oil
  • 2 to 3 tablespoons honey
  • 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
  • pinch of salt

bourbon crackling caramel

  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons bourbon
  • 2 tablespoons water

Instructions

  • Note: you can prepare the pepitas ahead of time. I suggest assembling the board fully and then making they caramel, as it only takes 5 minutes and you want to pour it over the cheese shortly after making.
  • Assemble the cheese board with the cheese wedges and blocks in the center, and the fruit, crackers, salami and and baguettes around the outside. Pour the slightly cooled caramel over the top of the cheese. Sprinkle with the pepitas clusters or spread them around the board.
  • Serve!

smoky honey roasted pepitas

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Microwave the coconut oil and honey together until melted, about 30 seconds. Stir the pepitas in a large bowl with the honey mixture, salt and smoked paprika. Place them on the baking sheet and smooth them out with a spatula – you still want them clustered so you can break them apart after baking!
  • Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until golden. Remove from the oven and toss slightly. Let cool completely before breaking apart.

bourbon crackling caramel

  • Combine the sugar, bourbon and water in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk until the sugar dissolves. Bring the sugar to a boil and reduce it until it is just bubbling. Let it bubble for 5 minutes, brushing down sides with a pastry brush if needed.
  • Remove from the heat and let cool slightly for 1 to 2 minutes. Pour over the cheese wheels!

Notes

inspired by bon appetit

autumn cheese board with bourbon crackling caramel and honey roasted pepitas

Just add a chilled glass of pinot noir.

The post Autumn Cheese Board with Bourbon Crackling Caramel. appeared first on How Sweet Eats.

Tahini Caramel Apple Tart

I’ve been thinking about this French Apple Tart ever since I saw Ina make it – I’m usually not a tart kind of person because lining a pastry tin is not my idea of fun, but this recipe is SO simple, there’s no faffing around. You roll out a flaky pastry into a rectangle, top with sliced apples and sugar and bake. Now, Ina brushes the apples with an apricot jam glaze (a trick my mum always uses too) but I opted for a tahini caramel sauce instead – drizzled over the tart whilst still warm. It’s a little bit nutty and isn’t too sweet but if you’re daunted by caramel making you can always stick with the jam if you want!    

The post Tahini Caramel Apple Tart appeared first on Izy Hossack – Top With Cinnamon.

slices of tahini caramel apple tart

I’ve been thinking about this French Apple Tart ever since I saw Ina make it – I’m usually not a tart kind of person because lining a pastry tin is not my idea of fun, but this recipe is SO simple, there’s no faffing around.

You roll out a flaky pastry into a rectangle, top with sliced apples and sugar and bake. Now, Ina brushes the apples with an apricot jam glaze (a trick my mum always uses too) but I opted for a tahini caramel sauce instead – drizzled over the tart whilst still warm.

A sliced apple tart drizzled with tahini caramel

It’s a little bit nutty and isn’t too sweet but if you’re daunted by caramel making you can always stick with the jam if you want!

 

 

slices of tahini caramel apple tart

Tahini Caramel Apple Tart

Yield: serves 8-12
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Additional Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 2 hours 5 minutes

An easy tahini caramel sauce drizzled over a simple apple tart with homemade flaky pastry!

Recipe adapted from Ina Garten

Ingredients

For the pastry:

  • 2 cups (240g) plain white (all-purpose) flour
  • 1 tbsp granulated sugar
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ¾ cup (165g) unsalted butter, cold, cubed
  • up to 1/2 cup (125ml) ice water

For the caramel:

  • 1/3 cup (65g) granulated sugar
  • 2 tbsp water
  • 2 tbsp (30g) unstalted butter
  • generous pinch salt
  • ½ tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean powder
  • 3 tbsp tahini
  • 4 tbsp milk

For the top:

  • 3 to 4 Bramley apples, peeled and cored
  • ¼ cup (50g) granulated sugar
  • 2 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into little cubes

Instructions

Make the pastry:

  1. Place the flour, salt, sugar and butter into the bowl of a food processor. Pulse to cut the butter in – you want a mealy mixture with a few pea-sized lumps of butter remaining. Drizzle in the water (start with 4 tablespoons) and pulse in, adding more water a tablespoon at a time if needed. The mixture should be moist enough so that if you squeeze some together, it’ll stick.
  2. Tip the pastry mixture out onto a piece of cling film. Pat together with your hands into a rectangle then wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Meanwhile make the caramel:

  1. Place the sugar and water in a large saucepan (silver/white ones a best so you can see the colour change). Place over a medium heat on the stove and stir just until the sugar dissolves then stop stirring. Let the mixture cook, tilting and swirling the pan, until it has reached an even, golden colour.
  2. Turn the heat all the way down, add in the butter, salt and vanilla. Let that butter melt a bit before picking the spoon back up and mixing it in. Once smooth, add the tahini and milk and stir through until smooth. Take off the heat and set aside.

Rolling and baking:

  1. Once the pastry has rested, preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F) fan.
  2. Cut the apples in half and then slice into half-moons about ¼-inch (5mm) thick.
  3. Cut a piece of baking paper to fit a large baking tray. Unwrap the pastry, place onto the baking paper and dust with flour. Roll the pastry out into a rectangle slightly smaller than the piece of baking paper. Trim the edges so they are straight then transfer the pastry (on the baking paper) onto the baking tray.
  4. Place overlapping slices of apples diagonally down the middle of the tart and continue making diagonal rows on both sides of the first row until the pastry is covered with apple slices. Sprinkle with the 1/4 cup of sugar and dot with the butter.
  5. Bake for 35-45 minutes until the tart is dark golden around the edges and the apples have coloured slightly. Drizzle with the caramel (you may need to re-warm it over a low heat on the stove to get it drizzle-able again) then allow to cool before slicing and serving.

Notes

  • if you want to speed this recipe up, you can use a block of puff pastry or shortcrust pastry in place of making your own. 

Have you made this recipe?
I’d love to see how it went! Tag me on instagram @izyhossack and hashtag it #topwithcinnamon so I can have a look & reshare in my stories!

The post Tahini Caramel Apple Tart appeared first on Izy Hossack - Top With Cinnamon.

Millionaire’s Shortbread – Baking Basics

I remember being in primary school and checking a baking book out of the library – once home I photocopied a bunch of recipes from it, one of which was for Millionaire’s shortbread (also known as caramel slice in some parts of the world). It was something I’d had the shop-bought version of (in those clamshell plastic tubs!) and LOVED but had never made before. Now that I had a recipe for a homemade version there was no turning back! My brother and I made it many times – it’s such an easy bake and really requires minimal effort. They’re also VERY rich (hence why they’re called ‘Millionaire’s shortbread) so I often only need one square to satisfy my sweet tooth. Recipes for millionaire’s shortbread are usually pretty similar. I think the BBC /Nigella /Jamie Oliver versions all have the same components with very similar ingredients. A shortbread base, a caramel filling made using sweetened condensed milk from a tin, and a plain chocolate topping. Some versions use golden syrup in the filling (I make it without) to prevent the sugar from crystallising. I’ve tweaked the recipe here and there to make my best version which is what I’m posting […]

The post Millionaire’s Shortbread – Baking Basics appeared first on Izy Hossack – Top With Cinnamon.

a stack of millionaire's shortbread

I remember being in primary school and checking a baking book out of the library – once home I photocopied a bunch of recipes from it, one of which was for Millionaire’s shortbread (also known as caramel slice in some parts of the world). It was something I’d had the shop-bought version of (in those clamshell plastic tubs!) and LOVED but had never made before. Now that I had a recipe for a homemade version there was no turning back! My brother and I made it many times – it’s such an easy bake and really requires minimal effort. They’re also VERY rich (hence why they’re called ‘Millionaire’s shortbread) so I often only need one square to satisfy my sweet tooth.

overhead shot of squares of millionaire's shortbread with marbled chocolate

Recipes for millionaire’s shortbread are usually pretty similar. I think the BBC /Nigella /Jamie Oliver versions all have the same components with very similar ingredients. A shortbread base, a caramel filling made using sweetened condensed milk from a tin, and a plain chocolate topping. Some versions use golden syrup in the filling (I make it without) to prevent the sugar from crystallising. I’ve tweaked the recipe here and there to make my best version which is what I’m posting today!

I’ve even got a lil video below so you can see step-by-step how to make it ?

How to make crumbly shortbread for the base:

My shortbread base includes ground almonds – they are optional as you can swap out for rice flour/plain flour, but they do help the shortbread base stay nice and crumbly. They also have a nice buttery note to them and, unlike rice flour, don’t add a gritty texture.

Can you make millionaire’s shortbread without condensed milk?

Usually the caramel is made with sweetened condensed milk cooked with sugar and butter until it caramelises and thickens. For my filling, I simply swap the condensed milk for tinned carnation caramel (a.k.a. dulce de leche) instead. This tinned caramel is actually made from sweetened condensed milk so it’s essentially the same thing but it’s pre-caramelised for you! I like using the pre-made carnation caramel instead of sweetened condensed milk as I think it (1) has a deeper flavour, (2) it doesn’t seem to burn as easily as plain sweetened condensed milk does (3) it seems that post-pandemic, sweetened condensed milk is often out of stock in my supermarket whereas the carnation caramel is plentiful! You can’t just use the caramel straight from the tin though as it won’t set properly so you do have to cook it with sugar & butter to get it to thicken up.

All that said, you can use sweetened condensed milk here instead of the tinned caramel if that’s all you can get. It will work just as well but you might have to cook it for longer to get the right consistency AND you’ll have to be more careful that it doesn’t burn.

How do you thicken the caramel?

The caramel & butter & sugar are cooked on the stove in a pot, stirring often to melt everything together and thicken things up. This happens because the heat causes the mixture to boil, releasing some of the water in the ingredients as steam. It takes around 7 to 10 minutes of cooking over a medium-low heat to get this effect. You have to be careful as you thicken the mixture though as the high sugar content means it’s likely to burn easily – this can be prevented by stirring often (and scraping the base and corners of the pan with a silicone spatula). Bare in mind that the caramel will also thicken & harden as it cools in the fridge so it will seem thinner when it’s hot.

Why is my caramel too thin?

The caramel will be too thin if you haven’t cooked it for long enough on the stove. To test whether you’ve cooked the caramel for long enough, I like to use a simple trick. I place a small plate in the freezer before I start making the caramel. Once the caramel is looking darker and thicker than before I remove the plate from the freezer and place a little blob of hot caramel onto it. I set the plate aside for a minute or two so the caramel can cool down. Once cool to the touch, I run my finger through the blob. If the caramel is correctly cooked, the line will remain in the caramel. If it needs to be cooked for longer, the caramel will start to run back together, filling in the line.

a side shot of a square of millionaire's shortbread

What type of chocolate should you use?

I quite like a dark chocolate for the topping as it really helps to balance out the sweetness of the other ingredients. A 70% or even 80% are great but go with what you know you like. For this batch, I swirled on a bit of white chocolate into the dark for decoration but that’s totally optional.

How to cut Millionaire’s shortbread neatly:

I have a kitchen blowtorch which I use to gently warm a sharp knife before cutting into the shortbread. This helps to create the neatest edge as it melts through the chocolate and caramel as you apply pressure, meaning the chocolate wont crack or cause the caramel to squash out! If you don’t want to mess around with a blowtorch, you can fill a jug with boiling water and pop your knife blade in there for a minute or so. Wipe the blade dry before using it as it’ll be wet! With both these methods be careful not to touch the blade while you cut as it’ll be very hot. Also, wipe the blade with a piece of kitchen roll between cuts to ensure the knife is clean & dry.

Can you put it in the fridge or freezer?

I recommend storing the cut squares in an airtight container in the fridge. It’ll ensure they keep for longer (up to 1 week!) and will stop the chocolate/caramel getting all melty. You can freeze these too – cut them into squares and pop into a resealable sandwich bag for up to 1 month. Let them defrost at room temp before eating.

Other bar recipes:

Millonaire's Shortbread

Millonaire's Shortbread

Yield: 16 squares
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Additional Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

A British classic traybake, so easy & perfect for bakesales! Made with tinned carnation caramel (dulce de leche) or sweetened condensed milk on a crumbly shortbread base with a snappy dark chocolate topping.

Ingredients

Shortbread:

  • 50g (1/2 cup) ground almonds
  • 60g (1/4 cup) caster sugar or granulated sugar
  • 200g (1 2/3 cup) plain white flour
  • pinch of salt
  • 150g (1/2 cup + 3 tbsp) unsalted butter, cold, cubed

Caramel:

  • 1 (397g/14 ounce) tin carnation caramel (dulce de leche) OR sweetened condensed milk
  • 100g (7 tbsp) unsalted butter
  • 100g (1/2 cup) caster sugar or granulated sugar
  • pinch of salt

Chocolate:

  • 150g (5.3 ounces) dark chocolate (I used a 70%), broken into chunks
  • 50g (1.8 ounces) white chocolate, broken into chunks

Instructions

For the shortbread:

  1. Preheat the oven to 180C fan. Line an 8- or 9-inch square baking tin with a sling of baking paper.
  2. In a large bowl place all of the shortbread ingredients. Rub the butter into the dry ingredients using your fingertips until crumbly. Knead a few times in the bowl to form a cohesive dough.
  3. Crumble up the dough into the lined tin. Use your hands to flatten into an even layer then use the back of a spoon to smooth out.
  4. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown on top.

For the caramel:

  1. Place the caramel (or dulce de leche or sweetened condensed milk) into a medium pot with the butter, sugar and salt.
  2. Heat on medium, stirring often, until the butter has melted. Lower the heat to medium-low and continue to cook, stirring often, for 7-10 minutes until the caramel has thickened and darkened. (NB: if using sweetened condensed milk here, it may be necessary to cook for slightly longer to get it to the right colour. You will also have to watch the caramel more closely & stir more often as it is more likely to catch and burn).
  3. Pour the hot caramel over the baked shortbread and spread out into an even layer (an offset spatula works well but you can also use the back of a spoon). Chill for 10 minutes so the caramel can firm up as you prep the chocolate.

For the chocolate top:

  1. Place the dark chocolate and white chocolate into two separate, heatproof bowls. Place each bowl over a pan of simmering water on the stove, making sure the bottom of the bowl isn't touching the water. Stir occasionally until melted and then remove the bowls from the pans of water.
  2. Pour most of the melted dark chocolate over the cooled caramel. Spread out into an even layer and then rap the whole tray against the work surface a few times to help the chocolate settle into a smooth layer.
  3. Dollops random blobs and swirls of white chocolate over the dark chocolate. Dollop the remaining dark chocolate on top in random spots. Rap the whole tray against the work surface again a few times to help the chocolate settle. Use a toothpick to swirl the dark and white chocolate together to create a marbled pattern.
  4. Chill for 10-20 minutes until set.

Remove from tin & cut:

  1. To remove from the tin you can either use a kitchen blowtorch to briefly warm the edges of the tin (only if the tin is metal!) which will help melt the chocolate and caramel at the very edges so you can lift out the whole thing with the sling. The other method is to dip a butter knife into boiling water, wipe it dry, then run it around the inside edge of the tin to release the chocolate from the edge of the tin.
  2. Cut into 16 squares using a hot knife (warmed either by running a blowtorch over the blade or by dipping the blade into boiling water & wiping dry) making sure you clean the blade between cuts for the neatest edges.
  3. Store cut bars in an airtight container. I recommend keeping them in the fridge (especially if your kitchen is warm!) for up to 1 week. They're delicious cold from the fridge or at room temp.





Have you made this recipe?
I’d love to see how it went! Tag me on instagram @izyhossack and hashtag it #topwithcinnamon so I can have a look & reshare in my stories!

The post Millionaire’s Shortbread – Baking Basics appeared first on Izy Hossack - Top With Cinnamon.

Raspberry Caramel Bubble Bread with Cream Cheese Icing

I officially turned in my manuscript and all my photographs for my third cookbook (a holiday baking book, out Fall 2021) and have found myself rather lost, wandering into the kitchen wanting to bake but also wanting to take a break. I did sneak in last…

raspberry bubble bread

I officially turned in my manuscript and all my photographs for my third cookbook (a holiday baking book, out Fall 2021) and have found myself rather lost, wandering into the kitchen wanting to bake but also wanting to take a break. I did sneak in last week and make this Raspberry Caramel Bubble Bread, which turned out to be very delicious and a perfect summer treat, especially with our raspberry bushes currently exploding with fresh berries.  Also, my new cookbook, 100 Cookies, is available for pre-order! If you order now (or have already ordered) you can receive an ebook with 10 extra bonus recipes. Simply head to this webpage, click ‘let’s go’, fill out the form, and the ebook will be sent to your email immediately.  Raspberry Caramel Bubble Bread with Cream Cheese Icing Inspired by the Chocolate Bubble Loaf from Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook, by Cheryl Day & Griffith Day.  Notes: This is made with a slightly reduced version of my sweet dough. If you are using active yeast instead of instant, you can let it dissolve in the warm milk instead of adding it to the flour mixture. If you are confused about the folding dough […]

The post Raspberry Caramel Bubble Bread with Cream Cheese Icing appeared first on The Vanilla Bean Blog.

The Savory-Sweet Caramel Sauce I’m Drizzling Over Everything

We’ve partnered with Hood Cream, makers of great-tasting, high-quality cream, to share a contest-winning caramel sauce that gets its silky-smooth texture from heavy cream.

Watching granulated sugar melt down, simmer, and transform into golden carame…

We've partnered with Hood Cream, makers of great-tasting, high-quality cream, to share a contest-winning caramel sauce that gets its silky-smooth texture from heavy cream.


Watching granulated sugar melt down, simmer, and transform into golden caramel is one of my fondest childhood cooking memories. The syrup, destined to line the bottom of the baking dish that we used exclusively for crème caramel, smelled both buttery and bitter as it morphed into amber magma. I burned myself more than once trying to taste it.

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Roast Chicken with Caramelized Shallots

I used to be one of those that was surprised when people said, “I don’t have time to cook.” To me, cooking and shopping for ingredients, which take the better parts of my days, has always been a pleasure for me rather than a burden. However, now I get it. Making dinner after a long day at work can be a challenge. In France, people…

I used to be one of those that was surprised when people said, “I don’t have time to cook.” To me, cooking and shopping for ingredients, which take the better parts of my days, has always been a pleasure for me rather than a burden. However, now I get it. Making dinner after a long day at work can be a challenge. In France, people don’t get home from work until 7 or 7:30pm, and not everyone wants to put on a kitchen apron when they get home and get moving on dinner.

Even during the lockdown, when we found ourselves having more time around the house, I was busier than ever. It was a challenge tracking down ingredients, and cooking all the time led to lots of dishes. I was also doing my best not to let anything go to waste, which meant that instead of tossing radish leaves, I made radish leaf soup. A bag of lemons that started looking past their prime became jars of lemon curd. And a compunction to update older blog posts (and photos) as I revisited them during the lockdown, from French Chocolate Mousse Cake and Carrot Salad to Cosmopolitans, it’s no wonder after the lockdown ended, I felt like I needed a vacation!

Continue Reading Roast Chicken with Caramelized Shallots...

Whiskey Caramel Sauce

Rich and creamy, sweet and boozy – this whiskey-infused caramel sauce makes a perfect homemade holiday gift! The boozy secret ingredient in this luscious homemade caramel sauce will garner praise and awe from all those who taste it. My mom regularly makes double batches of my whiskey caramel sauce to accompany my chocolate whiskey bundt […]

Rich and creamy, sweet and boozy – this whiskey-infused caramel sauce makes a perfect homemade holiday gift!

The boozy secret ingredient in this luscious homemade caramel sauce will garner praise and awe from all those who taste it.

Three jars of homemade whiskey caramel sauce, one jar mostly empty with a few drips, and printed black and white labels.

My mom regularly makes double batches of my whiskey caramel sauce to accompany my chocolate whiskey bundt cake recipe, claiming that the sauce itself (not the cake, mind you) always gets tons of raves and compliments whenever she makes it and she likes to have extra on hand to send home with her dinner guests.

Which got me thinking that maybe this recipe, simple as it may be, deserved its own post.

A spoon drizzling homemade whiskey caramel sauce into a jar full of caramel

Whether you drizzle it on a moist chocolate bundt cake or over homemade vanilla bean ice cream, slather it on yeasted Belgian waffles or boozy French toast, swirl it into fudgy pecan brownies or spoon it on top of a slice of New York-style cheesecake… this spiked caramel sauce is not only incredibly versatile, it’s a revelation.

Bonus that it makes a great homemade holiday gift too (and be sure to scroll to the bottom to download my free printable gift labels!)

(more…)

Rolo Pretzels

You only need 3 ingredients and a few minutes to make these delicious Rolo Pretzels, a favorite sweet and salty holiday treat! Rolo Pretzels If you are looking for an EASY treat, you are in the right place because these Rolo Pretzels are beyond easy! I…

You only need 3 ingredients and a few minutes to make these delicious Rolo Pretzels, a favorite sweet and salty holiday treat! Rolo Pretzels If you are looking for an EASY treat, you are in the right place because these Rolo Pretzels are beyond easy! I think the hardest part is unwrapping all of the…

The post Rolo Pretzels appeared first on Two Peas & Their Pod.

Mirror Glaze Christmas Ornament Cakes

Pretty on the outside, stunning on the inside: these festive Christmas ornament entremet cakes feature flavors of chocolate and caramel enrobed in a shiny red mirror glaze. Entremet cakes are a labor of love, but the final result is downright impressive. This holiday variation incorporates a crunchy chocolate pecan crust, gooey salted caramel, creamy chocolate […]

Pretty on the outside, stunning on the inside: these festive Christmas ornament entremet cakes feature flavors of chocolate and caramel enrobed in a shiny red mirror glaze.

Entremet cakes are a labor of love, but the final result is downright impressive. This holiday variation incorporates a crunchy chocolate pecan crust, gooey salted caramel, creamy chocolate crémeux and a cloud-like caramel mousse.

Two red mirror-glazed cakes decorated to look like Christmas ornaments, on white plates with gold forks and fairy lights in the background.

For the last two weeks I’ve been completely and utterly consumed by this recipe. (That said, I’ve already consumed two of the finished cakes myself, so… I’d call it even in the end.)

Entremet cakes by nature have many different layers and components, and I found myself with a serious case of choice paralysis: there were simply too many options and I just couldn’t decide. I spent hours scouring the internet and pastry cookbooks, considering a multitude of options for different flavors, textures and techniques; my obsessive thoughts even finding their way into my dreams (if you’ve never had OCD recipe development dreams, are you even a food blogger?)

Three red mirror-glazed Christmas ornament cakes on a white rectangle plate with a bowl of Rolo candies and fairy lights in the background.

I knew I wanted a combination of chocolate and caramel flavors to go with the Rolo candies I’d be using for the ornament topper. But that was really the only thing I had definitively decided.

But should I do a chocolate mousse and a caramel crémeux, or a caramel mousse and a chocolate crémeux?

How about a caramel-chocolate ganache or a chocolate-caramel sauce or a regular salted caramel? s

Should the base be soft sponge cake or chocolate cookie or crispy sable crust?

Should I mold the insides as domes or should I cut out rounds?

Well…

Now you see what I mean by choice paralysis?

Eventually, after testing a few components separately, I decided on a crunchy chocolate pecan cookie crust, a center of rich chocolate crémeux, a layer of simple salted caramel, and then a salted caramel and caramelized white chocolate mousse for the outer layer.

Yes, I probably obsessed over the details a bit too much, because, really, how can you go wrong with anything chocolate and caramel?

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Caramelized Peanut Coffee Cake

Whenever I’m looking through a new cookbook, what never fails to make me bookmark a recipe is when I come across something that has caramelized nuts on it, or in it. Whether it be Honey-Almond Squares or Swedish Almond Cake, you can be sure you’ll find me in my kitchen within the next 24 hours, and baking it. This Caramelized Peanut Cake that takes very…

Whenever I’m looking through a new cookbook, what never fails to make me bookmark a recipe is when I come across something that has caramelized nuts on it, or in it. Whether it be Honey-Almond Squares or Swedish Almond Cake, you can be sure you’ll find me in my kitchen within the next 24 hours, and baking it. This Caramelized Peanut Cake that takes very little effort to make, but yields big rewards. Big, crunchy, peanutty ones, with a bonus of moist, buttery cake underneath, holding it all together.

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