Monthly Archives: September 2012

Rosemary Lavender Salted Caramel Corn

September 20, 2012 in Desserts, Recipes, Snacks

Homemade caramel corn is something I didn’t have until a year ago.  (Is that weird?)  I was planning a Halloween dinner party and wanted to have something that would evoke the little kid in all of us post-college wanderers, and caramel popcorn came to mind.  In general, I had always indulged in store-bought or gifted tins of caramel corn, but had never embarked on creating the cheap and easy snack on my own.  In a collection of my husband’s recipe cards his mother lovingly put together to help her son feed himself and survive college lay a simple recipe for caramel popcorn.  I wanted to jazz it up and do something somewhat fancy, but not really fancy.  Faux-fancy.  Brainstorming flavor options, I realized I had a packet of lavender I had bought from work.

Ah-HA!

Lavender Caramel Corn!

But, oh, wait… I’m not a huge fan of lavender on its own… what else do I put in there?

Rosemary!  I enjoy the scent of rosemary and lavender scented bath products, so why wouldn’t it work as a flavor? Thus, rosemary lavender salted caramel corn was born.

I didn’t really want awkward chewy bits of lavender and rosemary ruining the crispness of the popcorn and thin caramel layer, so I infused the herbs in the butter called for in the recipe.  To keep with the salted caramel trend, I sprinkled coarse ground sea salt over the cooling mess.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-check it out! (Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-What’s it all about? see Beastie Boys.)

Rosemary Lavender Salted Caramel Popcorn

You need:

  • 1/2 tbsp dried rosemary
  • 1/2 tbsp dried lavender
  • 1/2 cup or 1 stick of butter (I used unsalted european style, which has a higher fat content than regular run-of-the-mill butter.)
  • 3 qt plain popped corn
  • 1 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup corn syrup (don’t be confused with high fructose corn syrup.)
  • a few pinches of coarse salt. (I used sea, but you can try with with flakey kosher salt.)
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla

First, take the butter, the rosemary, and the lavender and put them in the saucepan you will use to make the caramel.  Heat on low-medium until the butter is completely melted then dial it back to the lowest setting to keep the butter melted and allow this to steep for 10-15 minutes.  Then turn the burner off and allow to steep for 10 more minutes or as long as you wish until the butter tastes as infused as you want it to be.  If you haven’t already, pop your corn while you are letting this infuse.

Preheat your oven to 250°F.

Strain the butter.  Be sure to remove each bit of the herbs.  Return the butter to the sauce pan and add in the sugar and corn syrup. Stir. Bring to a boil on medium heat stirring as it begins to bubble.  Once it is boiling, STOP STIRRING and let it boil for 4 minutes.  If you go one minute over, it may or may not be detrimental to the finished product, so be sure to watch it and keep track.

When the time is up, stir in the baking soda and vanilla.

Spread the popcorn out in either cookie sheets or large 13×9 in pans.  I used two 13×9 in pans to avoid being incredible messy… which is a tendency I have in the kitchen.  Pour the caramel evenly over all of the popcorn and toss to coat.  Put the sheets in the oven for an hour, stirring every 15 minutes to re-coat and allow it to dry more evenly.  After 30 minutes, take a few pinches of coarse sea salt and sprinkle over the acres of caramel coated corn.

DO eat some when it’s right out of the oven at the end of the process. It is SO GOOD!

Happy cooking!

 

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Homemade Toaster Pastries, or Those Tarts that Pop

September 4, 2012 in Desserts, Pastries

I have fond memories of going to the vending machine during 3rd period study hall and spending $1 for my ritual of strawberry Pop Tarts.  I rarely ate breakfast at home because it was way too early for my stomach to take anything more solid than a glass of milk.  If I had breakfast too early, I would end up feeling nauseous for the first few hours of the day.  I didn’t quite like feeling nauseous at school, so I opted out of breakfast at home and had something later in the morning.  My breakfast of choice?  Those lovely “pastries,” not really in need of toasting, filled with fruit and high fructose corn syrup and iced with some mixture of high fructose corn syrup and colored sugar sprinkles.  Every now and then I’ll crave one not for satiating hunger alone, but a bit of nostalgia to boot.  It’s the same type of craving I get for McDonald’s cheeseburgers.

These are ridiculously easy to put together.  The simplest form is to take your favorite pie crust, roll it out, cut out rectangles and fill with your favorite jam.  I was going to do just that, but I wanted a crust that may be a little stronger than the typical butter/flour/sugar/salt/water combination.  I looked to the King Arthur Flour site (as I have been more-so lately) and found a recipe for their “Toaster Tarts.”  The dough has the addition of milk and egg, which I think makes the pastry tastier and richer (if that’s possible with all of that buttah).

Homemade Toaster Pastries (with a crust from King Arthur Flour)

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 cup unsalted butter, cut up (omit salt if you are using salted butter)
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tbsp of milk
  • fruit preserves or jam (I had a surplus of strawberries and made my own.  Some time later in the fall I’ll do a post on quick fruit preserves.)

First, mix your dry, powdery ingredients.

Next, cut up your cold butter into small chunks and add it to your dry mixture, cutting/mixing with a pastry blender/two knives/a spatula/your hands until it looks like unsifted gravel or sand.

In a separate bowl, mix together the egg and milk, then add to the mixture, stirring until just combined.

Divide the dough into two discs and wrap in plastic wrap.  Put these in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.  Well, really, it depends on how warm your kitchen is.  Mine is very warm, somewhere around 80 degrees (Fahrenheit) during the day, sometimes warmer.  I had to keep putting the dough in the fridge after working with it for about 5 minutes so I wouldn’t go insane.

When the dough is cool and stiff enough to work with, roll it out to about 1/8 in thickness.

Cut into rectangles.  Make them however small or large you want, just make sure you cut an even number of rectangles so the bottoms have tops.

Fill! I wouldn’t do more than a tablespoon.

Top with a similarly sized rectangle and seal the edges with a fork and prick holes on the top. This ensures the steam can escape while they bake. Put these in the fridge for about half an hour so the dough firms up a bit.

Bake at 350 until golden brown, which took about 30 minutes for my oven.  Be sure to let them cool before you bite into them.  The filling will most likely be molten.

If you like, make a glaze of powdered sugar and milk or water to frost ‘em.

I didn’t get to that point.  I shared them with my mom and my husband and they were gone in a day.

Happy baking!

 

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The Stereotypical No-Bake Cookies Appropriate For a HOT Summer

September 3, 2012 in Cookies, Desserts, Recipes

That’s right.  You read that correctly.  Mountains of blogs and food magazines have those features every year that allow some kind of baked good craving go answered without having to turn on the oven.  Count this as one of those.  Easiest thing to do in the kitchen when you’re bored.

 

You need:

  • 2 cups of sugar
  • 1/4 cup of cocoa powder (I used an ultra-dutched black cocoa that you can find here.)
  • 1/2 cup of milk
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter
  • 1/2 cup of peanut butter (I used a creamy natural peanut butter that was basically just ground peanuts and salt.)
  • 3 cups old-fashioned oats
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp. Kahlua or coffee extract (I add this to ALL of my chocolate baked goods.  The coffee is a more interesting flavor complement to the chocolate.)

What you do:

In a saucepan, mix together the sugar, cocoa powder and milk. Add your stick of butter and let it all come to a boil.

Once it’s boiling, let it do it’s thing for a minute without stirring.  Meanwhile, tear some cookie-sheet-sized pieces of wax paper to drop the “dough” onto later.

Remove from stove and add the peanut butter and extracts.  Mix well and then add in the oats.

Stir until evenly combined and let sit for a few minutes.  After a few minutes, it should be cool enough to handle without the fear of molten sugar burning into your skin.

Using a teaspoon, tablespoon, wooden spoon, whatever spoon, drop small piles of “dough” onto the wax paper you prepared earlier.  These will spread depending on how warm they are.  They are officially done when they are completely cool and not falling apart when you pick one up. Feel free to eat some straight out of the pan while you are making your cookie discs.  I keep mine stored on a plate in the fridge.  They are gone before freshness issues come into play.

Voila!  Decadence without the oven.

 

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