Salted Caramel Bundt Cake

I'm back! It's been months, but I yet again have necessary tasks to procrastinate and that necessitates baking!

I just got this wonderful recipe book called Cake Simple.

It's full of wonderful recipes for bundt cakes, both classic and innovative. I decided to inaugurate a new school year of procrastination a recipe for a Salted Caramel cake.

First, as in all baking recipes, preheat the oven.

Salted Caramel Syrup

2 c sugar

1 1/2 c water

1/4 tsp sea salt

In a medium saucepan, mix 1/2 c water with the sugar. Use a wet pastry brush to make sure there are no stray sugar crystals on the side of the pan. Cook over a high heat until the sugar turns dark amber. Don't stir! Swirl the pan to make sure the syrup caramelizes evenly.

When the sugar is the right color, slowly pour in the remaining water. If you pour it too fast, the caramel may bubble out of the pan, so go slow! Whisk the mixture until smooth. Whisk in the sea salt and let cool to room temperature. 

Use a pastry brush to coat all the nooks and crannies of your pan with melted butter, then dust with flour.

Subtly Salted Caramel Cake

1/2 c plus 2 T unsalted butter at room temperature

2 c all-purpose flour

1/2 t baking powder

1/2 t salt

1 1/4 c sugar

1/2 t vanilla

2 eggs

1/2 c salted caramel syrup

1 c milk

Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla and then add the eggs one at a time. Gradually beat in the caramel syrup.Starting with the flour mixture, alternate adding the flour mixture and milk in increments. 

Pour the batter into the pan, smooth the top, and bake for 45-55 minutes. Let the cake cool for 15 minutes. before inverting the cake onto a plate. 

Caramel Icing

2 T unsalted butter at room temperature
1 c powdered sugar

1/4 t vanilla

2 T salted caramel syrup

pinch of sea salt
1 T heavy cream

Whisk all ingredients together until well blended. Add more cream as needed to get a thick, pourable consistency. Drizzle the cooled cake with the icing.

DELICIOUS. This cake wasn't as strongly salted or as strongly caramel as I was expecting, but the beautiful subtlety won me over. The cake is moist, not too dense, and moderately sweet, while the icing really sings.

I will be taking this with me to work tomorrow so that I do not accidentally eat the entire cake myself by Tuesday morning.  

Chocolate Bacon Baklava

I'm sitting here eating a piece of this baklava, and reflecting on its balance of savory and sweet. it's delicious. this recipe was the amateur winner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Bacon Bake-Off. I made a couple changes from the original recipe, but no big ones.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds sliced bacon
• 1 c chopped blanched almonds, toasted
• 12 oz (1 bag) mini semi-sweet chocolate chips 
• 1/2 of a 16-oz box of phyllo dough
• 1 stick melted butter
• 1 1/2 c sugar
• 3/4 c real maple syrup
• 1/2 c corn syrup
• 1/2 c water
• 2 T whiskey

Start by cooking the bacon in batches, until crispy. Then chop in a food processor.

I felt like my bacon wasn't crispy enough, so after I 

chopped the bacon in the food processor, I put it back

in the pan and cooked it for a few more minutes, for 

optimal "crispiness."

Roast almonds and mix with bacon.

Wait for everything to cool, and THEN add chocolate chips.

 Unfortunately, I did NOT let everything cool, and

this resulted in problems that you will soon see.

Phyllo Dough fun! Butter a 9x13 pan well. Lay down the first piece of phyllo, and brush with melted butter. Repeat until you have 5 bottom layers.

You don't need to douse the phyllo sheets in  butter, so 

make sure not to drown them! Also, if you're working 
slowly, make sure to cover your phyllo with plastic 
wrap or a damp wash cloth so it doesn't  dry out!

Then spread about a cup and a half of the filling mix over the phyllo dough.

Here's... where I had problems. Because the bacon 

was still pretty warm when I added the chocolate, it

 all ended up as a clumpy, melty mess. Ideally, if 

everything is cool, it should spread like a dream.

Alternate between 5 layers of buttered phyllo and a layer of the filling. When you get to the last 5 sheets of phyllo, butter the top sheet well, and cut into diamonds.

Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees, then another 45-60 minutes at 325. When you put the baklava in the oven, start the syrup. In a small saucepan, mix together the maple syrup, corn syrup, water, sugar, and whiskey. Bring to a simmer, then let cool.

YUM!

Next, pour the cooled syrup over the hot baklava.

I tried to make sure that I poured into the cracks

between the pieces, so that the top crust would stay crispy.

Refrigerate overnight. 

Enjoy!

Overall, this is an amazing dish. Any lover of baklava will be familiar with the textures, but pleasantly surprised by the taste. This takes the form of baklava, but really not much of the flavor, as the nuts are mostly taken over by the bacon and chocolate, and the honey is replaced by maple syrup. I would totally make this again, but beware of how big the batch is!  This is definitely something to take to a party or generally parse amongst friends.

Critical reception: My roommates were unanimous in their approval of this dish. Surprisingly, even with 1 1/2 pounds of bacon, the bacon is really well balanced with the chocolate. 

Changes for next time: Making this again, I would use 2 pounds of bacon to amp up the flavor a bit, add a bit of salt to the syrup, and I'd chop the bacon less fine, to maintain some of the texture.

The Best Cornbread Ever!

First - I got new canisters and a matching utensil caddy! How cute!

On to the food. Over Christmas, my mom and I were intending on having a cornbread cookoff. Sadly, her cornbread didn't turn out (that says something, doesn't it?), so we had to put off our contest. Seeing a I was cleaning out my cabinets, had a lot of cornmeal, and it's a lovely afternoon suitible for baking, I decided that a batch of cornbread was in order. The original recipe is extremely highly rated on AllRecipes.com. It's super easy, and you do all the mixing in one skillet!

Ingredients

• 1/2 c butter
• 2/3 c sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 c buttermilk
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1 c cornmeal
• 1 c all-purpose flour
• 1/2 t salt

Melt butter in a large skillet.

Remove from heat and stir. Add eggs and quickly beat until mixed.

Combine buttermilk and baking soda separately, and then add the buttermilk mixture to the egg/sugar/butter goodness. Add cornmeal, flour, and salt, mix until mostly smooth (it should still be a little lumpy). 

Normally this is where I add about 1/2 c canned corn.

However, I didn't have any  this time, so I  made do without.

Pour into a greased 8" x 8" pan, and bake 30-40 minutes at 375.

Eat and Enjoy!

Guess What I Made for Pi Day!

Lemon Meringue Pie!

It's been a while since I've updated, and honestly, it's been a while since I've made anything worthy of an update either. Anyways! In honor of Pi Day (yes, today is March 14, or 3.14) I decided that a good, homemade Lemon Meringue Pie would be appropriate.

It was totally apparent  looking at my shopping cart

that I was about  to go on a sweet, lemony adventure

The original recipe is from Allrecipes.com: 

Ingredients:

     1 baked pie crust

     1 1/2 c white sugar

     1/2 t salt

     1 1/2 c water

     1/2 c cornstarch

     1/3 c water

     4 eggs, separated

     1/2 c lemon juice

     2 t lemon zest

     3 T butter

     1/4 t salt

     

Directions

1. Bake pie crust as directed. 

I used the same recipe I always use for  pie crust, but this time

 I tried dry garbanzos as pie weights - big difference! The sides 

of the crust didn't sag like they have in the past.

2. Combine 1 1/2 c sugar, salt, and 1 1/2 c water in a heavy saucepan. Place over high heat and bring to a boil. 

In a small bowl, whisk together cornstarch and 1/3 c water. Gradually whisk into boiling sugar mixture. Boil mixture until thick and clear, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

3. Juice lemons. 

It took me about 10 small lemons (just under 2 lbs.)

to get the requisite half cup of lemon juice. Fresh

squeezed juice makes a big difference!  Make sure 

to strain your juice for seeds/excessive pulp if you 

squeezed by hand (like me!).

Whisk together egg yolks and lemon juice. Gradually whisk egg yolk mixture into hot sugar mixture. Return pan to heat and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in grated lemon rind and butter or margarine. 

Let mixture cool until lukewarm.

4. In a large glass or metal bowl, combine egg whites and salt. Whip until foamy. Gradually add 1/2 c sugar while continuing to whip. Beat until whites for stiff peaks. 

I really  want a copper mixing bowl now. 

Spoon filling into the baked pie crust. Cover pie with meringue. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until meringue is slightly brown. Cool 1 hour before cutting. 

It took SO MUCH WILLPOWER to wait a whole

hour to cut this! Doesn't it look delicious?

In the end, the lemon filling was a bit runny, so next time I may bake slightly longer, add a tad more cornstarch, or cool more fully before cutting :)

breaktime

FYI, I'll be on an end-of-the-semester hiatus. Look for more posts starting in the middle of December.