mix, mix…stir, stir

An easy bar cookie fancied up with a coat of chocolate and toffee bits is hard to resist. This week the Tuesday with Dorie bakers made Caramel Crunch Bars from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours, and they were a hit with David and me.

Dorie maximizes the indulgence by making ice cream sandwiches with them, but I stopped short of that and directed my indulgence at the toffee topping. Rather than sprinkling the bars with toffee bits, I decided to make toffee tiles and not just any toffee; mine was spiked with cinnamon and cayenne pepper! The cayenne was just enough for a subtle bite of heat to rise up after each bite, almost unnoticeable, but I found it balanced the very sweet cookie nicely. A light dusting of Dutched cocoa powder also tempered the sweetness of the brown sugar short bread cookie and added a pretty mottled look to the toffee.

The cookie base is a brown sugar short bread studded with chocolate bits and in my case seasoned with a teaspoon of cinnamon rather than the espresso powder Dorie uses. My cookie base was a little greasy, and I believe it’s because I let the butter warm up beyond room temperature. I generally work with butter that is about 65-66 degrees F, but it was a bit softer this time. Thanks to Whitney of What’s Left on the Table, for selecting this week’s recipe. She has posted the recipe for Caramel Crunch Bars on her blog.

I have been playing around with different toffee recipes for months. Most posts I have read declar toffee to be so easy to make, but never address the issue of the sugar and butter separating into a useless mess. This has happened to me a number of times and I have concluded that the length of time it cooks and stirring technique can be culprits. The other issue I have with most toffee is the inability to get a dark caramel flavor by melting all the ingredients together from the start. I have come up with a technique that develops a dark caramel flavor and seems to remain cohesive. It’s a little more effort, but the rich caramel flavor of the toffee is worth having to cook the sugar in two pots simultaneously. I still have some butter separate out as it is cooling, but never to the point of ruining the toffee. For the tiles on the Caramel Crunch Bars, I poured the toffee out onto a silpat to cover an 11×17 sheet pan so it is very thin and easy to bite through. If I am planning to dip the candy in chocolate, I leave it a little thicker.

Dark Caramel Toffee

1 cup granulated sugar, divided
1 ½ tablespoons corn syrup, divided
¾ cup unsalted butter (6 oz.)
2 tablespoons water
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon sea salt

Measure the spices and salt into a small dish and set aside. Line an 11×17 inch rimmed pan with a silicone mat or parchment paper and grease the side walls of the pan, set aside.

In a medium sized heavy-bottomed pan melt the butter, ½ cup of sugar and ½ tablespoon of corn syrup over low heat, stirring occasionally. Let this simmer while getting the second pan going.

 In a small sized heavy-bottomed pan combine ½ cup sugar, 1 tablespoon corn syrup, and 2 tablespoons water. Stir until dissolved over medium-low heat. Once the sugar dissolves, stop stirring, increase the heat to medium, and wash down the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush to rinse away any sugar crystals. Let the sugar cook without stirring until it is a deep caramel color.

While the sugar is cooking, monitor the butter-sugar mixture, stirring occasionally and keeping it at gentle simmer. Wash the sides of this pan down with the wet pastry brush as well. When the caramelizing sugar is beginning to take on a nice dark color, increase the heat of the butter-sugar mixture to bring it to a boil. As soon as the caramelizing sugar reaches the desired level of darkness, pour it into the butter-sugar mixture, and using a clean wooden or silicone spoon (no sugar crystals) stir slowly and steadily to incorporate (Don’t scrape the caramelized sugar from the pan, just use what will pour freely). Cook this mixture at a full boil until it reaches 300 degrees F, occasionally stirring gently. Once it hits 300 degrees F, mix in the spices and stir gently to incorporate, maintaining the boil. With the toffee at a full boil, pour it onto the lined sheet pan and gently spread it to the edges of the pan.

If butter begins to separate out around the edges or pools on top, carefully absorb it with a paper towel. Let the toffee cool about 1 minute and then begin pressing in score lines with a chef’s knife. Work in one direction pressing lines into the toffee about every 1 – 1 ½ inches. The lines might melt away initially, but just keep going over them and once the toffee is cool enough they will set. As soon as the score marks are starting to hold in one direction, begin making score lines the other direction. It is not necessary to cut all the way through the toffee, just create a line for the toffee to break along. Once the toffee is set, let it cool completely then snap the pieces apart.

photo by David Peterman

The cake made exactly by the recipe is very moist, chocolaty and dense.  It gets a triple chocolate hit from cocoa powder, melted bittersweet chocolate, and semisweet chocolate bits as a mix-in.  The layers of chocolaty delight are wrapped with a blanket of icing that tastes like marshmallow cream. In Dorie’s version as shown on the cover of Baking: From My Home to Yours, the whole cake is then coated with crumbled cake bits to create a stunning, yet simple, finished look.

I decided to take the torch to my cake and turn the frosting into a toasted marshmallow. For an added bit of visual and flavor interest I pooled cinnamon infused chocolate sauce on top (recipe at the end of post). I left out the semisweet chocolate chip mix-in because I wanted a lighter cake, so the chocolate sauce added back the pure chocolate element, just in sauce form. It was nice to have the added spice flavor focused just in the sauce so it would reveal itself only every few bites, not throughout the cake.

The icing is an Italian meringue, also known as a boiled icing. I was especially thrilled about this icing because it uses four egg whites that I was able to pull from my freezer stash and avoid having four spare egg yolks to use. In the meringue world there are a number of different types that are distinguished by the technique used to make them and they each have an ideal application. Italian meringue is made by boiling sugar syrup and then slowly adding the hot syrup to the whipping egg whites. The hot sugar syrup cooks the whites setting the protein structure so it is a more stable meringue than other styles, making it a perfect choice for applications like this cake where the meringue will not be baked. It is also the method generally used for baked Alaska or to top a pie where the meringue is just lightly toasted for color, but not baked through.

French meringue is often used as the basis for a cake. Sugar is sprinkled into whipping egg whites and because the sugar is not hot syrup the eggs don’t get cooked, so it wouldn’t be safe to eat this meringue raw. Once baked, French meringue becomes crispy, light and delicate.  Japonaise meringue uses the same technique but with the addition of finely ground almonds folded into the whipped whites before baking. Noisette is another variation on this same technique featuring ground hazelnuts.

Swiss meringue is what I use as the basis for my butter cream. In this style of meringue the sugar and egg whites are heated together, which pasteurizes the whites, and then whipped until the mixture has cooled and gained volume.

A few tips for whipping egg whites:

• Make sure the whites don’t have any specks of yolk in them. The fat in the yolk will inhibit the whites from expanding when whipped.
• Make sure the bowl and beater are free from any grease or fat.
• Room temperature whites are usually said to whip up to a greater volume, but according to Harold McGee in On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, cold egg whites will gain just as much volume and almost as quickly because the whipping action warms them up.
• A touch of cream of tartar or lemon juice will stabilize the foam structure to hold the volume built up from whipping, but salt will weaken the structure.
• Having trouble separating your eggs without breaking the yolk? One problem could be old eggs. Fresh eggs separate much easier and are more stable once whipped.
• Frozen whites, once thawed, whip up easily.
• Start beating egg whites on low, once the whites are foamy, increase the mixer to medium and continue to beat on medium speed until desired consistency is reached.

This cover recipe sold me the book when I first saw it and it was the first recipe I baked from the book. It must be so difficult to decide on a cover photo, but I think Dorie made the right choice with this cake. It is very representative of the recipes in the book; elegant, delicious and straight forward to make. Thank you to Stephanie of Confessions of a City Eater for finally selecting the cover recipe! She has the recipe posted on her blog.

Cinnamon Chocolate Sauce

This sauce is soft and spreadable when refrigerated, but pourable and drippy when warmed. It makes a nice topping over an iced cake, for ice cream, or can be used to make hot cocoa or mochas.  It is also great spread on graham crackers. The corn syrup adds a significant amount of sweetness, so I prefer to use a bittersweet chocolate, but if you like sweet chocolate sauces a semisweet chocolate might be a better choice.

Makes about 1 cup of chocolate sauce

2.5 oz.( by weight) cream
3.5 oz.( by weight) corn syrup
1 cinnamon stick
2.5 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
pinch of salt

Place the chopped chocolate in a medium bowl and set aside.

Bring the cream, corn syrup and cinnamon stick to a boil in a small sauce pan. Remove from the heat, cover, and let the cinnamon infuse into the liquid for 20 minutes. Remove the cinnamon stick, and re-heat the mixture to just below a boil. Pour the hot liquid over the chopped chocolate and let it stand for 30 seconds before beginning to whisk the mixture together. Once the chocolate and cream are nicely combined add the ground cinnamon and pinch of salt and stir to combine. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning adding more cinnamon if desired.

Let the mixture cool at room temperature to the desired consistency if pouring on a cake. Store remaining sauce in the refrigerator and re-warm gently in the microwave to regain the liquid consistency.

I love learning a new technique and this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe taught me that meringue can be poached, and it’s fantastic! Floating Islands are a classic French dessert that Dorie Greenspan describes as a childhood touchstone for people growing up in France. Growing up in the U.S., I identify with Rice Krispie treats and Toll House Cookies, but I am more than happy to embrace this elegantly simple, delicious, ethereal dessert.

photo by David Peterman

I have made many meringues; baked, toasted, blow torched, but never poached. The process is as simple as can be and creates a remarkably stable, moist, pillow of meringue. Once the meringue is whipped, dollops are dropped into simmering milk to poach for a minute or so on each side – amazing! The “island” floats on a pool of crème anglaise, which I chose to infuse with basil. I first came across the idea of using basil in sweet applications when flipping through Kate Zuckerman’s book, The Sweet Life: Desserts from Chanterelle. When I saw the recipe for basil ice cream, I bought the book without further scrutiny, figuring any book with basil ice cream must have all sorts of other interesting recipes, and it does. The combination of basil with cream and sugar is remarkably fresh, mildly herby, and delightful.

I thought a few poached banana rafts might be nice on my islands primarily because I have wanted to play around with poaching bananas for some time.  To add some textural variety I dusted them with sugar that I caramelized with a torch just before plating. Had I thought the complete dessert through before getting started, I probably would have chosen a different flavor infusion for the crème anglaise, but I didn’t hear any complaining once it was served.

After poaching the bananas with cinnamon and clove, I strained the poaching liquid and caramelized it to make spun sugar for a garnish. Though I have tried this numerous times, I have yet to master the technique. I suspect success hinges on getting the caramel to the perfect stringy temperature. I managed to get enough nice strands to garnish the desserts, but from the amount of caramel I had, I should have created mountains of spun sugar. My original vision was to gather the spun sugar into a nest to place on the island, but the strands cooled too quickly and just crumbled when I attempted to gather them up. Sugar sticks it is.

Both the poached meringue and poached bananas offer endless options for other applications and I must thank Shari of Whisk a Food Blog, for expanding my baking skills with her recipe selection for this week. The recipe for Floating Islands from Dorie Greenspan’s book, Baking: From My Home to Yours, is posted on Shari’s blog if you would like to give it a try. Steph of Whisk and a Spoon, made the clever observation that by poaching the meringues first, the poaching milk could be used to make the crème anglaise. I also had a desire to get double duty out of the poaching liquid, but hadn’t read her good advice in time, so I added a bit of vinegar and hoped to make ricotta cheese with the milk. No luck. Either the egg proteins foiled me, or maybe the vinegar I used wasn’t acidic enough. I tried.

Poached Bananas with Spice

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup water
2-3 medium bananas, peeled and sliced about 1/2″ thick
1 cinnamon stick, about 3″ long
3 whole cloves

Additional sugar for caramelizing if desired

In a small sauce pan, mix the sugar, water and spices together over medium-low heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Bring the mixture to a boil and add the bananas, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook uncovered for 15-20 minutes until the bananas are soft. If not using the bananas right away they can remain in the poaching liquid.

Simply served in a small dish with a bit of the poaching liquid and a splash of coconut milk makes a nice dessert, or the bananas can be use to garnish other desserts.

To caramelize the bananas for a crunchy candy coating, place them on a wire cooling rack set over a baking sheet to drain. Sprinkle the banana slices with granulated sugar and either place them under a broiler or caramelize the sugar with a torch until it is a deep golden brown.

The popularity of salt caramels may have been what really launched the salt/sweet combo into the mainstream. I haven’t met a single person that doesn’t love salt caramels. Salt and caramel, salt and chocolate, salt and creamy things; it’s all good. These World Peace Cookies are yet more proof that salt and sweet are a perfect match.

photo by David Peterman

I generally add a pinch of salt to dessert items if the recipe doesn’t call for it. I am a firm believer that a little salt, though not identifiable on its own, enhances the overall flavors of a dessert. Recently I discovered the delightful taste sensation of sprinkling a little salt on chocolate chip cookies just before they go in the oven, and now it’s the only way I make chocolate chip cookies. Already a fan of salt with sweet and salt with cookies, I was thrilled to learn that the cookies for this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie baking project highlight salt as a key flavor component playing against the flavors of dark cocoa and rich butter. It’s a natural match just like salted caramels.

The World Peace Cookies are a sablé-style cookie, much like a shortbread or butter cookie. This is the second sablé cookie we have made in this group and I think I have finally gotten the hang of the pronunciation, SAH-blay.  These cookies are tender and crumbly, not too sweet, and very difficult to stop eating. There is only ½ teaspoon of salt in the recipe, but it is enough to make them stunningly delicious. Each bite finishes with a beautiful salty note that is nicely countered by the sugar, cocoa, and butter. Eating one makes me want one more, and then the justification that they are small kicks in so I decide to have another before I put them away, well, this went on until they were gone. Irresistibly delicious is how I would sum up this recipe. I have heard other Tuesday with Dorie bakers rave about this recipe, and now I understand.

Jessica of Cookbook Habit gets credit for selecting this week’s baking project from Dorie Greenspan’s  book, Baking: From My Home to Yours. This recipe alone is enough to justify making a place in your kitchen for this book.  If you want to see for yourself, Jessica has posted the World Peach Cookies recipe on her blog.

Salt is what makes these cookies so spectacular, and with all the different specialty salts available, playing with different flavors and textures can add a spectacular element to all kinds of dishes. In general, the fancy flake and flavored salts are best utilized as finishing salts added just before serving a dish; if these specialty salts are used for general seasoning during cooking, the unique texture and flavor characteristics get lost.

photo by David Peterman

With the availability of affordable sea salts and kosher salt, table salt is losing popularity in kitchens. Table salt is very dense making it slow to dissolve, it also contains a variety of additives that can create a harsh and sometimes metallic taste as well as cloud brines. Kosher salt is a coarse flake salt that doesn’t contain the additives found in table salt and is readily available in grocery stores making it extremely popular to cook with. The coarse texture also makes it very easy to sprinkle evenly over food. Sea salt is harvested from evaporation fields and either washed of surface impurities to create a very uniform size and appearance or left unrefined retaining traces of minerals and sediments often giving the salt a gray cast. For general cooking I use kosher salt, but for baking I use a finer grain sea salt for a more accurate measurement. Pictured above are examples of sea salt, kosher salt, and gray salt.

One of the most famous salts is Fleur de sel, a flake salt harvested along France’s Brittany coast. Fleur de sel is harvested from the top crust that forms on evaporation ponds and is very light and delicate, and generally reserved for finishing delicate dishes. The salt harvested from the bottom of these ponds is a coarser texture and heavier in flavor because it contains more minerals. This is gray salt, or sel gris, and bold enough to cook with rather than reserve for finishing.

photo by David Peterman

Some flake salts, like the famous Maldon sea salt from England, are hollow-pyramid crystals that add an amazing crunch to food.  Balinese Pyramid salt is pictured above to illustrate this interesting crystallin structure. The evaporation process used in harvesting sea salt determines the shapes of crystals.

photo by David Peterman

Murray River Pink Flake Salt from Australia is my favorite choice for garnishing cookies and other baked goods. It is beautifully light with a delicate clean flavor. Black flake salt makes a dramatic garnish for crackers,  focaccia breads, and even butter. The flake structure is very thin, so though it looks like a big piece of salt, it does not deliver an overwhelming salty flavor. Hawaiian red alaea salt is made by adding volcanic clay to sea salt to create a beautiful deep muted red hued salt with a nice earthy flavor and gorgeous color.

photo by David Peterman

Smoked salts are worth experimenting with as well. My favorite use of alderwood smoked salt is in making caramels.  Smoked salts are really strong and a little goes a long way, but it is also the quickest way to add a nice complex flavor to a dish. When I am in a rush and just want to toss some chicken on the grill, a sprinkle of smoked salt and some black pepper adds great flavor in seconds.  I have also tossed a pinch in slow cooked oatmeal to make it taste like it was cooked over a campfire.

Salts can add very distinct characteristics to dishes and are great fun to experiment with. This is barely a sampling of the salts available on the market, so check out specialty spice shops, a favorite activity of mine when I visit different cities, specialty kitchen stores, and gourmet groceries to find all kinds of different salts.

Would you like to make your own Himalayan pink salt celler? See my very first blog post for instructions.

phot by David Peterman