I've had salted caramel on my mind ever since I had a salted caramel cupcake in D.C. The cupcake itself wasn't all that great, it was a white cake with white icing, neither had much flavor and they were cold and hard like they had just been taken out of the refrigerator.
Okay, I need to go off topic for a second here. Cupcakeries are popping up all over the country. I've been to a quite a few, I love to see how people decorate and what flavors they come up with. My favorite one so far is Magnolia Bakery in NYC. Any way, these places are all over and there is some major competition, not to mention the price. If I'm paying $3.50 for a cupcake, it better be fresh and moist, not cold and hard.
Okay, back on topic. The cupcake and icing weren't all that great, but drizzled on top was this salted caramel sauce that was to die for. I wanted to make it. So I got online and researched how to make caramel.
I decided to make use of the caramel in a cookie.
For the base, I used the Chocolate Crackles cookie from the Martha Stewart Cookies cookbook, the only difference I made to the recipe is that I didn't roll the cookies in powdered sugar.
I made the dough first because it has to be separated into four discs, wrapped in plastic and placed in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
While the dough was in the fridge, I tackled the caramel. It took me three attempts, the first time I overcooked the caramel, the second time I put in way too much salt. But I didn't let it stop me, I was determined to make this caramel work.
After doing some reasearch, I decided to go with the dry method.
I put 1 cup of sugar in a heated, heavy sauce pan over medium-high heat. I was a little nervous, I couldn't believe it was so easy as to just let the sugar cook.
And then I noticed along the edge the sugar started to caramelize.
It started to darken and bubble.
I took it off the heat and added 6 tablespoons of butter
and 1/2 cup heavy cream.
In the end I added 2 teaspoons of salt. Next time I'm going to add a bit more. I don't want it to overwhelm the sweetness of the caramel, but to enhance it with a salty/sweetness.
And after sitting for a while, it was a wonderful color and just the right thickness.
I debated on the size of the cookies. Should they be bite-sized or two bites-sized. So I made them in both sizes. Bite-sized is best. These are the kind of cookies that you should just pop in your mouth.
I rolled the cookies into small balls and then used my index finger in the middle to make the indentation.
I baked them for at 350 degrees and after 10 minutes, I pulled them out and used the back of a 1/4 teaspoon to redo the indentation. Then I put them back in the oven for 4 more minutes.
After they were pulled from the oven, I immediately put them on cooling racks and spooned about a 1/4 teaspoon of caramel in each cookie.
They didn't all turn out perfect, some of them had cracks that caused the caramel to drip off the side. Others were the perfect size and had the perfect little pool of caramel in the middle.
I made the last minute decision to melt semi-sweet chocolate and drizzle it over the top of the cookies. It didn't add much to the flavor, but I thought it made the cookies look prettier.
Overall, the cookies were good.
I am not the biggest fan of dark chocolate, but if you are, you will like these cookies. I think next time, I will make the cookies out of shortbread, still use the same caramel and chocolate drizzle.
No comments:
Post a Comment