Sea Salt Vanilla Bean Caramel

My past few days have consisted of me baking cookies and cooking up caramel, watching Big Bang Theory for hours on end, dipping cookies in caramel, trying to knock some movies of my must list like American Psycho, No Country for Old Men and Requiem for a Dream which is a lot of depressing for one day; making banana bread to smoother caramel all over, showing up for a waxing appointment that left third degree burns and coming home to eat more caramel whilst I sat in pain from my forming scars. 

Caramel is my savior. It's that time of the month where I feel like lying around doing nothing and imagining devious ways to attack people from trees who have disturbed me. They may lock me up real soon but in the meantime, let's have some sweet and salty caramel!

Sea Salt Vanilla Bean Caramel

From Baked Bree

1 1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup water
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 vanilla bean, sliced and seeded
1 teaspoon sea salt

Slice a vanilla bean in half. Using the back of the knife, scrape the seeds from the pod. Pour the cream into a measuring cup and add the vanilla bean scrapings, and sea salt. Set aside. Put the sugar and water in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring the sugar to a boil. Let the sugar cook (do not stir using a spoon, at most, you may swirl the pan to avoid hot spots) until it reaches a deep amber color. Whisk in the cream mixture. It will bubble and go nuts, but keep whisking. It will come together. Pour into a jar and keep in the fridge. The sauce will thicken, but it is more of a loose sauce. This will keep for about a week in the fridge.

My Favourite Scones

Before I had made these my success with scones was here and there. Here being great and there being dry flour lumps. There was a lot of there. I think it was when I tried to make whole wheat peanut butter scones. Just one big no. But then I tried one from Bon Appetit and it was amazing! Then another dud. But then these came along. They have a different formula and it works.

These babies use a lot of whipped cream in place of the butter and the result is the perfect scone. I have made these several times in several different ways. Oh and as if they couldn't be any better, they are easy and can be made ahead of time in the freezer. Awesome? Heck yes.

Cream Scones

From America's Test Kitchen

2 cups (10 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour, preferably a low-protein brand such as Gold Medal or Pillsbury
1 tablespoon baking powder
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
5 tablespoons chilled, unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1/2 cup currants (Variations below)
1 cup heavy cream
 

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425°F. Place flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in large bowl or work bowl of food processor fitted with steel blade. Whisk together or pulse six times. If making by hand, use two knives, a pastry blender or your fingertips and quickly cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal, with a few slightly larger butter lumps. Stir in currants. If using food processor, remove cover and distribute butter evenly over dry ingredients. Cover and pulse 12 times, each pulse lasting 1 second. Add currants and pulse one more time. Transfer dough to large bowl.  Stir in heavy cream with a rubber spatula or fork until dough begins to form, about 30 seconds. Transfer dough and all dry, floury bits to countertop and knead dough by hand just until it comes together into a rough, sticky ball, 5 to 10 seconds. Form scones by either a) pressing the dough into an 8-inch cake pan, then turning the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, cutting the dough into 8 wedges with either a knife or bench scraper (the book’s suggestion) or b) patting the dough onto a lightly floured work surface into a 3/4-inch thick circle, cutting pieces with a biscuit cutter, and pressing remaining scraps back into another piece and cutting until dough has been used up. ** Place rounds or wedges on ungreased baking sheet and bake until scone tops are light brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack for at least 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

* I have used raisins instead with or without 3/4 tsp cinnamon added to the flour mix, dried cranberries with or without 1 tbsp lemon zest, or omitted the fruit entirely and added the seeds from a vanilla bean. All have worked and each taste amazing! 

** At that point the scones can be placed on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and placed in the freezer for an hour. After the hour, or until they are pretty solidly chilled, they can be moved into a air tight freezer bag and be kept in the freezer for a month. Bake at the same temperature for a few extra minutes and do not defrost beforehand.

Vanilla Cinnamon Granola

To switch things up a bit around here, let's throw in some granola. I've mentioned before how I love cereal. Why not bake my own? So I did. One thing I love is making something that I would normally buy at the store. For example, we very rarely buy store bought cookies because there are always some on hand at home. When I started making bread, it was a great substitute to the loaves from the grocery bakery. Homemade anything feels like an accomplishment in my mind.

This granola is great on yogurt, with milk or, as I primarily consumed it, straight. 

Vanilla Cinnamon Granola
Adapted from Bon Appetit via epicurious 

2 cups old fashioned oats
1/4 cup toasted, slivered almonds
1/2 cup rice krispies
1/4 cup packed, dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp (kosher) salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 1/2 tbsp oil
2 tbsp honey
2 tsp vanilla 

Preheat oven to 300º. Position rack to middle of oven. Lightly spray large baking sheet with nonstick spray. Toss together the oats, almonds, rice krispies. In a small bowl combine the sugar, salt and cinnamon. Combine this with the oat mix. In a small saucepan combine oil, honey and sugar. Bring it to simmer over medium heat. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour the hot liquid over oat mixture and stir till well combined. Use your hands if you need to.  Spread granola on the prepared baking sheet. Bake until golden brown about 22 minutes. Transfer sheet to rack; cool granola completely. Store in airtight container at room temperature for up to two weeks.

Vanilla Creme Apple Pie

The zee disaster! This was an all around mistake but here it is and it was good. This was actually supposed to be a tart but that did not work out quite clearly. However it worked out to be a nice pie. I used my mother's amazing pie crust but instead of rolling it out with flour, it was rolled out in confectioner's sugar instead. If you try that with any pie crust it will make it that much better.Vanilla Creme Apple Pie

crust
enough for pie dough for one 9" pie, like a frozen pie crust or if you have some on hand (great instructions, I know)
confectioner's sugar for rolling
vanilla creme
3 egg yolks
1/4 cup caster/superfine sugar
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 cup and 2 tbsp milk
1/2 vanilla bean
1 1/2 tsp butter
topping
4 medium granny smith apples, peeled and cored and thinly sliced
2 tbsp honey

Roll out the pie crust in the confectioner's sugar into a circle large enough for a 9" pie dish. Crimp the edges as desired. I was in a hurry and just threw the crust in there. Cover the crust with tin foil and place pie weights/beans/any form of weight over the tin foil. Bake the crust for 10 minutes in a 350º oven.
Now for the creme. Whisk the egg yolks and half the sugar(2 tbsp) until pale and creamy. Add the cornstarch and flour and mix until there are not lumps. Set this mix aside. Bring the milk, remaining sugar and vanilla bean to boil in a small saucepan. Once it is boiling, turn off the heat and strain the mix into the egg yolk mixture, stirring the mix together continuously. Pour the creme into a clean saucepan and bring to boil. Stir constantly! Lumps will appear at first but I promise it will become smooth. Boil it for two minutes then remove from heat. Stir in the butter. Pour the mix into a bowl and place plastic wrap directly on the creme so that a skin doesn't form. Or you can use it right away.
Remove the tin foil from the pie crust and spread the vanilla creme on the crust. Arrange the apples on top of the vanilla creme. Bake the pie for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the apples are golden and the pastry is cooked. Leave to cool. Once the pie is cooled(I did not wait for it too cool, probably 30 minutes tops) melt the honey in the microwave for about 15 seconds or until liquidized. Drizzle the honey over the pie and enjoy!

Nuts of all Flavours

Everyone loves chocolate covered almonds, well any sane person. It is a pretty well known fact. So as I was looking for Christmas baking recipes through assorted magazines and cookbooks, I saw a chocolate covered almonds recipe. This struck me as an odd thing to publish because it seems pretty basic: chocolate and almonds. Curious I was.They were delicious! The thing that made them so unique was they had a double coating. The first was a cinnamon caramel like coating that had to set. Then came the chocolate layer. Then to finish them off they were coated in cocoa or powdered sugar. Minor problem was that they were really quite odd looking but I blame myself for that one. I did not coat them properly with the first layer.

Since I was on this nut kick I thought I would give vanilla hazelnuts a whirl too (contrasting the chocolate, of course). These too looked a little odd but once again delicious! The vanilla coating was so crunchy and these were much easier and quicker to make. If you like nuts to snack on, try these.

Chocolate Covered Almonds
Recipe can be found here
2 1/2 cups (13 ounces) unblanched whole almonds*
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 pound semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Toast almonds for 15 minutes on a baking sheet. Line two baking pans with parchment paper; set aside. In a medium saucepan, combine granulated sugar, 1/4 cup water, toasted almonds, and cinnamon. Cook, stirring constantly, until sugar becomes golden and granular and almonds are completely coated and separated.** Pour nuts onto prepared pans.*** Chill in freezer, about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, place chocolate in a medium bowl; place bowl over simmering water until melted. Transfer half the chilled almonds to a large bowl, and pour half the melted chocolate over nuts. Stir until nuts are thoroughly coated. Transfer nuts onto prepared baking pan. Using two forks, separate nuts so none stick together. Return almonds to refrigerator until chocolate has set, about 20 minutes. Repeat with remaining almonds. Place cocoa powder and confectioners’ sugar into two separate bowls. Toss half the nuts in cocoa and half in sugar, and gently tap off any excess powder. Store separately in airtight containers for up to 1 month or, in my case, about three days.

* I accidently purchased blanched almonds and it turned out fine.
** This was super annoying. The directions were so vague with no temperatures, time spans or even stove top directions. I had the stove at about medium heat, stirred them for about 8 minutes and the temperature is still unknown. But I would recommend cooking them until the sauce is quite thick.
*** Do not pour the extra sauce on top of them, it really makes like much more difficult than it has to be. They don't exactly pop out of the sauce once it is solidified so try and avoid this.