Salty Caramel Corn for a Crowd
Salty Caramel Corn is something we make all the time: a quick, delicious treat made from ingredients we always have in the pantry. It solves the dilemma of weeknight guests that you forgot to plan dessert for. After mastering this dry-sugar caramel, you're life will be forever changed...it's easier, faster, and tastes a hundred times better than any other caramel corn you've ever had! If you've never made this type of caramel before, don't worry, its not as complicated as it looks. Salty Caramel Corn for a Crowd can be made quickly on high heat (about 4 minutes) for the daring, or slowly on medium-low (about 8 minutes) if you are a first time caramel'er.
Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon oil (I use canola, but any flavorless high-heat oil will do)
- 2/3 cup popcorn kernels
- 1 cup sugar
- 2/3 cup cream
- 1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Steps:
1. Pop the popcorn (microwave, air-popper, etc.). My preferred method is to cook on the stove-top with a heavy bottomed medium saucepan with lid. Heat the pot empty for 1 minute on high heat. Add the oil and popcorn, and shake the pan back and forth to ensure each kernel has a thin coat of oil. Put on the lid. Shake the pan every 20 seconds until the kernels stop popping, about 3 minutes. Dump the popped corn onto a baking sheet.
2. Place a heavy bottomed saucepan (or saucier) on medium heat. If you are feeling daring, go to high heat for a faster cook. Dump in the sugar. Measure out your cream and set to the side (for step 5). Throughout this process you will never stop whisking. Your goal is to evenly melt and brown the sugar without burning it. After the first 2 minutes of cooking the dry sugar, you'll notice the sugar starting to look wet and beginning to clump. About 1 minute more, and you'll see the sugar melting around the edges and turning golden brown (see photo). Keep whisking.
3. You are now in the melting phase. Continue whisking for approximately 1 minute, until your sugar begins to turn uniformly brown and appears to melt into itself (see photo). Things will begin to move more quickly at this point. If you get nervous, just turn down your heat...it is slower, but it gives you more time to react. Keep whisking.
4. You are now in the browning phase. Your sugar will become a smooth liquid and start darkening relatively quickly. Remember that golden brown is delicious...burnt is acrid. If you see smoke at the edges of your sugar, turn down the heat immediately and whisk rapidly. When your sugar is a deep amber color (see photo) it is time to add the cream! Keep whisking.
5. You are now in the emulsification phase. You will be adding the cream very slowly (about 1 tablespoon at a time). If you pour it in all at once, your sugar will seize into a hard ball, which is just plain disheartening and takes a very long time to dissolve back into solution. As you add your first tablespoon of cream, the mixture will start making noise...steaming and boiling vigorously (see photo). You will repeat this step (adding one tablespoon cream at a time and whisking until the bubbling slows). Continue until your cream is almost used up. Keep whisking.
6. Congratulations! You are now in the finishing phase. As you add your last cream, you'll notice the the consistency and color of the caramel changing. It will be getting thicker and creamier. The longer you cook the caramel at this point, the thicker it will get. You want the caramel to be falling off the whisk in fat drops (see photo at right and below). When the caramel reaches this stage, remove the pan from the heat, add salt, and whisk to combine. The caramel can be drizzled over the popcorn, and eaten as soon as its cool enough to touch (we usually last about 30 seconds). This dish is messy, delicious, and will disappear quickly (see photos below)!
Skillet Mac & Cheese with Rye Bread Crumbs
We've made somewhat of an art form of converting leftover ingredients into individual lunches and sometimes even spunky new dishes, like this comfort classic: Skillet Mac & Cheese with Rye Bread Crumbs. This rye crusted dish is a savory answer to what to do with two-day-old homemade bread: pulse it up, mix in butter, salt and cheese and use it as a flavorful topping. We paired the sour and caraway laced crumbs of homemade sourdough rye bread with a sumptuous homemade macaroni and cheese that Paul whipped up stove-top while the oven preheated. The combination of creamy, subtle local cheeses and pungent crunchy bread crumbs was lovely. We used a 50/50 blend of two local cheeses. One was a mild farmer's cheese, which gave a smooth creaminess to the sauce. The other was a young asiago, which added a subtle nutty sharpness. Feel free to use your favorite cheese, but try to stick with ones that will melt smoothly. It may be spring, but we are are not done with creamy comfort foods yet!
Black Rice Pudding with Coconut & Lemongrass
Black Rice Pudding with Coconut & Lemongrass grew out of our friend Marcia's request for a creative way to highlight the unique flavor and earthy purple hue of black forbidden rice. During my time in Cambodia as a college student, I lived with an outstanding cook who taught me to coax flavor from a limited set of ingredients, often only herbs and rice. This dessert marries the nutty sweetness of black forbidden rice with lemongrass's distinctive bright and herby citrus flavor. Using only coconut milk and egg yolks in the subtly sweet sauce allows the dish to be gluten free and dairy free, two special requests of our friend Marcia. In this case, keeping dairy and thickeners out of the picture allows for a purer flavor and lighter texture. We used fresh mango and toasted coconut as a garnish to contrast with the creamy purple pudding.
Salted Rum Caramel with Grilled Peaches & Ice Cream
Salted Rum Caramel with Grilled Peaches & Ice Cream is my kind of summer dessert! Rebecca's sister and I share a deep love of homemade rum-spiked caramel. Many a night has been spent together eating gobs of the stuff poured over everything from bananas to apples to ice cream...or, when no one is looking eating it by the spoonful straight from the pan. In preparation for family dinner tonight (a weekly tradition), I decided to go all out with a new version I've been making with a local rum-style spirit made from buckwheat honey (Wigle Whisky's amazingly delicious Aged Landlocked). The caramel is rich, smooth, and sumptuous with a salty rum finish. The grilled peaches melt in your mouth with the unexpected smoky taste of summer grilling. While the caramel sauce might sound intimidating, you can go as slow as you like over a lower flame. Once you master the technique of dry caramel, you can try other crowd favorites like our Caramel Corn.
Apple Walnut Bundt Cake with Caramel Glaze
Thanks for following along with our new adventures! We recently moved from Pittsburgh to Haiti where we are starting a 5 year volunteer assignment with a non-profit relief and development organization. We will be in transition for the next few months as we complete our in-country orientation, language study, spend time living with host families in both the countryside and capital... and lest we forget, have our first baby somewhere in there as well! Please bear with us as we will not have ready access to internet or a kitchen throughout this time. We will continue to share new recipes that we've prepared in advance, and updates on our new life in Haiti as often as we are able.
As much as we love the tropical fruits and Caribbean flavors of our new home in Haiti, we are nostalgic for the apple and spice combination, so classic to this time of year in North America. We love this old-fashioned Apple Walnut Bundt Cake with Caramel Glaze, pungent with cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and ginger, glazed with a salty caramel.
Meyer Lemon Posset
Lemon Posset is a near perfect dessert in my mind. It is rich, decadent, and creamy, while managing to taste light and fresh on the tongue. It has only three simple ingredients, that come together in a taste and texture that will make you smile. We discovered this unique old-fashioned British treat when searching for a custard-like dessert for a friend who is allergic to eggs. As often happens when we are confronted with a food restriction, we become fixated on that ingredient...in this case egg-centric dishes: ice creams, meringues, cakes, and custards. We wanted a dish with the silky creaminess usually only possibly with thickeners and eggs. Lemon Posset allows the egg-free and gluten-free among us an uncompromised dessert win, free of any substitutes or unpronounceable ingredients.
