Salted Caramel Chocolate Torte

I saw this salted caramel chocolate torte floating around Facebook a couple of weeks ago and it looked right up my alley. I looooovvveee caramel and you can't go wrong by adding the chocolate ganache with a  sprinkle of sea salt.

The full original post with recipe and pictures can be found on the Home Cooking Adventure blog. Below are the instructions and ingredients from Tastemade's Youtube video. 

The recipe took me almost all day to make but was well worth it. To save time I would make and chill the crust the night before and roll it out in the morning.

Salted Caramel Chocolate Torte
Makes about 6-8 servings

Almond Chocolate Sweet Pastry
1 1/4 cups (160g) flour

1/4 cup (30g) ground almonds

1/4 cup (30g) unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 cup (50g) sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 stick (110 g) cold unsalted butter, cut into small (1/2-inch) cubes

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

1-2 tbsp ice water

Caramel
1 1/2 cups (300 g) sugar
1/2 cup (100g) water

1/2 cup (120 g) heavy cream

5 tbsp (70 g) unsalted butter

1 tsp salt

Chocolate Ganache

1/2 cup (120 g) heavy cream

4 oz (120g) bittersweet chocolate, chopped

Garnish

sea salt crystals


Directions
1. Prepare the sweet pastry. In a large bowl mix flour with ground almonds, cocoa powder, sugar and salt.

2. Incorporate butter to the flour mixture, using a pastry blender, a fork or a pastry processor, until crumbs are formed. Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix them in. Add water and incorporate into the dough. Wrap it with plastic, knead slowly to form a disc and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or overnight.

3. On a floured surface or over the plastic wrap roll the dough to a circle with about 1 1/2 inches larger than your tart pan. Lift up the rolled dough and place it on a greased 9 inch tart pan. Remove the edges and refrigerate for 30 minutes before baking.

4. Prick the dough with a fork, line a parchment paper over the dough. Fill with dry beans, rice or pie weights.

5. Bake for 15 minutes in preheated 350 F (180C) oven. Remove the weights and the parchment paper. Return to oven for another 10 to 15 minutes. Allow to cool before removing from the tart pan.

6. Prepare the caramel. Place the sugar and water in a medium heavy bottomed saucepan over medium-high heat, and cook without stirring until sugar dissolves and gets a caramel color.

*This step took me approximately 10-15 minutes and I actually had to do it twice. The first time I was afraid of burning the caramel so I took the mixture off way too early and it was nowhere near caramel when I tried to mix in the cream and butter. The second time I thought I burned and ruined the sugar mixture when I waited for it to turn a caramel color since it was smoking slightly and smelled a hair burnt, but it came out prefect after mixing the cream and butter.

7. Remove the pan from the heat and add the cream. It will bubble a little bit.

8. Cook for about 1 or 2 minutes stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until smooth. Remove from heat and add butter and salt. Stir well until smooth.

9. Let the caramel cool slightly and pour over the chocolate crust. Refrigerate for about 4-5 hours.

10. Prepare the chocolate ganache. Heat the cream in a small saucepan. When the cream just begins to boil at the edges, remove from heat and pour over the chopped chocolate. Let sit one minute, then stir until smooth.

11. Pour the chocolate ganache over the caramel. Spread it evenly and refrigerate for another 2-3 hours before serving. Sprinkle with sea salt flakes and serve.

Enjoy!

Southern Pecan Pie

I usually like to make a pecan pie each year around Thanksgiving since they taste soo much better homemade. Since I didn't have much time for baking this past year with boards right around the corner, I decided to make some for dessert last night.

Southern Pecan Pie

1 piecrust, homemade or frozen
1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 1/3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs
2 1/2 cups toasted pecan halves


1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Cook pie crust for 10 minutes then remove from oven (leave oven on). While piecrust is baking, combine corn syrup, brown sugar, salt, vanilla extract, and butter in a medium bowl. Beat eggs and add to mixture.

2. Finely chop 1/2 cup of toasted pecans and line the bottom of the cooled piecrust with them. Rough chop 1 cup of pecans and add to the wet ingredients. Reserve 1 cup of pecans for decorative top.

3. Pour wet ingredients into the pie crust over the finely chopped pecans.





4. Add whole pecan halves in a decorative pattern starting with the outer row. For each row I like to put the fatter end of the nut towards the outside of the pie so they fit a little better.





5. Bake for 40-50 minutes until a sharp knife inserted into the pie comes out clean. Cool completely before serving.




I like to serve my pecan pie with vanilla bean ice cream and whipped cream, but this pie is so good to almost don't need it.

Hope you enjoyed!

Coconut Panna Cotta

I looooooovvveeee panna cotta. Make it coconut flavored and I'm in heaven. This is another dessert I had never made before but it was super easy and came out great.

Coconut Panna Cotta- total time 5.5 hours including chilling
1 2/3 cups coconut milk
1 1/4 cups whole milk

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup hot water
1 tablespoon gelatine
10 strawberries cored and cubed

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1. Combine coconut milk, whole milk, and 3/4 cup sugar in a pot over medium heat. Stir until sugar dissolves and be sure not to allow mixture to boil. Remove from heat after sugar is dissolved.

2. Sprinkle gelatin over hot water and whisk until well combined. Add to coconut mixture and mix well. Pour into 4-5 1/2 cup ramekins.

3. Refrigerate for 5 hours until set. 30 minutes before serving combine 1/4 cup sugar, strawberries, and vanilla extract in a small bowl.

To serve, top with macerated strawberries and whipped cream. Enjoy!

Vanilla Sprinkle French Macarons

This post has been a long time coming. I've been wanting to write it forever but couldn't muster up the energy and courage to do it. These cookies are not easy to perfect. If you are a perfectionist like me when it comes to baking, they will give you headaches and make you want to cry. That said, if you can accept that you will have delicious cookies that may not look perfect every single time you make them, they are definitely a cookie you should try. 

I first started making macarons last fall after paying $2.97 for a single cookie. I knew I was decent at baking and figured I could figure out how to make them. I read, I researched, I googled and youtubed, and after all of that I found out they were difficult but not impossible to make. My entire first batch exploded save for two lone shells. I sought out different recipes, some called for all the ingredients to be weighed, others using measuring cups. The frustrating part was that I had success and failures with both. There would be weeks when my shells came out right and others where I couldn't make a single cookie, even when using the same recipe. I felt so overwhelmed that I was almost ready to quit making them when I found the right recipe just at the right time.

Knock on wood, each time I've made this recipe I've had pretty little feet and smooth tops on every shell. It doesn't call for weighing ingredients but as long as your consistent with your measuring methods, it shouldn't be a problem.

So here's the recipe I've been using, no scale required.

Vanilla French Macarons- total recipe time 1-2 days *

1 3/4 cup powdered sugar**

1 cup almond flour**

3 large egg whites, room temperature

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

pinch of salt

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

* Completed cookies take 1 day to mature and be perfect to eat, overbaked shells take 2 days

* *Fluff with a spoon before delicately scooping out and placing in measuring cups making sure to level off with the flat edge of a butter knife

Vanilla Buttercream:

1 stick of butter, softened

1 1/4 cup powder sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp milk

Additional things you will need: 3 baking sheets, parchment paper, 12" piping bag, 1/2" piping tip, decorative sprinkles

1.  Combine powdered sugar and almond flour. Sift and discard any pieces too large to pass through sieve (approximately 1-2 TBSP). Set aside.

2. Combine egg whites, cream of tartar, and pinch of salt in the metal bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment (a clean, metal bowl is necessary for producing a nice meringue, it keeps the egg whites cool and gives them more volume). Beat the egg whites on speed 6 until frothy (a minute or two). Bump up the speed to 8 and slowly add granulated sugar. Whip until a firm meringue forms an additional 5 minutes (approximately 8 minutes from turning the mixer on). The meringue should clump together on the interior of the whisk attachment as shown below.

3. Add the almond-powder sugar mixture to the meringue and begin folding together by swiping along the bottom edge of the bowl with a flexible spatula and pressing back down firmly on center of the path that was drawn in the batter. Add the vanilla extract. 

The motion of the folding will be like drawing a letter 'p' using the edge of the bowl for the straight part of the letter and folding back over on itself for the loop of the p. Mix until batter flows like lava off the edge of the spatula in a ribbon-like fashion (takes approximately 1-2 minutes depending on how hard you are deflating the batter). The whole purpose of the folding the batter is to deflate it and get rid of the air, so no need to be gentle.

4. Fit a 12" piping bag with a 1/2" round piping tip and twist the tip-end to prevent batter from leaking out. Place bag tip first into a large drinking glass and fold bag over edge of the cup to make for easy batter transfer. 

Piping bag fitted with tip before I twisted the tip to close it off

5. Pipe quarter size circles onto a parchment lined baking sheet (if the first couple of piped shells have peaks that do not flatten out, the batter is not mixed enough. Squeeze batter back into bowl and fold a few more times until consistency is right and pipe again). Slam baking sheet on the counter top to release any air bubbles to prevent shells from exploding. Add any decorative sprinkles to half of the shells now and allow to rest for 30 minutes or until tops are no longer tacky to the touch (can take up to an hour depending on humidity). Preheat oven to 290 F.

6. Place a second baking sheet underneath the first tray of macaron shells and bake for 22 minutes. Repeat with other sheets of shells. During the first 4-6 minutes the foot of the macaron will begin to form, this is the most nerve wracking part. You can check for doneness by trying to remove a shell from the parchment paper. If it comes away clean, they're done. It's better to over bake then under bake macarons, as the latter can't be fixed later. Allow shells to cool on baking sheets.

7. While shells are cooling mix together the butter, powder sugar, milk, and vanilla extract for the buttercream icing.

8. After shells have cooled, remove from parchment paper and match up like sized shells, sprinkles for the top and plain shells for the bottom. Pipe a quarter size swirl of buttercream on one of the paired shells and top with its match.

9. Place macarons in an airtight container and allow to mature for 1-2 days. It's horrible to wait, I know, but the buttercream softens the shell and everything melds together during this time. It's especially necessary if the shells are over baked, as the buttercream will take away the bite of a overly crisp shell.

Here are two great websites for macaron troubleshooting that really helped me out when I started baking them. They use different recipes with different ingredients but are really great sources if you run into a problem.

Food Nouveau

Not So Humble Pie

Give it a try and let me know how it goes! Enjoy!

Click here for some pictures of my past macaron projects

Be sure to follow me on instagram @rocky092 for more macaron, cookie, and baking posts

Mom's Homemade Apple Strudel

My dad loves apple strudel and lucky for him my mom makes one of the best ones out there. We make it every fall, usually with apples from my cousins tree. Here's the recipe we use:

Mom's Apple Strudel

3 apples, cut into 1/2 inch cubes (approximately)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Juice from 1/2 a lemon

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup sugar 

5 sheet phyllo dough

1/2 stick butter, melted

1/3 cup sugar plus 1 tablespoon cinnamon for sprinkling

1/4 cup panko bread crumbs

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Vanilla ice cream (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine apples, cinnamon, lemon juice, raisins, and 1/2 cup sugar in a large bowl. Cover with a damp paper towel.

2. Prepare phyllo for use as per package instructions. Keep dough not being used moist by wrapping it in a damp kitchen cloth (we used the excess cloth from the work station to keep the dough moist). On parchment paper or a thin, damp towel, lay down the first sheet of phyllo dough. Brush butter across the entire top of the sheet and top with 1 tablespoon each of chopped walnuts, panko, and cinnamon sugar. Lay the next sheet of phyllo dough on top of it and repeat until all 5 sheets of phyllo have been used.

3. After all 5 sheets have been laid down and buttered, drain off any extra juices from the apple mixture. Pour the apple mixture into the center of the phyllo rectangle leaving two inches of free space on the shorter sides of the dough and about 3-4 inches of space on the long sides.

4. Fold up the 2 inch short sides of the phyllo dough to keep the mixture within the rectangle. Fold over the long sides of the rectangle next, making sure to overlap all edges of the dough.

5. Seal the edges and ends with the melted butter, and place, seam side down, onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Brush top of strudel with melted butter and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon sugar. Place onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes, or until top of strudel is flaky and slightly browned.

6. Allow strudel to cool slightly then slice and serve while still warm.

Enjoy!

Pizzookie- Chocolate Chip Cookie in a Pan

While in Arizona I was able to try one of the best desserts I'd had in a long time. A pizzookie. It's a half baked cookie thats made in a large pan and topped with ice cream. We had one while out to dinner last week and I loved it.

Last night I was half way through baking a batch of chocolate chip cookies when I was too lazy to dollop anymore onto the sheet pan. I decided to press the rest of the batter into a circular cake pan and try my hand at making a pizzookie.

I used the original Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie recipe minus the nuts and baked until the top of the cookie was just golden brown and still slightly mushy. I was half way through the batter when I decided to bake one large cookie so you cold half the recipe and have enough for the cake pan.

I had some Breyer's french vanilla ice cream in the freezer and that went perfect with the pizzookie.

Cookie out of the oven

Close up of the ice cream and pizzookie

Enjoy!

Be sure to follow me on instagram @rocky092 for more baking and cooking posts

Mary Beth's Apple Cobbler

This weekend we went to a local apple festival near the farm. In addition to selling apples they have various baked goods, home cooked Polish food (pierogi and haluski), candy, and my personal favorite, chocolate covered caramel apples. We also picked up two bottles of Razz's hickory syrup which tastes amazing on anything from grilled peaches to sausage and squash. Hickory syrup is similar to maple syrup but with a smokier, woodsier taste. I've never seen hickory syrup anywhere other than from this vendor, at this festival, and we finished ours up so quickly last year I knew I had to grab more. The website also has a ton of recipes you can find here.

After spending the day eating all the different treats the festival had to offer, we picked out a bag of Honeycrisp apples, which are my favorite (not including ones covered in chocolate and caramel), and headed home to bake some more treats.

Since Honeycrisp apples are too good to eat any other way than fresh, we used apples that we picked from my cousins orchard the day before. They have a few trees filled with apples and pears that are great for baking as well as eating fresh. Since everyone I know loves apple cobbler, that's what we decided to bake. A recipe using the pears will be posted later this week.

I was lucky and had my cousins as baking assistants,

they peeled almost all the pears and apples for me!

Mary Beth's Apple Cobbler
This recipe is from my future mother in law, I just add a little bit of nutmeg since I love it and some oatmeal for extra texture.

7 large apples
1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 cup instant oatmeal
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 sticks of cold butter, cubed

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Peel and slice apples into bite size chunks and place into a buttered rectangular baking pan. (I doubled the recipe when I made it, so I used two baking pans)

2. In a separate bowl mix together the dry ingredients until well combined. With a pastry blender (or a large fork if you don't have one handy) combine the cubed butter with the dry ingredients until only small pieces of butter remain. Spread mixture thickly on top of the apples.

3. Bake cobbler for 45 minutes or until apples are soft and cobbler topping is golden brown and crunchy.

I served mine with homemade ice cream, either pumpkin spice, vanilla bean, or both. The cobbler is amazing right out of the oven, the heat from the cobbler starts thawing the ice cream and makes things all melty and wonderful.

Hope you enjoyed, let me know if you have any questions!