Chef Tess, this one's for you!

Salted Caramels!!!

Fleur de Sel is salt that is hand-harvested from seabeds in Brittay, France.

The caramel has to be cooked to just the right temperature....

Ironically this recipe comes from one of my chocolate cookbooks (Yes, I collect chocoalte cookbooks. Why wouldn't I?!?), Chocolate Obsession.

Fleur de Sel Caramels

flavorless vegetable oil for the pan

1 1/2 c sugar

1/2 vanilla bean, split horizontally

1 c heavy whipping cream

2 T corn syrup

1 T butter

1/2 t fleur de sel, in fine grains

• Line the borrom of an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper. lightly coat the paper and the sides of the pan with flavorless vegetable oil.
• Put the sugar in a medium heavy-bottomed pot. Use an unlined copper pot if you have one. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the pot. Place over medium heat and cook, stirring occaisionally with a wooden spoon, until the sugar melts. Then continue to cook, without stirring, until the sugar turns dark amber, 5 to 6 minutes. To check the color, dab a small amount of the syrup on a white plate. if any crystals form on the sides of the pan as teh sugar darkens, wash them down with a wet pastry brush.
• While the sugar is cooking, bring the cream to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat. When the sugar is the correct shade, stir in the corn syrup. Remove the pot from the heat and put a sieve or splatter guard over it. Wearing an oven mitt, slowly pour the hot cream into the sugar syrup a little at a time. The mixture will sputter and foam. Be careful, as it is very hot.
• When the bubbling subsides, return the pan to medium heat and cook undisturbed until the mixture registers 252 degrees on a candy thermometer, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, immediately add the butter, and stir with the wooden spootn. Add the salt and stir until evenly distributed.
• Pour the caramel into the prepared pan and let cool at room temperature.
  
  

Chocolate dipping fools!

Yesterday I got together with my friend Chef Tess for a total chocolate fest! Stephanie and I were fast friends in culinary school, had lost touch and were recently reunited. It's been so fun catching up and sharing in our mutal obsession with all things culinary - especially all things chocolate!

We started out dipping some salted caramels that I had made earlier. Salt? In the caramels? Yep! A perfectly divine combination...

If I'm a sucker for all things chocolate, truffles have to be at the top of the list of what I like. The smooth, silky, creamy centers that melt in your mouth after you break open the thin chocolate shell... Keeping with the caramel theme, these were milk chocolate caramel truffles.

What's a chocolate dipping day without cheesecake lollipops - one of my all time favorites?

I'd share more of what we did, but I'm feeling a bit snackely and might need to do a bit more product sampling. Can you blame me?

In the meantime, you can see more pictures here or on Chef Tess's Blog.