Sea Salt Caramel Molten Lava Cakes

This is the schiznit.  The best bomb diggety thing I've created in a while.  Sea Salt, caramel in a warm ooey gooey treat.  Served up with coffee ice cream next to it its hitting all the right notes.  RIGHTEOUS.

I inherited from a friend a dozen cans of Nestle dulce du leche and have been wondering what on earth to do with it all.  Topping brownies is a start but only uses barely a third of a can of the sweet thick caramel.  What to do with the rest left me thinking and searching.

Having tasted the caramel by itself its almost too sweet and needs to be rounded off for better depth of flavor.  Salt, specifically sea salt, not that iodized crap sold at the groc rounds out the flavor and enables you to cut through all the sweet and enjoy the caramel notes there too.

This took me a couple of tests to get the recipe just right...one not salty and too cakey, another too salty that you needed a gallon of water afterwards. I used a general purpose sea salt, not an expensive flaked like Maldon.  Really this final iteration is awesome.

Sea Salt Molten Lava Cakes

• 1 2/3 c caramel sauce
• 1/2 t sea salt
• 1 whole egg
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 1/2 T flour
• butter and extra flour to dust ramekins

Preheat oven to 375f
Butter and dust with flour 4 small ramekins.  Place on baking tray and set aside.

Place egg and yolks with salt in a stand mixer.  With whisk attachment beat on high until thick ribbon falls from whisk when stopped and raised.  About 2 1/2-3 minutes.  Beat in caramel until uniform.  Reduce speed and sprinkle on flour, beating until just mixed in.

Divide the batter between the 4 ramekins.  Place in oven and bake 14-16 minutes until the top is just set and they are still wiggly.  Immediately remove from oven.

To serve run a knife around the edge of the cake.  Grab hot ramekin in an oven mitt protected hand and place serving plate upside down over the ramekin. Invert.  Give the ramekin light tap to to release the cake.  Put a scoop or two of good quality coffee ice cream on the plate and serve.

Browned Butter Brownie with Caramel and Sea Salt

OK, this is my go too brownie.  I made it for the Holiday Meeting of the Monrovia Association of Fine Arts.  It was a hit.  EVERYONE raved about how it was the best brownie they have ever had.  EVER.

But really whats not to love.  Its not overly sweet.  Its ooey, gooey chocolatey with just a touch of salt to make your taste buds dance.  Its really yummy.

I cheat too.  Big surprise, right!  Instead of making my own caramel, which I;m totally capable of I use canned Nestles La Lechera brand dulce du leche.  Really good stuff, thick, rich and very caramel.  Why make your own when you can just buy it?

I finish with Maldon Sea Salt, but really anygood quality flaked sea salt will work just fine.  For gawds sake don't use regular table salt, that iodized stuff tastes like metal and just ruins your tastebuds.

I use a good rich ultra pure ducth process cocoa called Black Onyx that I get from Surfas in Culver City. If you can find that, Hersheys Special Dark cocoa powder would be a great substitute.

Browned Butter Brownie with Caramel and Sea Salt

• 10 T unsalted butter- cubed
• 3/4 c Black Onyx Cocoa Powder
• 1 1/4 c sugar
• 1/2 t kosher salt
• 2 T water
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 C + 1 T all purpose flour
• 1/2 c chopped walnuts
• 1/3 c La Lechera dulce du leche
• 2 t flaked sea salt

Preheat oven to 325F.  Place a shelf in the bottom third of oven.   Line an 8X8 baking dish with foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray

In medium sauce pan place cubed butter over medium heat.  Stir and cook until it stops foaming.  Remove from heat and add sugar, cocoa powder, and kosher salt.  Stir until smooth.  Add eggs one at a time and stir until smooth and shiny.  Stir in vamilla.  Stir in flour until smooth.  Fold in nuts.  Pour into prepared pan.

Place caramel into a plastic sandwich bag. Cut off a small, 1/4 inch corner of the bag.  Pipe the caramel in a criss cross pattern on the brownie mix.  Place in oven.  Bake 25-30 minutes until firm and tester comes out with a few crumbs on it.

Remove from oven.  Sprinkle with the flaked sea salt.  Cool completely.  Remove brownie from pan by grabbing sides of foil.  Cut into 16 brownies.

Moose Track Candy

What's Christmas without candy and sweets?  I'm telling ya...I come from a long, LONG line of sweet tooths and this confection sure satiates that craving.  The actual recipe is sorta lost in space, as its its origins.  My daughter got the recipe from my Mom, but deleted most of the stuff that goes in as she didn't like it...sadly she doesn't remember what is omitted.

This recipe falls into the stupid easy category.  Popping Popcorn is the only skill needed.  The other is stirring and using a microwave.  How easy is that?

The popcorn isn't dauting at all.  Its better to do it in a couple of small batches than one large for better popping and fewer "bullets", or unpopped kernals at the end.  Also using a large mesh kitchen spider to fish the popped corn out of the pan ensures that any bullets are left behind and all you have is good fresh popped corn for the rest of this sweet treet.

My daughters version doesn't include dried cranberries.  I added it to my recipe as, well, the tart of the cranberry is a nice counterpoint to the sweet of the white chocolate coating.  I also add a pinch of salt...something all that popcorn needs as well as a nice foil for the sweet.  Tart, sweet and salty can it get any better?

An absolute must to success with this recipe is using a silpat sheet on your baking sheet.  Without it the confection sticks to much to the baking sheet and makes it hard to pull off and break apart for storage.

Moose Track Candy

• 1 1-lb package Candy Quick
• 1 bag Reese's pieces
• 2 C reduced sugar dried cranberries
• 1/4 t sea salt
• 3/4 c unpopped popcorn
• 6 T vegetable oil

Heat 2T oil in a heavy pot with a lid.  Add 1/4 c popcorn kernels.  Cook over medium-high heat until popping slows and comes to a stop.  Remove popped corn with a spider and toss out the unpopped kernels. Repeat with remaining popcorn and oil until its all popped.

Put popped corn into a very large bowl.  Sprinkle Reeses Pieces and dried cranberry over the popped corn and fold lightly. 

Melt Candy Quick according to package directions in microwave.  Sprinkle salt over the candy quick and stir until smooth.  Pour the candy quick over the popcorn mixture.  Fold until all ingredients are evenly coated with the candy quick.  While still warm spread out over a large silpat covered baking sheet.  Put in refrigerator for 1-2 hours to set.

Remove from refrigerator and break into small chunks.  Put into gift jars or large container with a lid and store at room temperature.  Enjoy with a big cup of creamy hot cocoa or Mexican Hot Cocoa with peppermint schnapps added.

flavored salt...great way to experiment

A friend passed this along yesterday. "Atlantic Seaweed Salt" and it smells wonderful...the very essence of the sea distilled into the salt itself. Of course I see uses for it beyond just seafood, but that is where I shall start.

This isn't the only flavored salt in the pantry. Am working on some recipes with a "Rosebud Sea Salt" that has the perfume of tiny roses infused into it. I see desserts, possibly a fruity fudge variation for that one. Some sort of chicken in white wine for another. Anyone have other ideas to use it for?

My snark for the moment...has anyone heard of "seaweed" farming that isn't organic by its very nature? Is anyone else even a bit annoyed with "organic" being added to everything and then being a charged a premium for not adding something? Having had grand-parents who were farmers, or had large gardens they were all about organic and that was more years ago than I CARE to admit. Suffice it to say it was long before "organic" became a fad then a staple for healthy living. For them it was a big batch of fresh poo to feed in the spring, then a little bug picking to get the crops to produce a healthy bounty at the end of the summer.

Sel Gris - grey sea salt en francais

Toss the iodized salt once and for all.  Sea salt has a wonderful flavor without a nasty metallic after taste.  I did so years ago and am glad I did.  The last year or so has been experimenting and tasting different salts.  The all are salty but some do a much better job of brining out the natural sweetness and depth of flavor in your food than others.

I first heard about "sel gris", literally "salt gray" in french several years ago as that is what chef Michael Chiarello uses, liberally.  His show "Napa Style" started out on FoodTV and now has moved over to the Fine Living Network.  Its good viewing though at times his parties in the vineyard are so far fetched for us regular folks.

I've sorta half-assedly look for the stuff and stumbled across a jar of "Sel Gris aux Herbes" at Surfas a while back.  (Literally Salt Gray with Herbs.)  I grabbed a jar a few weeks back and only recently decided to crack it open and wow...what a different level of flavor it brings.

I used it with some vegies I sauteed to put with some couscous.  The "Sel Gris" was tossed on the hot veg just before I added it to the cooked couscous and folded it in.  Wow.  Just plain old wow.  Yes you got little bits of salt that just exploded with herbal goodness and a "sweet" finish.

Next experiment is on some Sourdough bread I am baking at the moment.  

Doing a little research I found out that "Sel Gris" is actually a very healthy salt.  It gets it dark gray color due to the high mineral content in the salt.  Those trace minerals also are what we need in our diet.  Getting them naturally has to be way better for us than getting white salt that has been "iodized".  Am not an expert but that is my take on what I've read.  If I'm wrong then I may have kicked off a good urban legend.

If you can't find it locally you can always order your own stash at Surfas Online.

ps...you will be allowed to use a good kosher salt for general baking, cooking and pickling, sea salts are way too expensive to use for the general stuff, they are a finishing salt.