STEP TWO – Wait 2 – 3 hours and you’re done!

Now, of course, everyone talks about how DANGEROUS it is and how the pressure will build up inside the can and it will EXPLODE and shower your kitchen and the surrounding area in sweet, sticky, ooey-gooey debris.

 Firstly, I don’t see a major problem with this – if I feel peckish I can simply lean over and lick the couch. But secondly – it probably won’t happen.  As long as you don’t let the water in the pot evaporate it ’should be right, mate.’  Just keep topping it up every 20 minutes or so. Come on… Live Dangerously!!

This stuff is pretty powerful. After only 3 teaspoons my sister and I were talking way too fast and staring at the spoons we were using to eat our creamy dulce de leche; waffling about the science and physics behind why our heads appear upside-down in the spoon.

20 minutes later we crashed.

It’s great simply spread on bread, or eaten by the spoonful, or over icecream, and it’s great in little tartlets for dessert.

Ok, all jokes aside, a lot of people do say this method is dangerous, so please take care whenever you are doing anything in the kitchen. If you want to try other methods, have a look here, here and here.

This recipe follows along similar lines to the Musk scented Berry Tartlets and it finally gives me a different way to use figs than my stock standard Maple Figs with Savoiardi Biscuits.

 Ingredients

90g Byron Bay Cookie Company Chocolate and Almond Biscuits (or use any dry chocolate biscuit – The Arnotts Choc Ripples would be perfect
40g Melted Butter
50g dark chocolate melts

1 fresh fig – per person
1 tsp Dulce De Leche - per person
Sugar
pinch of salt

Raspberries

Method

1.Grease a mini-muffin tin

2. Crush the biscuits – there are a few different methods
Put it a plastic bag and bash with a rolling pin/mallet/brick wall/cricket bat
Put in a food processor.

My favourite method is the old rolling pin… do you like my zip lock bags?

3. Mix the biscuits and butter together. It will still be crumbly
4. Press a small amount into each muffin tin until it forms a cup shape. Use a teaspoon to press it around the edges
5. Freeze until firm

6. Melt the chocolate and with a brush (even an artist’s brush) coat the inside of each tartlet shape with chocolate.
7. Freeze or refridgerate again. This will make a number of tartlet cases. Take out the ones you need by edging a paring knife into the edge – it should pop straight out – and keep the rest in the freezer until you require them.

8. Cut the figs almost to the bottom in a cross pattern and let it fan out on the plate. (I was planning to have them sit up like little flower buds but they collapsed!) You may want to do this on a heat-proof surface and then transfer it onto the plate.

9. Get a kitchen blow torch and have it ready to go. Sprinkle a pinch of sugar over the fig flesh and immediately torch it with the flame. The idea is to turn it into hard caramel before it dissolves into the fig flesh. Keep doing this until you have a thin crispy coating over most of the flesh.

10. Pop the fig and tartlet case onto a plate, drop a small dollop of Dulce De Leche into the tartlet case and then add a pinch of crushed salt (Fleur De Sel if you have it) onto the dulce de leche. Crush some frozen raspberries into their little pods and arrange around the plate.

I’ve attempted crème caramels a few of times before trying a couple of different recipes. On one occasion I had trouble unmoulding them, on another I burned the caramel and in yet another failed attempt my custard didn’t set. I’m pleased to report that these crème caramels were delicious and from now on this will be my go-to recipe!

This recipe is from the book “Mexican Cantina Cooking” by Jean-Pierre Vincken.

Ingredients

• 10 tbsp granulated sugar
• 5 tbsp water
• 750mL milk
• 1 vanilla pod, split open lengthways
• 2 whole eggs
• 6 egg yolks
• 200g caster sugar

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180^oC (I had to adjust this down to 160^OC in a fan forced oven because the tops started to brown)
2. For the caramel, gently heat the sugar with the water in a heavy-based pain. As soon as the sugar gets a bit of colour, pour it into the prepared moulds. Tip the moulds to spread the caramel around the sides too
3. Pour the milk into a separate pan, add the vanilla pod and heat gently for 15 minutes to allow the flavours to infuse. Remove the pan from the heat and leave to cool for a little while
4. Whisk the eggs, yolks and sugar together in a bowl. Gradually add the milk, stirring continuously. Strain the mixture through a sieve and pour it into the caramel moulds
5. Put the moulds into a deep oven-proof dish. Fill the dish with boiling water up to two-thirds of the height of the moulds*
6. Check whether the flans are ready after 50 minutes. Prick the centre of a flan with a skewer: the skewer should be clean when it comes out. Remove the flans from the oven and leave to cool
7. To serve, turn the flans out onto small serving plates. It will help with unmoulding to run a knife around the edge of the moulds first. The moulds can also be dipped into hot water briefly to loosen them

*An interesting tip this book gave was to add a couple of egg shells to the baking dish filled with water to stop the water splashing into the crème caramels when it boiled. Just like adding marble chips to a school Science experiment!

I’ve been thinking about caramel a bit recently. Ever since Mrs Melanger , who is possibly… no, definitely the most professional and hardworking blogger in Brisbane, dedicated a whole month to caramel.  There is a lot of science that can go into making caramel and toffee. The great thing about it is it’s predictable. Don’t get me wrong – it’s still bloody scary to work with!  The predictable bit is sugar will always change consistancy at certain temperatures.  Going from sugar crystals to a smooth sticky syrup, all the way through to a hard snappy toffee. There are a number stages, see here for all the details.  Caramel is achieved at 174°C. Hence the reason why you don’t want to make this with a toddler running around your feet!  

There are a few methods to creating toffee and I’ve used the dry caramel method. It’s nice and quick, it doesn’t allow you to become complacent (the enemy of a good toffee!) and once you get your head around having a substance at close to 200 degrees that close to your face it’s actually quite simple.

Ingredients

1 cup white sugar

1/3 cup lightly toasted sesame seeds (toast them in a dry frypan over medium heat until slightly golden)

My Tips for making perfect Dry Caramel (with sesame seeds)

1. Be fearless!… but cautious.  It will all happen pretty quickly but remember – it’s all predictable. It will turn into caramel – and that’s the goal!

2. Spread a piece of aluminium foil on your bench, fold the sides up a centimetre on each side,  and brush it completely with a little oil.

3. Take the sugar and pour it into a heavy-bottomed pan, shake the pan so it sits in a level layer

4. Heat it on medium heat. What will happen at first is the outer edge will begin to liquefy like this…

5. Soon it will start to colour and become even more liquid. Sometimes you may need to push the sugar crystals down closer to the bottom, press it with a wooden spoon, but try not to stir it too much. 

….First of all – sorry  I didn’t get any more photos of the process! It was just me, the camera and the caramel that day!

6. What will happen next is all the sugar crystals will disappear. This is when you take it off the heat. To stop the caramel from getting any darker, have the kitchen sink filled with a centimetre of cool water. Dip the bottom of the pan very briefly into the cool water. This should slow down the cooking.

7. Carefully add and stir the sesame seeds in and quickly pour the liquid onto the waiting aluminium foil. Scrape the excess out of the pan with the wooden spoon.

8. Wait until it is warm to the touch, turn it over onto a plate and peel off the aluminium foil. Do this while it’s still warm so it doesn’t stick.

Mmm – look at those little sesame seeds taking a dip in the caramel ocean

9. Again, while still warm, crack it into bite sized pieces with your hands. If you wait until it is cool it may shatter too much.

10. To clean, once the pan is warm fill it to the brim with hot water from the tap. Don’t worry about it – it’ll dissolve eventually (maybe 2 days later!!)

11. Keep the toffee in the fridge in a air-tight container or ziplock bag. Humidity is the other enemy of caramel!

Gratuitous Sesame Seed shot…