We have just arrived back in Canberra and it’s been a busy day already, so I’m going to keep this simple.
Sweet and Simple.
Last night I made six gift jars of SCS (short for Salted Caramel Spread). You may hear me talk about it on ABC radio on Monday but, dear readers of this blog, you get a sneak preview right here… two days early 😉
SCS has all the essential elements of a good recipe: Sugar, Fat and Salt.
As an extreme foodie, I am an advocate of enjoying decadent things in moderation… where possible. But sometimes it’s just not possible! This sauce is indulgence in one of its simplest forms, and although it sits on the sweet end of the spectrum, and opposed to my usual desire for savoury, it is good. Very good.
And simple. SCS is very simple. It has only 4 or 5 ingredients, not including the water. I wont say it’s easy, because cooking with sugar is never that easy, but if you take your time and keep a very watchful eye on it you can get a good result quite easily.
And useful. SCS is extremely useful. (Do I sound like I am trying to justify myself?) I have written a list of ’44 ways to use Salted Caramel Spread’ that I will print and include with the six gift jars that Dave will give the Chemo nurses and staff next Wednesday at his last Chemo session. I hope that they enjoy the home-made gifts as much as they enjoyed the Anzac biscuits a few weeks ago. Apparently they have dozens of boxes of chocolates in their tea room, gifts from past patients, so I was keen to give them something home-made. And useful!
The recipe, pics and list of uses are at the bottom of this post.
An update on Dave… He is heading on the up again a little today. Still very tired, has sore arms and numb fingers, but not quite as bad as he was yesterday. We both stood in the sleeting rain and watched our niece play a quarter of netball before we left Wagga so that shows he was feeling a little better 😉 But then he would do a lot for the beautiful Emilia.
I have been promising good news.
Both Will and I have new adventures in the work field coming up. Will is moving to a new host employer for his apprenticeship. This new business will give him a broader range of learning and is based in the domestic & small business electronics field rather than the mostly big commercial work he has been doing up until now. He is very excited about this and was really keen on the new boss who he describes as a ‘great bloke.’ He starts Monday.
I too will temporarily have a new job in a week or so. I have been asked to take on the role of managing the campus and administration areas for TAFE Riverina for 6 weeks. I am really looking forward to leading a completely different area of our business and getting to know all the non-educational staff better. There are quite a few of them – so a big road trip across the Riverina is the plan in a week or two!
Here is the SCS recipe:
Ingredients
- 500g castor sugar
- enough water to disolve sugar, about 1 cup
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (optional)
- 250mls cream
- 50g butter
- 2 teaspoons salt flakes (I used Murray River)
Method
Mix the water and sugar together and add to a medium sized, deep non stick frypan over high heat.
Bring to the boil, stir to dissolve the sugar then simmer without stirring (you can gently swirl the pan) until the syrup starts to turn golden (140C on a sugar thermometer).
Once the syrup is golden brown, take the pan off the heat. It should just start to smell ever so close to burnt. (colour of bubbles in cover picture)
Mix the vanilla extract with the cream and carefully pour it into the syrup. It will bubble vigorously so be careful.
Whisk in the butter and the salt.
Allow to cool a little then pour into a jug and fill sterilised jars. Keep refrigerated.
I am not usually very crafty – but I even made tags and twine for the jars 🙂
And the 44 uses for SCS:
- Straight up – off a spoon!
- Add to hot chocolate or coffee
- Fill chocolate truffles
- Warm and toss through hot popcorn
- Drizzle over ice-cream or in a more elaborate sundae
- Add to a banana smoothie
- Use as icing on a cake
- Brush over roast pork as a glaze
- Stir through warm custard
- As a gift in a nice jar
- Drizzle over your bacon for breakfast with pancakes or French toast
- Serve with brie on crackers
- As a fondue to dip fruit in
- Stir through your favourite nuts (e.g. Cashews)
- Dip hot chips! (Just like at McDonald’s)
- Swirl through meringues before baking
- Stir through rice pudding
- Drizzle over baked apples
- Drizzle over poached pears
- Serve on top of pancakes with chopped bananas
- Mixed through Greek yoghurt
- Mix with milk and freeze for a salted caramel ice block
- Drizzle over crepes
- Serve with apple pie:whip cream and SCS together for ‘caramel cream’
- Spoon into tart cases, top with banana and cream (banoffee pie)
- Drizzle over a pavlova
- Make a layered chocolate cake by using as a filling between layers of chocolate cake
- Oven bake butternut snap biscuits in cupcake moulds to form bowls, cool & fill with caramel and top with melted chocolate
- Drizzle over a pizza with equal quantities of nutella
- Join melting moments
- Dollop on top of warmed chocolate brownies & serve with ice-cream for dessert
- Swirl through a cheesecake, just before baking.
- Sandwich between two macaroons
- Make salted caramel peanut butter (½ SCS : ½ PB)
- Pour over ice cream and coffee for an extra good affogato
- Serve warm over sticky date pudding
- Spread on brioche toast
- Stir Peanut butter and spread through softened ice cream and re-freeze
- Serve as a dipping sauce with churros
- Layer with cake and mars bar pieces in a ‘trifle’
- Add to the marinade when marinating chicken wings
- Make a caramel milkshake or freakshake with all the trimmings
- Mix a salted caramel martini (Vodka plus SCS and shake with plenty of ice)
- Drizzle warm over waffles with broken honeycomb
Any other ideas anyone?