Caramel Archives - Retro Food For Modern Times

31
Jan
2016

REPOST FROM 2016 – Two Turtledoves

categories: Caramel, Chocolate, Cocktail, Nuts, Sweets

Sometime last year I became obsessed on Pinterest with an American candy called a turtle. I went from never having heard of them in my life to seeing them all over the internet. And holy moly did they sound good! For those of you, like me, who have spent our lives in ignorance of this delight, just listen to this:

A chocolate base.
Toppped with pecan nuts
Topped with caramel
Topped with more chocolate

There is no way on God’s green earth that they could be bad. Supposably. As Joey Tribbiani would say. And depending on your definition, they were really good. Well, they tasted delicious.

Before we get into them, just a word of explanation. The recipe I used called them turtledoves because they used Dove Chocolate. We used to have Dove Chocolate here – apparently not anymore. I wonder when that happened?

My turtledoves started really well.

It all started to fall apart with the caramel. I could not get it to sit on the pecans the way I wanted it too. I wanted it to be a perfect dome, surrounding my pecans but leaving a little bit of chocolate on the base visible. Not ONE of them looked like that.

And the more I tried to meddle with it, the worse it got. In the end, I thought. “Nevermind. It will all be covered with the rest of the chocolate. It will be fine”.

Not so. I was already on a slippery slope and the only way was down. The final chocolate layer was a disaster! I could not get it smooth, it was a hot day and the second I touched it, it would either melt or crack.

Before I show you the wreck of the Hersperus that was my effort, let me show how these babies should look (The Spruce Eats)

And, oh Lord, here are mine….

I know. I’m sorry. Two fails in a row. Although these tasted delish, my turtles may not have been teenage or ninjas but they were mutant. Technically they weren’t even turtledoves because I could not find Dove chocolate.

They did taste good. Really good. Even the fussiest eater in the world was a fan.

But you know food blogging can be very much style over substance so that sometimes I think it doesn’t matter how things taste as long as they look good. In retrospect, I should have not tried to cover them entirely but just done a little splodge of caramel and one of chocolate over the top. Next time….

But I wanted to have something that was a success, of only to soothe my wounded self-esteem. Two fails in a row is no way to write a food blog. So I needed a turtledove. Fast. Guaranteed success.

Hmmmm….

Chocolate
Caramel
Nuts

How about something like this?

Baileys
Frangelico
Butterscotch Schnapps

Now that’s my kind of Turtledove!

And it brought F.Scott out of the funk caused by the Bobby Dazzler.

Normality has resumed in Chez Retro Food. Well, as close as we can get ’round here anyway!

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Turtledove

Print Recipe

A cocktail shooter that mirrors the flavours of the classic American turtle candy – chocolate, caramel and nuts

Author: Taryn Fryer

Ingredients

Scale

30ml Butterscotch Schnapps
30ml Frangelico
30ml Bailey’s Irish Cream

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Pour the Butterscotch Schnapps and the Frangelico into a shooter glass.
Measure out the Bailey’s and pour very slowly over the back of a spoon into the glass.
Enjoy!

Have a wonderful week!

;

25
Jun
2013

Retro Food For Modern Times – The Best Bread and Butter Pudding Ever

categories: Apricots, Bread, Caramel, Desserts, Panettone, Pudding, Whiskey

Winter finally hit Melbourne this week…it’s been zero degrees or very close to it for a number of mornings now. That’s cold!!!! So, given I hate winter why am I so damn happy? Because this weather is perfect for making one of my favourite retro foods – bread and butter pudding.

Mind you, even though it has been crazy cold, look at my pictures of Sunday morning. Not a cloud in the sky, got the sun in my eye. Who could be miserable on a day like this?

Another thing that will never make you miserable is this totally awesome Bread and Butter Pudding. I mean it, this baby ROCKED! It was perfect for this cold weather; retro comfort food at its most glorious!

So, what makes a truly great bread and butter pudding? I put it down to the three B’s…

Lets start with the bread. Bread and butter purists would tell you to use plain white bread. Remember last post I said that we don’t subscribe to minimalist notions here at Retro Food For Modern Times? Well that goes double for Bread and Bread Pudding. I like to use a fruit loaf or a sweet bread like a brioche. I have also been known to use a chocolate chip hot cross bun. Or an Almond Croissant. Basically, I like my bread to come loaded with deliciousness before I even start!

In this instance, I had a panettone sitting in my pantry. I’m going to make a confession here. I have no idea where it came from. That’s the weird thing about panettone. I can’t recall ever buying one. Or being given one. And yet, from time to time they appear. Maybe my house is haunted by an Italian Grandmother who whips them up whilst I’m at work. If so, she also does a nifty line in packing and packaging! This was also a gluten free version so ghost nonna, if she exists, seems to be fairly on trend.

Butter. Please use proper butter. Not that other abomination.

Booze – I drenched the dried fruit in Pimms and left it to soak in overnight. And made an amazing whiskey caramel sauce to go with the pudding

The base recipe for this calls for sultanas. I had some dried fruit medley left over from when I make the Plum Wonderful so I used that.

The recipe I used as a base called for Apricot Jam. I’d previously made a chunky Apricot Spread by boiling down some dried apricots in apple juice so I used this instead.

On it’s own, the pudding was kind of fabulous, but what sent it into the realm of super-awesome was the whiskey caramel sauce. This was all sorts of delicious and brought some toasty, almost coffee-like flavours into the mix. Honey and whiskey is truly a match made in heaven and I had the remnants of a lavender honey from another recipe which just added another layer of tasty goodness.

Please, please, please make this. You will not be disappointed. Or if you are…you probably did something wrong – not that there’s a whole lot that could do wrong with this – it’s also super easy to make!

Bread & Butter Pudding Recipe

Whiskey Caramel Sauce Recipe Apricot Spread Recipe

I’m going to be spending my week enjoying the glorious sunshine despite the icy temperatures!

Enjoy your week, whatever you do.

Signature 1

01
Dec
2012

Retro Food For Modern Times: Three Sweet Treats inspired by a Luscious Liqueur

categories: Caramel, Chocolate, Desserts, Italy, Liqueur, Mango, Meringue, Raspberry, Strawberries, Zabaglione

I was recently strolling around my local purveyor of fine alcoholic beverages (or as we like to call it, our second home) when a retro looking bottle caught my eye. A very glamorous Elke Sommer looking woman is being draped in a fur coat by a man who looks like a 1970’s tennis player or a porn star (possibly both). The label promised “an experience of elegance and lingering pleasure” which only further reinforced the boom chicka wah wah soundtrack that was going through my head. The name: Kellermeister Sable. According to the back of the bottle, Sable is a

“base of ruby tawny into which we have steeped dark German Chocolate, special spices and three year old brandy”

You know those moments when Homer Simpson goes into the donut fugue state? I think I lapsed into something very similar. Standing there mumbling to myself “Ruby Tawny…dark chocolate….special spices….brandy…ruby tawny…..” Ruby Tawny may well become the name of my first-born child. I hope it’s a girl.

The bottle, in all it’s gorgeous retroness did give me pause though. I honestly wasn’t sure if it was meant to be retro chic. Or it just came from South Australia. If anyone from South Australia wants to dispute the implication of this statement I suggest they first go and count the people with mullets walking down Rundle Mall. They can lodge their complaints when they have a number less than ten.

Ok, we may have lost South Australia forever so the rest of us might as well get on with it. Sable is meant to be retro chic and forms part of the Kellermeister Retro Range which includes this and two Moscatos which I am very keen to try. One is called Pink Minx. This may become the name of my second born child. Again, a girl would be good.

The Sable is great on it’s own as a little tipple – rich, silky, porty, chocolatey loveliness in a glass. If I was prone to swooning I would. However, as I do not live in a Jane Austen novel I will remain upright and advise that this is utterly delicious and is likely to become a staple on my drinks trolley for some time to come! This will be my go to product for those days when you just want a little something sweet and lovely after dinner! Or mid afternoon….or…you know…whenever….

The loveliness of the Sable does not stop with drinking though. It is equally good in food.

I’ve now made three recipes with it and they were all gorgeous (even if I do say so myself). If you cannot get Sable, your liqueur of choice can be substituted in all of these.

First up was a Raspberry Meringue Roulade which I adapted from a Bill Granger recipe.

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling

Raspberry Roulade and a glass of Sable – a lovely afternoon tea tipple

I then made a Strawberry and Mango Zagablione where I used the Sable instead of marsala. This tasted divine! The zabaglione was also lovely swirled into some plain yoghurt the following day.

Finally, I used some Sable in my version of the Australian Gourmet Traveller Chocolate and Caramel Tart. I adapted the original recipe as I am not that good with pastry and I used a bought caramel. This is a truly decadent recipe and tastes like heaven! My only word of caution is give yourself plenty of time to make this. I started mid afternoon. I added the final layer at midnight. This takes a LONG time to make as you have to let each layer chill before adding the next one. It is worth it though as this is absolutely delicious!

I love the ombre effect of the four layers!

I

Enjoy!

Category: Caramel

Turtledove

Ingredients

Instructions