The caramels are something I've been wanting to make for years from the Chicago Homegrown Cookbook. The recipe was provided by the chef at Floriole Cafe. I have always been intimidated making caramels, but I felt safer about this since I had already done the apple cider caramels in the fall.
These caramels were relatively simple: combine sugar, salt, and honey with enough water to make the mixture sandy. (This was kind of a scary instruction, but I figured it out.) You cook that until it is dark amber (and in fact mine was probably a little too dark amber...). Then add butter, cream, and bring to hard ball stage. Pour into a mold with parchment paper and sprinkle with salt. When it is set, you cut it with a lightly oiled knife.
I bet these would be good drenched in chocolate... They were pretty good, although not as good as the apple cider ones. I am glad to have these on hand for a party of guys coming over to play a RPG with Dave on Wednesday.
I also made the granola recipe from the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. The appeal for me is the huge clusters, which stick together by virtue of an egg white whipped in! Who knew.
This was simple to make and sort of similar to the granola bars I've made from the same cookbook. You mix together the granola, coconut (I substituted slivered almonds), chopped walnuts, wheat germ, cinnamon, and maple syrup (I substituted apple syrup). The egg white gets whipped in at the last minute and provides a protein that holds the clusters together brilliantly.
The dried fruit gets mixed in after it bakes. This was delicious! I have been snacking on it all yesterday and this morning.
I also made two other things: one was a stuffed acorn squash for dinner, but as I've already made that on this blog, I didn't want to post it again. The other was malted milk cupcakes, which I am not posting until tomorrow because I still have to make the frosting. Delicious things are coming out of my kitchen at the moment!
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