Dutch Caramel Cookies

When I first started this project in 2009, I have no idea where I thought this project was going to go? It started off as a game of sorts. On Thursday nights Glen and I would select three or four cookbooks from the few that I owned back then, in comparison to now, It was two shelves of a 5ft book shelf, now it’s an entire 7ft bookshelf and that’s not even enough, I have spread to other shelves around the house.

Back to my game, we would fan the pages and shout stop, whatever page it landed on is what I would cook, if there was more than one recipe on the page we would take it in turns to choose the recipe and if it was one we had already tried the pages got fanned again, but that was the only time that the pages got re-fanned, whatever it landed on that’s what I had to cook, no exceptions (because sweet/dessert recipes are at the back of books we skipped those pages). Friday I would do my shopping list and then when Glen got home from work we would go shopping, for the ingredients. Then I would set about making my new recipes, then they would get added to my notebook, I had the theory that it would make the recipes we had tried and liked easier to find, which in the beginning it was, except now I am about to start my third notebook and I have tried over 300 recipes now. I really hadn’t expected it to go this far, or for this long. Most things in my life fizzle out, so I had expected this to go the same way, but it hasn’t my need, desire, enthusiasm is still as strong today as it was when I first started nearly 5 years ago. Although I’ll admit with work commitments, leaving me little time these days, my progress is a little slower, but definitely not through choice… I often dream about quitting and becoming a full time housewife, cook, blogger extraordinaire. I am good at that stuff!

This next recipe is from a book Glen got me early last year, and although they are so simple to make I had so much fun doing them.

Dutch Caramel Cookies

125g softened butter

150g caster sugar

150g plain flour

½ tsp baking powder

Caramel

50g caster sugar

1tbsp water

1.       To start with you need to make the caramel, so put the sugar and water into a small saucepan and place over a low heat for a couple of minutes until the sugar has dissolved stirring every now and again, then turn up the heat and bring the mixture to a fast simmer and cook for about 5 minutes or until the sugar caramelises and is a golden brown colour. Do be careful once it starts to turn because it doesn’t take too much to burn it.

2.       Line a baking tray with baking paper and as soon as the sugar has caramelised, pour it onto the baking paper as thinly as possible. Set to one side and leave it to cool… DO NOT TOUCH THE CARAMEL IT WILL BE HOT.

3.       Preheat the oven to 180˚C/350˚F, place your butter and sugar into a large bowl and beat together until light and fluffy, beat in the flour and baking powder, stirring well, until it comes together and forms a ball.

4.       Smash up the caramel into small bits, using a rolling pin or pestle and mortar, they don’t have to be equally sized or be the same shape, just little shards between 3-5mm.

5.       Stir the caramel bits into the cookie dough so that they are equally distributed throughout the dough, then split the dough into about 15 equal pieces and roll them into little balls, place them onto a baking sheet and squish them to about 1cm thickness, try to space them apart because they are going to spread.

6.       Bake the cookies for about 10 minutes so that they are a pale golden colour. Allow them to cool on the cookie tray as they will still be soft, and crumple if you try to move them. Check that they have firmed up and move to a wire rack

Chocolate Caramel Shortbread

In England there is this really good chocolate shop called Thorntons, the chocolate is exquisite, I'm not a massive chocolate eater, but I can easily work my way through a box of Thorntons continental, they also do these chocolate caramel shortbread which I also love and can eat a whole packet of, I'll admit to being sick afterwards. There's nothing better in my opinion than chocolate and biscuit - add caramel to the mix and you have the ultimate indulgence - why are you still reading? Go on get going and make these!!!

Ooooh before you go here is the Thorntons website....http://www.thorntons.co.uk/

Chocolate Caramel Shortbread

Shortbread

100g margarine

50g caster sugar

175g plain flour

Caramel

30ml/2tbsp golden syrup

175ml condensed milk

100g butter

75g caster sugar

Topping

175g milk chocolate

1. To make the shortbread, beat together the margarine and sugar, until well blended, then stir in the flour and mix to a firm dough. Knead lightly with your hands until smooth.

2. Press the dough into the base of a greased, shallow cake tin. Using the palms of your hands and then the back of a spoon, level it out until smooth, bake in the oven at 180C/350F for 20-25 minutes until pale golden, take out of the oven and allow to cool.

3. Place all the ingredients for the caramel into a heavy based saucepan, and heat gently until the ingredients have melt, bring to a boil and using a wooden stir continuously for about 5-10 minutes until the mixture is a golden caramel colour and slightly thickened.

4. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly, then pour over the top of the shortbread and allow to cool completely.

5. Melt the chocolate and spread it over the cooled caramel leave until set, then cut into slices using a sharp knife.

Chocolate thumb prints

If you want an easy recipe and don’t mind messy fingers, slightly time consuming, possibly a little fiddly, cookie, recipe, then this is perfect. I am one of those people where my mental visual effect is much better than the final result. I do have a mild case of OCD, which makes me hyper critical of everything I do. My opinion is that these could have been aesthetically beautiful, instead I got quirky but tasty. Just a few hints with this one, first there is a chance the thumbprint (you’ll get what I mean later if you don’t already know) will rise during the baking process, if this is the case, gently press down again on the indentation before they have a chance to cool and set – you have to put the caramel into the indentations, before they are totally cool, but if you leave the raised indentations to long you can’t fix it and won’t be able to fill them. Secondly, be careful with the caramel, it really burns if you accidently touch it, and lastly, you can easily split this recipe in half and do two batches, one with and one without nuts – if you are doing a batch without due to a nut allergy, I suggest making the ones without first and making sure they are cooled and sealed away before you start the nutty ones – those pesky nuts get everywhere.

Chocolate & Caramel Thumbprints

1 egg, yolk and white separated into separate bowls, cover and chill until needed

½ cup softened butter

2/3 cup sugar

2 tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup all purpose flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

¼ tsp salt

16 vanilla caramels

3 tbsp whipping cream

1 ¼ cup finely chopped pecans

½ cup chocolate pieces

1 tsp shortening

1. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer for about 30 seconds, add sugar and beat well, until creamed, beat in egg yolk, milk and vanilla.
2. In another bowl mix together, the flour, cocoa and salt then add to the butter mixture and beat until combined, wrap the dough in cling-film and put in the fridge for 2 hours.
3. Preheat the oven to 350˚F (180˚C). In a small pan melt the caramels with the whipping cream, over a low heat until you have a smooth mixture, then set aside.
4. Beat the egg white slightly, shape the dough into about 36, 1” balls, roll in the egg white and then the pecans to coat. Place the balls about an inch apart on a baking tray, then using your thumb make an indentation in the centre of each cookie.
5. Bake until the edges are firm, about 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and immediately (and carefully) spoon the caramel mixture into the centre of the cookies, transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool.
6. Melt the chocolate and the shortening until the mixture is smooth, then drizzle over the tops of the cookies, leave them to stand until the chocolate has set.

Moooohahahahaha....... She tries to bake...

I am a self professed rubbish baker, I mean like all out really, really, hit or miss, super rubbish, crazy bad. I choose baking recipes depending on ingredients, the fewer the better, this was an all out, hit, hit, hit. Oh my goodness calorific, my, oh my, brilliant – no exaggeration – cheesecake factory fantastic. Thankfully it tastes so good that the few minor mishaps, and I always have some minor mishap or other, don't matter too much. With my cheesecakes they tend to split – the first time because I didn’t use a water bath, then I did use a water bath but not very well – my baking pan didn’t fit in the receptacle that I was using very well. The other time I got it spot on, other than the fact that I was really, really drunk, so it was perfect right up until the point, I forgot to peel the edges of the cheesecake off the side of the baking pan, as it cooled and retracted, the edges pulled and it in turn split the cheesecake anyway, I was really upset about it, mostly because my alcohol consumption caused a really silly mistake on what should have been a perfect cheesecake!........ Like I said though thankfully taste negates from the fact I ruined it.

 Chocolate Brownie Caramel Cheesecake

 9oz Brownie Mix

3 eggs
1 tbsp cold water
1 can sweetened condensed milk (nestle stuff super thick and sweet)
16 oz whipped cream cheese
½ cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Chocolate sauce for drizzling

1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F and grease a 9” spring form pan.
2. In a small bowl mix together the brownie mix, 1 egg and water, spread into your spring form pan and bake for 15-20 minutes.
3. Open your condensed milk and pour the contents into a pan, over a low heat and stirring continuously, cook for 10 – 15 minutes or until,  you can turn a cooled tablespoon of it upside down without it falling off.  The other way to do this is slightly more time consuming, but may give better results. Place the can of sweetened condensed milk in a pan of simmering water, for 2 – 2 ½ hours, you need to remember to keep toping up the water level, if it dries out the can could explode. When it’s done, let it cool before you open it, it should be very thick and caramel coloured.
4. Keep some of the caramel to one side, you are going to need it to drizzle over the top of the cheesecake, use the rest over your warm brownie crust.
5. Next you need to beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla extract in a large bowl until smooth. Then in a separate bowl, beat 1 egg and then mix it in with the cream cheese, making sure that it is well combined and then do the same again with the 2^nd egg. Pour your cream cheese mixture over the caramel and brownie crust.
6. Using a water bath bake the cheesecake for about 40 minutes, chill in the pan, don’t forget to run a knife around the outside edge to peel the cheesecake off the sides… Heat the saved caramel and drizzle over the cheesecake along with chocolate sauce.