Apple of My Eye

I figured I may as well continue the fruit theme I started in my last post, and decided to attempt one of my all time favorite things: the caramel apple. While walking through the mall I can't help but at least take a peek at the apples in the window - being the poor college student that I am however, I rarely ever buy one for myself. Instead I wait for someone to offer to buy one for me. They are good, but its hard for me to justify spending $7 on an apple. That's why I decided to try my own version of the gourmet caramel apple...

In normal fashion, I got going on this project around 10:30 this evening. I was just too excited about it to wait until tomorrow. I found a recipe online earlier today for homemade caramel apples from a website called Our Best Bites. It looked a little trickier than the traditional unwrap-and-melt-caramels, but I was feeling rather vivacious tonight and ready for the challenge. After dinner I headed to the store, picked up a dozen granny smith apples along with a few other ingredients and then stopped at mom's house to borrow her candy thermometer, a few Popsicle sticks and her organic molasses. (Not because I wanted it to be organic, although its great that it is, but because I forgot to pick some up at the store and I didn't want to make any more stops.) Once I got home I went to work.  Here are my caramel ingredients:

Being the rebel that I am, I made a couple of changes again due to the lack of sophistication of my pantry. The recipe called for dark brown sugar, but I went with light instead. It also stressed the importance of real maple syrup rather than Aunt Jemimah's, but I took my chances. I threw it all in the pot and dissolved the sugar, then boiled it until it reached 236 degrees. I had a little trouble with this part because I'm pretty sure the thermometer slipped a little and started to rest on the bottom of the pot, making the temperature rise rather quickly. When it got to 250 degrees I panicked and took it off the heat, only to realize the caramel itself was a cool 175 degrees. I did some back and fourth action for awhile trying to raise the temperature and then gave up once I realized it wasn't going to get above 205. I'm certain my mom would have had an anxiety attack had she been watching this part, but regardless of how I got there, the caramel turned out just fine. I let it cool for a few minutes before I started the dipping, and in the mean time speared some apples that had been chilling in the fridge.

After finishing up this process, I started the dipping. The caramel was still pretty warm and gooey, causing it to slide around and pool up quite a bit around the bottom of the apple. A solid layer stayed on the apple though, so I kept going. At this point I was a little worried, and wondered if heating the caramel to 236 degrees like I was supposed to would have made a difference in the consistency. But after a few minutes of rest it started to set up.

Here they are resting. Notice the dark spots where the caramel started to burn. I blame this on the fact that I was using a stainless steel pot instead of non-stick. I ended up throwing them in the fridge for a few minutes to speed up the process. While they were resting I prepped my toppings. This next part was my favorite of the night. I had a bunch of different topping choices, which really allowed me to get my creative juices flowing. Here are a few of my favorites...

Rolled in chopped peanuts, and drizzled with milk and white chocolate

 

 

 

 

 

Rolled in sweetened coconut flakes and Heath bar, then drizzled with milk and white chocolate

My personal favorite - apple pie - rolled in cinnamon sugar then drizzled with white chocolate

 

 

Don't mind the box of Coor's Light in the background of that one. Its not mine, and I didn't realize it was in the picture until about now. 

Group shot

A few other topping choices that didn't make the photo cut included butterfinger, chopped peanuts, plain caramel with drizzled chocolate and various other combinations. A dozen of these cost me a total of $18 to make.  And I'm happy to report that in addition to looking aesthetically pleasing, they passed the taste test as well. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit proud of these. See if I'll ever go to Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory again!


For the full recipe, click the link to the website posted above.

Go Bananas

These bad boys have been staring at me for a week or so now, so I figured it was time to deal with them. Thinking that banana bread is too boring, I wanted to set my sights on something else that I don't normally make with rotting bananas. After a while of thinking and searching, I came up with a great idea: Banana Oatmeal bread. But here's the real clincher - I baked it in a bread machine that my mom gave me a few months ago. Alright, so its still not that original but lets be honest, what can you make with rotten bananas that's better than banana bread anyway? While the concept is the same, the way I arrived there is something new to me, so that counts as originality I'd say. I got the recipe out of the Bread Machine Magic book. Without further ado...

Here are my ingredients - or most of them anyway. Since baking this bread was a rather spur of the moment decision around 8:30 pm, I didn't quite have all of the ingredients on hand, so I took it upon myself to make a couple of minor adjustments. In addition to bread flour the recipe called for whole wheat flour, which I am fresh out of so I substituted all-purpose flour. A few less whole grains but hey, who's counting? It also called for 1 T of dry milk powder, which again, I don't normally keep stocked in my pantry. After consulting Google, I decided I really didn't need it. I was instructed to replace the powder with the amount of real milk that the powder would have made (in this case 4 T) and deduct that amount of water. Considering this recipe didn't call for any water, I just decided to wing it. I threw in about a tablespoon and a half of real milk and called it good. I added all of the ingredients to the loaf pan and let the machine do the rest. I didn't exactly account for the 4 and a half hour knead/rise/bake time on the machine, and if you remember, I didn't decide to bake it until 8:30. Good thing I'm used to being up this late writing papers!

Around 11:30 it started to smell like a bonafide bakery in here and at 12:42 am....Voila!

The instructions told me to let it cool for an hour before slicing into it. I gave it a good 20 minutes before I decided enough time had passed.

  

I slathered some butter on a piece and had myself a midnight snack. I was a little bit surprised by the taste, its not as sweet as a regular banana bread, it tastes much heartier. It was very good though, especially while it was still warm. I can see where this might make a good peanut butter sandwich or an even better banana french toast...

My bed awaits me.  

My Grand Entrance

Here I am, almost as new to the world of food as I am to the blogging sphere. While my passion for writing isn't as strong, I seem to be drawn to all things food. I can accredit this fascination to my mother, who is all but a 4 star chef in my book. I am newly graduated from a University with my BA in Sociology. I would love to say that I have a plan for the future, but quite frankly I don't. Instead, I plan on going wherever life takes me. In the mean time, as I am wandering my way through life, I'll wander my way through the world of food. This blog will bring to life any and all trials, tribulations, successes and interesting feats that I run into along the way. Join me on this journey, or don't, either way I'm digging in.