- food photography is ridiculously messy
- just because your food tastes good doesn't mean it automatically looks good.
Their jobs are to make things look good and they are
dab hands at it. They make it look easy. It's not. Especially when you're
photographing caramel next to an apple orchard with bees. By the end of it I was basically covered in caramel, icing sugar, chocolate
ganache, grass and a touch of cinnamon, as were all the props. It was great
fun.
Just so you
know, making caramel at home is much easier than photographing it in an apple
orchard. Here's this weeks recipe! x
Image: Greta Kenyon |
Salted
Caramel
Published
in the Bay of Plenty Times, Wednesday 17th April 2013
Salted
Caramel has been the flavour de jour for quite some time now. It’s stickability
as a flavour is due to the fact that it’s downright delicious. When you add
salt to sweet it creates an unexpected pop in your mouth that deepens flavours
and rounds out sweetness. It’s all very clever really.
This
caramel is what I used to flavour these mini cheesecakes.
It’s
a ridiculously versatile, impressive dessert sauce. Not only does it work in
cheesecakes, it can be poured over ice cream or puddings; swirled into whipped
cream for a decadent dollop atop grilled fruit; and drizzled over crumbles or
cakes. As the weather cools, simple baked apples served with this sauce become
the ultimate in winter comfort.
Inspired
by dessert genius David Lebovitz’ recipe I've made a few tweaks to make it my
own. The trick is to get the sugar to a beautiful, deep bronze colour.
220g
white sugar
2
tablespoons golden syrup
1/3
cup cream
1
tablespoon butter, room temp
Squeeze
of lemon juice
1/2
teaspoon Heilala vanilla extract
1/2
- 3/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt (I like Maldon)
Place
the sugar and golden syrup into a saucepan and, without stirring, melt over a
medium heat. You will start to smell the sugar caramelising. Once you see the
sugar melting, gently stir with a wooden spoon. The sugar may look pebbly but
keep going; it will melt down. Once all the sugar is melted continue cooking
until it turns a rich, deep bronze colour and is a little smoky. Remove the
saucepan from the heat and very carefully (watch for spitting, bubbling
caramel!) pour in half the cream and stir to combine. You may need to put it back
over the heat if the caramel seizes a little. Stir in the rest of the cream and
add the butter, lemon juice, vanilla extract and salt to taste. If you’re not
sure about the salt, start with a little then add more as you please. Pour into
a heatproof container and cool. Keeps in the fridge for a week.
Weekly Tip: In this sauce, regular table salt won’t cut it. You
really do need a good quality flaky sea salt. Regular table salt is too intense
and will overwhelm the sauce. I speak from experience!
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