Review - Proof

My review of Proof is long overdue.  Our visit to Proof at the corner of 13th and Locust in downtown Des Moines was my anniversary present from my husband... in July.  He called ahead and scheduled a submit, which was described as a three hour dining experience where they will bring us course after course until we just can't take anymore.  We submit to whatever the chef would like to serve.  If you would like to try it, you can call ahead and let them know if you have any dietary preferences or restrictions, otherwise you will get a bit of whatever is fresh, local, and in-season.

 

I have to say this was one of my favorite meals of all time.  It could compete with my meal of a lifetime at Redd in Napa Valley. 

 

Our first course was a play on bruschetta with cherry tomatoes, with fried skin to make flowers on top, white anchovies, green beans, a hard cheese, and micro greens.  It was really excellent, although one would have been plenty per person.  We each ate both and licked our fingers.

My favorite course was the second course.  The base was a date leather, or smashed dates, topped with watermelon, honey dew, homemade marshmallow, raw green beans with a foamed vinaigrette, beets, and other root vegetables.  The course had a light, fresh taste and was perfectly balanced.  Who knew we both liked beets!

The third course was shrimp and mussels with saffron.  Although it was good, the sauce was not as refined as I wold have expected and the whole dish seemed out of place following the fresh second course.  The sauce was also much thicker than expected.  The dish was finished with sauteed peppers, onions and sausage.  Don't get me wrong, it was good, but it didn't hold a candle to the second course.  The highlight of the dish was the perfectly soft, warm Pita bread.

The fourth course would have followed the second nicely.  I was a Salmon fillet that was cooked to perfection with a very nice crust on one side.  It was served with an orange sauce which paired will with the dill.  Again, I think the sauce was a bit thick and at times overpowering.  Watermelon, tomatoes, fennel, and avocado brought back the lighter feel that we loved in the second course.

 

I'm afraid, I didn't get a picture of the scallop dish we had for our fifth course.  The scallops were served with prosciutto, balsamic drizzle, and new potato salad.  The scallops were nicely cooked and delicately flavored.  The potato salad was excellent, perfect really, but as a whole the dish wasn't as well composed and balanced as others.  I appreciated the balsamic reduction with the scallops, but the potato salad was just out of place, delicious, but out of place. 

 

During the fifth course, we realized that we would need to pace ourselves.  We were expecting about ten courses and were already getting full.  We easily could have split the meal and been more than happy.

Just as we were getting full, the sixth course was a refreshing passion fruit sorbet.  I honestly could have left with that as dessert and been content for the evening.  We were getting concerned about the volume of food when the waiter told us that the heavier courses would start following the sorbet!

The seventh course was a smoked salmon with miso sauce, cucumber, soft goat cheese and capers.  I liked the goat cheese and miso.  The salmon was very rich.  For how full I was, this wasn't the most appealing dish.  I also really don't like cucumbers but Ben said they helped to balance the richness of the salmon and goat cheese.  I am usually not a caper fan either, but they balanced well adding a salty/bitter note to cut the richness.  This was probably our least favorite course, although that may have been partially because we were getting so full.

When the waiter arrived with our eighth course, we cried mercy and told him we couldn't handle too much more.  It was a shame because the execution and flavor combinations of the duck skewers with Israeli couscous, tart cherries, yogurt sauce, and a smokey, spicy remoulade sauce made us wonder what we missed out on in the courses that were eliminated.  This was absolutely excellent.  I was so disappointed that I couldn't finish the whole thing.  I loved the cherries with the couscous and spicy remoulade. This was Ben's favorite dish.

 

I'm afraid I missed getting a picture of my second favorite course.  For our nineth course, we each received a small cutting board with a wedge of a blue cheese.  I really wish I could remember just what kind it was.  It was served with a drizzle of clover honey and peppery crackers.  It was so simple, and clean but so flavoful.  I wouldn't have thought to dip my blue cheese in honey, but it was a perfect combination. 

When our tenth and final course was delivered, I did not expect it to be good.  (Does that make me a cake snob?)  It was an almond cake with a cardamom cream sauce, a sprinkle of granola sliced almonds, and topped with sorbet, plum I think.  I have to admit, the cake exceeded my expectations. It was dense and moist with great almond flavor.  I also liked the cardamom cream sauce to accompany it.  The sorbet was good, but I thought it was unnecessary with the rest of the dish.   

 

The Verdict?

Overall, I would rate Proof at least as high as Baru 66 which until now has been my top pick for excellent quality and execution in Des Moines.   Baru 66 will still be one of my top recommendations in Des Moines, but I have only visited in the fall which may account for some of the tendency toward heavier richer foods. Proof by comparison was a summer visit and had very fresh, vibrant courses with some more delicate flavors that I loved. I wholeheartedly recommend Proof. When we visit again, we will probably opt for a smaller meal. The submit was fun, but we were too full to enjoy the second half of the meal. The portions were extremely generous and I wish I had showed some restraint on earlier courses to save room for the later courses. I just hated to see such good food go to waste!

Another note: a friend visited about a month before we did for a 10 course tasting and had much of the same menu. While we aren't likely to have a 10 course tasting very often, putting them too close together would likely result in some repeats. I would be curious to go again in the fall to see how a more fall flavored menu would compare.

How NOT to Make Spoon Fudge

...or any kind of fudge really.

I know, it looks cute.  Don't let it fool you.

 

My mom really likes chocolate, so when I decided to make spoon fudge a thought crossed my mind.  I wonder why mom never made fudge?  It turns out I should have gotten the answer to that question before I started.  Mom never made fudge when we were growing up because it never turned out.  Well, I’ve inherited my mom’s ability to make fudge.  During my spoon fudge making endeavor, I learned some valuable lessons.  While I DO NOT recommend following my method and recipe for spoon fudge, I do recommend reading my lessons learned before attempting to make your own.

Lesson 1:

If you are throwing a Nursery Rhyme themed baby shower, and want to have a spoon be the favor just dip the spoon in chocolate, and tell the guests to stir their hot chocolate or coffee with it.  I don’t care if it is July.  Trust me on this one.

Hey! diddle, diddle

The cat and the fiddle

The cow jumped over the moon

The little dog laughed to see such sport

And the dish ran away with the SPOON!

 

If you choose to ignore Lesson 1, and want a dish of spoon fudge to go with the spoon, you will need to find a good recipe.  This part will be surprisingly hard.  I ended up using Pumpkin Tart’s recipe for Spoon Fudge.  I’m not saying this is a bad recipe, it just didn’t work out for me.  I made my share of mistakes along the way.

Spoon Fudge (from Pumpkin Tart)
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup evaporated milk
1 Tbsp. refrigerated coffee creamer (not powdered),any flavor OR 1 tablespoon milk
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2 tablespoons corn syrup
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla (or flavor of your choosing)

I needed evaporated milk, creamer, and unsweetened chocolate.  I also wasn’t sure how much I needed to make, but based on the volume of ingredients, I figured I needed three batches to fill my 13 – 4oz. jelly jars.  So, I bought two (1.5 cups each) cans of evaporated milk and 2 – 4oz. Ghirardelli chocolate bars.  Do you see where I’m going here?  It turns out that was just perfect for four batches of fudge, and it came out to an even stick of butter too.  I took it as a sign.

Lesson 2: 

Even if the ingredient proportions come out perfectly, DO NOT take it as a sign to multiply the recipe of fudge by 4.  This is an unbelievably bad idea.  Seriously.

Yes, my original plan was to make just a single batch to see how it turned out and how many jars it would fill.  But it was just too easy to do it all at once.  I didn’t want to have to wait for it to come up to temperature 3 or 4 times.  Once seemed easier. 

So, I melted the butter in my largest sauce pan, a 4-quart pan, I think.  I added the milk, caramel creamer, corn syrup, and sugar, mixed it all together and dumped in the chopped chocolate.  So far, so good.  Then I stirred, and stirred, and stirred, and contemplated crying, then stirred some more.  Rather than the 20 minutes other recipes predicted for the chocolate to reach 235 degrees (soft ball stage), it took over an hour at the recommended medium heat.

My less than scientific theory on this:  Water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit, so when it gets up close to this temperature, the water starts to evaporate.  Until most of the water has evaporated, the mixture won’t hold more heat.  Once enough water is gone, the temperature starts to climb again, finally reaching the softball stage.  Since I had roughly four times the moisture of the original recipe, I suppose it makes sense that it would take four times as long to evaporate.
 

Lesson 3:

When the original recipe calls for a large sauce pan, and you ignore Lesson 2, use a very, very large pan.  In fact, use a large pot.  Although the mixture didn’t boil over (yet), there were some nerve racking moments after the mixture finally started to boil up over 212 degrees.  Having to lift the pan off the heat every once and a while to let it settle back down probably didn’t help the time it took to reach softball stage.  Who knows what effect it had on the texture.

Having finally reached what my excessively cheap candy thermometer called 235 degrees, I was happy to remove the pan from the heat.  The next direction was to, “let stand, until the pan is no longer hot but still warm (no need to stir here).”

 

Lesson 4:

If you have a recipe that uses a candy thermometer, it should seem strange that other temperatures are defined as simply "still warm".  I found out the hard way that still warm really means 110 degrees.  I also found out that when you have a quadruple batch of something and the pan is still warm, the contents in the center of the pan are still HOT!

I used a hand mixer to start mixing the fudge, but when the pan got too hot to comfortably hold on to, I decided I should wait until it had cooled more.

 

Lesson 5:

When a recipe for fudge says “no need to stir here”, it means DO NOT STIR.  It turns out that stirring fudge before it cools to the proper temperature causes the sugar to re-crystallize at the wrong temperature. 

When I came back to try mixing again, I had a pretty horrible grainy chocolate mess.  It was really terrible.  Stirring did not bring it back to life.  I debated just putting it in jars, but I didn’t want to give something away, at lest to people I know, that didn’t taste good.  I did some reading on Internet posts where I learned that I shouldn’t have stirred the fudge, I should have waited until it reached 110 degrees.  I also found a claim that I could re-cook the fudge to make it smooth again.

Following the instructions, I added water to my fudge, headed back to the stove, and settled in for another hour and a half of heating it back up and evaporating the water before reaching the soft ball stage. 

Lesson 6:

If your pan isn’t big enough the first time, it probably won’t be big enough the second time.  Use a bigger pan.  When my fudge finally started to bubble away toward soft ball stage, it bubbled right out of the pan.  There are still stains on my black, flat-top stove.  I’m going to need to figure out how to get rid of those. 

I switched burners and transferred a bit of the fudge to a bowl.  Once the bowl had cooled a bit, I decided that it really was quite tasty.  My fudge finally reached soft ball stage… again.  This was about 9:00 at night.  Following some of the suggestions I found online, I removed the spoon I had been stirring with, and left the candy thermometer in the chocolate mix.  An hour later, my fudge wasn’t even close to cooling to 110 degrees.

 

 

Lesson 7:

Just give up.  I won’t judge you for failing at fudge.  It happens to the best of us.  Go to bed.  Try not to be so angry at the fudge.  Really, it is for the best.  If you choose to ignore lesson 7, keep reading. 

I went to bed and decided to just see how it looked in the morning.  It was certainly cooler than 110 degrees, and very difficult to stir.  My new online research said not to use a hand mixer, so I took a wooden spoon and started stirring, very slowly.  At this point my husband had said about 100 times that I should give up, but even he took a turn stirring.  I read that it could take up to 20 minutes to stir the fudge so that it no longer has a glossy appearance.  We didn’t last 20 minutes and for a quadruple batch, I was afraid that might mean an hour and 20 minutes. 

 

The mixture was tasty enough, so I decided just to put it in the jars and hope for the best.  I also changed my labels to read “A Dish of Spoon Fudge, or for hot fudge sauce, heat slowly”.  It wasn’t so much the consistency of creamy spoon fudge as stretchy tootsie rolls. 

Lesson 8:

Don’t put the jars of fudge in the fridge.  Remember the hours spent trying to fix the grainy fudge?  Well, after a day or so in the fridge, that grainy texture came right back.  Oh, what a waste of time!  I gave them away anyway.  It was terrible.  I apologize to all of our shower guests.  At least they got a spoon.

 

Lesson 9:

Do not make fudge.

Lesson 10:

You can buy Spoon fudge at http://www.spoonfudge.com/ , already in cute little jars, with a spoon tied to it and everything.

Fondant Umbrellas, Rubber Duckies, Flowers and Cupcakes, Oh My!

You guessed it... a Baby Shower!

Thanks Jason for the incredible photos of the finished cake.  They make me want a new camera (and your talent)!

This was perhaps one of the most stress free baking projects I have done in recent memory.  I'm starting to notice a pattern of mini disasters, but this project went really well.  Unfortunately I don't have as many pictures as I would have liked.  Maybe that is why it went so smoothly, I wasn't busy taking pictures.
 

I do want to share how to make the umbrella cake topper.  It was much easier than I expected.  One caution is that you will want to make the umbrella well in advance.  It has to dry for quite a while before it will hold the shape on its own.  Start at least a week before your event.

For the Umbrella, you will need:

• Fondant
• Half of a Ball pan like Wilton's or another half-sphere (or whole ball shaped object)
• Sucker stick
• Gel colors

To look at the proportions for my umbrella, I set my pans on my cake stand. The half ball pan looks big here, but without the holder it, looked about the right size. 

I used white and pink for the umbrella, but it could be any two colors you choose.  Roll a round of each color just a bit larger than your half sphere, then mold it and smooth it over the sphere.  You can go pretty thin with this one. 
 

For my umbrella, I then rolled the second color, and covered the first with plenty of cornstarch in between the layers.  With them both over the ball, I cut through both layers like pizza slices.  You will want an even number of slices.  I ended up with eight. 

With thin slices and to account for a little shrink when drying, I decided to roll a slightly thicker piece of a lighter pink fondant and cover the other half of my ball pan (although you could probably figure out how to use just one form). Use plenty of cornstarch on the pan.  I arranged alternating slices of the two colors on the thicker layer of fondant.  I sealed them to the thicker fondant with a bit of water and sealed the seams with a paint brush and water. Since my fondant was cut directly on the ball pan, and the new fondant layer made it a little thicker, this took just a little squishing to make the seams fit.  An easier solution may be to cover the ball pan with one color, then space out slices of the other color.  That would make the seams easier. 

Note: With the extra slices of colors, I tried making a second umbrella without the solid colored layer.  It did hold together but it was very fragile.  With thicker slices, you might be able to make this work.  Having the extra layer of fondant probably helped to make my project stress free.

Once that was finished, I used a round cookie cutter to make the scalloped edges.  My colored sections were roughly the same size, so I aligned the cutter so that it cut only one color at a time, leaving points at each of the seams.

The next step was to let it dry until it held its shape off the form.  This took several days.  I couldn't seem to leave it alone and it didn't hurt anything to pull it off the form and see how it was drying.  My umbrella stuck to the ball pan a bit.  To get it off, I took a piece of floss and pulled it tight to the ball so that it slid under the fondant, cutting it off the form.  It left some slight marks, but nothing anyone else noticed.

 

Once the umbrella was dry, I filled it with blue fondant for water while the umbrella was sitting a bit lopsided.  I traced some rings on the water with the back end of a paint brush and put a duck in the middle of the water.  The last part was to put the stick into the water so it looks like the umbrella handle.  I decorated the end of the handle with a little ball of fondant and a bow. 

For the ducks, there are plenty of tutorials out there.  I have had the best luck when I cut the wings out and stick them on rather than molding them into the body.  For the flowers on the cake, I used Wilton cutters and stamps with varying shades of pink and stuck a pearl sprinkle in the middle of each one.  As usual, I made way too many.

One of my new favorite party ideas is to do a small cake on top of my cupcake stand and put cupcakes on the other tiers.  It takes away the stress of decorating a big cake.  I still get to have fun decorating, and there is more than enough cake to go around for a crowd. It also makes room for more flavors and has the wow factor of a stacked cake!

Review - Mi Mexico

We visited Mi Mexico tonight for dinner on our search for a really good Mexican place.  When I was in Woodland, California I ate at Brown's Corner Bar and Grill.  They had really great carnitas.  The tortillas were great and the pork was bursting with flavor.  They were good enough to eat several days in a row. 

I don't want to get your hopes up.  Mi Mexico is no Brown's.  We started with chips and salsa.  The chips weren't anything special, but really weren't too bad.  The salsa was extremely runny and lacked flavor.  It was kind of a tomato water with cilantro and a few onions.

The real disappointment came with the rest of our meal.  I ordered chicken enchiladas suizas and Ben had a combo with chicken tacos and a chicken enchilada.  It turned out there wasn't much difference. Everything was watery and flavorless.  The tomatillo salsa on my enchiladas was very thin and absolutely tasteless.  I also had a pile of lettuce, or what I think was lettuce.  It had a texture of soggy coleslaw. Maybe it was coated in the flavorless tomatillo sauce and left under a heat lamp? At any rate, it wasn't a good addition to the meal.  The rice had a little salsa color to it, but still, no flavor. 

I didn't bother to try Ben's.  He seemed to be asking the same questions I was.  Why is this restaurant packed when the food is this bad?  Some of the reviews online mention the great margaritas.  They must be really great margaritas!  In fact, we have eaten there before, but it had been quite a while, at least a year, maybe two.  On that previous visit I had a margarita, and I don't remember the food being so bad.  I do remember the margaritas being pretty strong.  I think they led us to Baker's Square across the parking lot for pie.

To top off our visit to Mi Mexico, each of our dinners were between $9 and $10 each.  With one pop, the total bill was just over $22.  I've had better meals at Taco John's - Sad. 

The Verdict?

We won't be back (unless maybe we need some strong margaritas and pie).  It was such a far cry from Brown's. 

Review - The Cheese Shop of Des Moines

The Cheese Shop of Des Moines, located on 42nd street just north of I-235, was a wonderful find following our dinner at Sbrocco on Saturday night.  After wandering around downtown for a bit we decided something sweet just didn't sound good.  That might be because we had tried out Scratch cupcakes in West Des Moines earlier in the afternoon.  I was craving a nice cheese plate and was pretty sure my husband wouldn't say no to a meat tray. 

I had stopped into the cheese shop once before to pick up a selection of cheeses for an armature wine tasting party hosted by wine novice, yours truly.  I absolutely recommend the cheese shop to stop in for cheeses and meats.  You can taste them before you buy, and the staff is extremely knowledgeable.  You can also buy in small quantities to make it fit the size of your party and your budget.

On my first visit had seen the chalkboard menu announcing the selections on their cheese and meat trays for the evening.  I also noticed an eclectic selection of craft beers and wines.  There were just a few tables and a small bar for enjoying all of the above.  Luckily I had filed that away somewhere in the back of my head. 

We stopped into the cheese shop which was quite busy.  We only waited a few minutes before a couple of seats opened up at the bar.  The staff, of whom I think two were the owners, were friendly and created a nice vibe for a fun and casual date night.  We received a wooden clipboard with the weekend menu.  Obviously we need to study up on our food vocabulary.  We didn't understand much of what was on the menu and found, up on the chalkboard, what we were looking for.  We opted to skip the drinks and order a meat tray and a cheese tray.  We were pleasantly surprised to find out that we could order half a cheese tray and half a meat tray.  That was perfect.  Our waiter also recommended that we order bread to accompany it. 

I was impressed with proportions and glad we were able to just order half trays of meat and cheese.  The bread was also a great addition.  Again, I wish I had taken better notes on our selections.  We had two raw cows milk cheeses.  One was from New Hampshire.  Unfortunately I don't remember too many details.  I did appreciate the knowledgeable staff an learned that one of our cheeses was a washed rind cheese while the other was not.  To butcher what I learned, apparently washed rind cheeses encourage the cultures to flourish and gives the cheese some extra umph while the non-washed rind cheese was very mild.  We both preferred the extra flavor of the washed rind cheese.

If I have one complaint about our visit to the Cheese Shop, it is that there were only two cheeses and two meats on the tray.  Maybe that is because we got the half.  I would prefer smaller amounts of each with more variety.  I like a slightly harder cheese with stronger flavors compared to the two soft cheeses we tried.  Ok, one other suggestion.  I would also enjoy sampling some of their variety of jams and dried fruits, or even fresh fruits paired with the cheese tray.

I couldn't have asked for more with the two meats that we tried. I really wish we had taken notes because they were absolutely worth going back for more.  The bread we received was from La Mie just a couple doors down and was excellent paired with a slightly green olive oil.  It also made a great host for the prosciutto.

Besides what we ordered, we saw some wonderful dishes coming.  There were small pieces of bread topped with prosciutto that looked great.  The couple next to us order some sort of small toasts with a good looking spread on it.  They also had a macaroni and cheese in a cast iron skillet that looked dangerously rich and decadent.  For dessert we heard about a mascarpone ice cream with some sort of skillet pancake.

The Verdict?

We will absolutely go back, and next time we won't be stopping for dinner first.  The Cheese Shop of Des Moines had all the makings of a great casual date night.  I want to try a few items on the menu and the wine list.  I haven't been this excited about food in Des Moines for a long time.  I can't wait to go back!

Review - Sbrocco

Sbrocco has been on my restaurant list for a long time, years, and this Saturday night we finally made our first visit to Sbrocco.  I have been trying to improve my wine repertoire so Sbrocco finally made the top of the list.  The week before our visit to Sbrocco, the Date Book ran a review of Sbrocco and I learned that Chef Andrew Newberg had taken over the restaurant.  Since I hadn't tried it before, he didn't have any expectations to live up to but all the referrals I had for Sbrocco were for the previous chef, Andrew Meek, who had moved on to run Gramercy Tap.  I'll have to add that one to my list.

I did like the atmosphere at Sbrocco.  I certainly didn't feel out of place in my dressy jeans, heels and a nice top.  There were quite a few diners headed to the civic center after dinner.  Our waitress asked if we were headed to the Civic Center or if we had any time constraints while we were dining.  I thought that was nice.  I don't want to be hurried along during my meal, but it is nice that they will accommodate quicker meals. 

I was excited to try a wine flight and thought they were exceptionally reasonably priced.  I believe mine was $8.00.  I can't say that I was very adventurous though.  I had a sweet flight which I wish I had written down. 

Our fist disappointment at Sbrooco came with the menu.  As usual, we had drooled over the menu at home and had picked out the Grilled Blue Prawns and Guinness braised pork belly with raspberry, shallot, thyme jam and candied nuts as appetizers and were debating between several tantalizing choices for our entrees.  Listed online we had dreamed of :
   A winter stew of red wine, short ribs, roasted vegetables and braising liquid
   Bouillabaisse with clams, cod, prawns, scallops, and lobster
   Honey glazed duck breast with parsnip-vanilla puree, grilled apple and roasted vegetables

When we arrived at the restaurant only the Prawns were still available.  The pork belly was still on the menu but sold out.  The entrees had all been removed from the menu.  I wouldn't have found this to be a big problem had they been replaced with something else, however we arrived to simply find a smaller menu.  The only thing I got excited about on the menu at the restaurant was the sweet potato gnocchi with sage, Parmesan, and brown butter.  I was disappointed that it wasn't paired with a nice protein.  I decided to ask the waitress before I ordered what she thought of the gnocchi and she said very convincingly that it was her least favorite thing on the menu.  I opted for my second choice, the pepper crusted beef tenderloin with potato fritters and winter vegetables in a red wine demi glace. It did sound good although not particularly out of the ordinary.

My husband debated between the lamb, which neither of us usually love even when prepared very well, and the steak frites of NY strip with truffle butter and demi glace.  He ended up going with the beef given our track record with lamb. 

All in all, I feel like our order was a bit too tame, however, we just weren't inspired by the menu.  Our prawns arrived with chorizo, wine herb sauce, and jalapeno jam.  While this was good, we weren't blown away.  My favorite part was surprisingly the jalapeno jam.  It had a really nice combination of sweet and spicy that complimented the chorizo and shrimp nicely.

For the entrees, Ben's steak was nothing exceptional until it was paired with the truffle butter.  The flavor popped really nicely and it was cooked to a nice medium-rare.  The fries were good, but not anything special.

I'm a huge Top Chef fan and had this been an elimination challenge, the chef who prepared my beef tenderloin would have been asked to Please pack their knives and go.  Harsh?  Maybe.  The potato fritters weren't badly flavored, however, they were quite cold in the middle. Cold mashed potatoes won't pass the Top Chef judges.  The demi glace was amazing, so I will give some points for that and the vegetables were nicely done as well.  Those were the highlights of my dish.  The tenderloin came in two medallions which were quite charred on the outside, crunchy even.  I had ordered my beef medium-rare and I would consider it at least medium, maybe medium well.  The crust on the tenderloin was excessively salty.  I think this was the first time I had purposely left a beef tenderloin medallion in a leftover box on the table.  It wasn't worth taking back to the car or carrying around for our walk down Court Avenue.

The verdict? 

We would go back, although we won't be beating down the door.  We didn't taste anything that we craved, but would certainly give the place another shot after letting the new chef get settled in.

Salted Caramel Cupcakes

I can't remember exactly what started my quest for the perfect salted caramel cupcake.  I think my first real salted caramel dessert experience was courtesy of my friend Meredith, although they don't seem to be on her blog.  My quest was a salted caramel cupcake to die for.  This is attempt number two, and it is well worth the effort.  It is a caramel cupcake with caramel filling, salted caramel frosting, and a sugar decoration.  Most of this is based of of the Triple Salted Caramel Cupcakes on Sprinkle Bakes.

My first attempt at a salted caramel cupcake used a white cake recipe and I just wasn't happy with it.  It didn't have enough pizazz and the texture was too fine.  I typically like the texture of this cupcake, but in this case, it just didn't match the frosting. For my second attempt, I used a caramel cake mix and followed my go to box based cake recipe that I used in my red velvet cupcakes.  I used a vanilla pudding mix for that recipe.

 

Update 7/16/2013: Forget the Caramel Cake, this is amazing with Chocolate Cake!  Use the same recipe with a Devil's Food cake mix and a dark chocolate pudding mix.  The combination of the chocolate cake and salted caramel frosting is in the running for my favorite cupcake ever, although there is some stiff competition.

 

I've gotten in the habit of  sifting my cake mixes.  Occasionally I find some sugar chunks in the cake mixes.  I don't actually put them through a sifter, just whisk them through a colander.

The rest of the recipe is really forgiving, just dump everything in and mix.

Have I mentioned that my husband is wonderful?  My Kitchen Aid mixer has to be my favorite Christmas present ever.  I'm also a big fan of my birthday (or was it anniversary) glass mixing bowl.  How pretty!

I also really like my 1.5 oz. portion scoop.  It seems to be about right for a smallish cupcake. 

One batch of cake makes about 24 cupcakes.

I'm not very good at keeping track of how long I bake my cupcakes.  I've settled on 325 degrees and  bake until a toothpick come out with a few crumbs.  If it comes out clean, they are probably too dry. 

My original attempt at salted caramel cupcakes had some caramel in the center, but I really don't think that was necessary.  For that, I cored the cupcakes and put in a little dollop.  If I did this again, I would make it thin enough to pipe a little into the cupcake.  For the caramel in the frosting, I used my mom's caramel dip recipe. 

This is really simple.  Unwrap a package of KRAFT caramels and put in a microwave safe bowl.  Yes, the brand is important.  I've tried others and it takes a lot longer for this to come together.  It is worth finding the Kraft brand.  Once you have the caramels unwrapped, add a sticks of butter and a can of sweetened condensed milk.

Microwave on high, stirring frequently until it is smooth.  Let this cool to room temperature before starting your frosting.  You can put it in the fridge.

My frosting is closely related to Sprinkle Bakes version. Instead of making their caramel, I used the caramel dip. 

Salted Caramel Buttercream Frosting:


1 stick salted butter
1 stick unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
3 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
~ 1/4 recipe Caramel Dip
I found the original recipe much too thin and buttery, so I added quite a bit more powdered sugar.  Cream the salted and unsalted butter and add sea salt.  Mix in the powdered sugar and caramel until you get a flavor and consistency that you like.  My husband wasn't sold on the salty frosting, but I loved it!

I like to frost using Wilton tip 1M.  If you want a softer frosting, I would recommend using a round tip to make a dollop instead.

At this point you could drizzle them with a bit of caramel sauce.  The sugar decorations are totally optional.  I had fun playing with them.   I followed the instructions from sprinkle bakes, but found that the temperature is very important.  I used this temperature chart.  From that chart I selected the hard crack stage to cook to which was 300 to 310 degrees.  On the early end of this is a lighter color and toward the higher end is pretty dark and a bit burnt tasting.

 

To get some fun shapes I used little bowls.  I think I liked the flat ones just as well.  I put these on parchment paper coated in cooking spray.  The bowls were also well coated with cooking spray.  Making these was harder than I had imagined.  The caramel just coated the bottom of the pan so getting it on the spoon was difficult and it cools quickly making it extra tough.  Give yourself plenty of counter space to drizzle so you can do a lot of them quickly and practice.  Also, you may want to sprinkle on some coarse sugar as you go.  Mine cooled a bit too quickly.  I also finally found coarse crystal sugar at of all places TJ Maxx of all places.

The final product was pretty and delicious.  The great part about these is the balance.  The salt keeps them from being too sickly sweet and the caramel adds nice depth of flavor.  I'll be making these again soon so I'll update you if there are any improvements!  Good luck!