Weekend Cooking: Salted Caramel

It's funny how a flavour can grow on you. A few years ago now, salted caramel started appearing in all sorts of different places - in cakes, ice cream, as flavours inside biscuits and cookies and more, having not really been a thing, or not being a thing I had previous noticed.

When it comes to trends, I am often a little slow in trying things for the first time, and this isn't only in food. Remember when ballet flats first came into fashion for shoes. I resisted them for a good two or three years before I bought my first pair, and then went oh I like these, and that was pretty much the end for any kind of heels. Comfy shoes for the win! Anyway, back to caramel.

It took me a while to get the salted caramel thing. I mean, what could be so good about it. Well, it turns out I was wrong. The first time I remember trying it was at a foodie festival where I had a little teaser taste and, oh my goodness,  it was so good. From there I bought a jar of fancy salted caramel sauce and would have it on ice cream. That was obviously pre husband days because it is now very rare for us  to have ice cream in the house because he doesn't like it. We are a whipped cream house now.

I have made a few salted caramel creations over the years. Firstly , I made a sponge roll that was filled with salted caramel cream, where you made your own caramel!

I've also made Salted Caramel and Vanilla Baked Cheescake - so good.

I've also made poo emoji cupcakes. That wasn't what they were meant to be but it is what some unkind souls dubbed them. They were topped with a salted caramel buttercream frosting.

This weekend I am going to be trying out a new recipe which is called Chocolate Caramel Flan. It is a chocolate cake base, with a creme brulee style filling and a salted caramel sauce. The interesting thing about this recipe is that it is not dismilar in concept to the self saucing pudding recipe I shared a couple of weeks ago. You put the salted caramel in the bottom of a bundt tin, you put the cake mixture on top and then your put the creme caramel mix on top of that, but when you cook it the cake rises to the top with the creme brulee in the middle. Hopefully it works because the pictures look amazing.

It is actually a recipe from one of the Great British Bake Off alumni Nadiya Hussain. It's curious because of all the winners or contestants of GBBO, Nadiya is probably the one that I have seen the most post Bake Off. I have watched parts of her TV shows and last night she was even on one of the British TVcomedy panel shows we like to watch. I saw this recipe because one of my friends in the UK posted about making it and my instant thought was that I wanted to try it too.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Today though I thought I would share the recipe that I used when I first made Salted Caramel.  It was so good.

Salted Caramel Sauce

105 grams sugar
1 tspn sea salt flakes
75ml thickened cream
1/2 tpsn water
40 grams butter

Chop butter into small cubes. In a small saucepan, add the sugar and water. Heat on medium-high heat. When the sugar starts to melt, stir constantly until it turns to a deep amber colour. Add the butter and quickly mix.

Once the butter has melted, turn heat to low and slowly whisk in the cream. Remove from heat and add salt. Set aside to cool for 10 miutes, then refrigerate.

Simple right?

Do you like salted caramel? Do you like to make it yourself? What's your favourite way to have it? How do you say it? Do you say caramel (as in carrot and then rhyming with parallel) or do you say caramel like you are saying car?

Weekly Dinners

Saturday: Crumbed pork chops with mash, beans and mushroom sauce
Sunday: Spaghetti Bolognaise
Monday: Chicken Tikka Masala with Rice
Tuesday: Warm beef salad with beetroot and potatoes
Wednesday: Chicken Tikka Pizza
Thursday: Sausages and mash
Friday: Pulled pork burger with chips (takeaway Friday)

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page.