Lesson #80: Homemade Caramel Sauce

Homemade caramel sauce is heads and tails above the store bought version. This sauce is AMAZING! The first step is to carefully melt sugar in the bottom of a saucepan. When the sugar melts and turns a deep amber color, heavy cream is mixed in with the seeds of a vanilla bean. The last step is to cook the caramel on low heat until the sugar melts and the sauce is completely smooth.

One helpful tip is that this sauce requires a careful eye and a little patience. If you caramelize the sugar too much it turns into a burnt mess. If you don't let it caramelize enough it doesn't taste like caramel (it's like honey instead). The love that you put into this sauce pays off in when you taste the finished product. It's rich & creamy, sweet & salty, and smooth & silky. This sauce just makes your day a thousand times better!

LESSON LEARNED: Patience is the key to perfecting caramel sauce.

Recipe for Homemade Caramel Sauce

Lesson #79: Citrus Sponge Cake

One of the reasons why I love winter is because of the beautiful citrus fruits that are in season. It's my favorite time of year to enjoy oranges, grapefruits, and lemons. This sponge cake is ABSOLUTELY fabulous! The texture of the cake is light and fluffy. When you eat a piece of this cake it's DELIGHTFULLY buttery and tangy from the use of lemon juice/zest. 

I baked the cake in a sheet pan so I could cut round pieces of cake using a cookie cutter. This cake is wonderful on it's own or with a dab of sweetened whipped cream. Enjoy!

LESSON LEARNED: Now's the season to enjoy citrus fruits!

Recipe for Citrus Sponge Cake

Lesson #78: Chocolate Chip Challah Bread

My chocolate chip cookie craze continues.....

Next up on my list was this INSANELY good challah bread. I've made this recipe a few times and here's what I learned along the way. First, this recipe yields a large amount of bread. It makes way too much for two people. I've tried halving the recipe, but it never turns out quite the same. So, here's my suggestion. Follow the recipe as suggested and freeze the second loaf (homemade bread freezes extremely well!). Or even better: give the second loaf to someone (you will impress them with your awesome baking skills!). Sadly, my second loaf of bread is sitting in the freezer until the next time I go to Toledo or when we move next month :)

Second, when you stir in the chocolate chips, they might have a tendency to melt. At this point in the recipe you have added some warm water and are about to knead the bread which creates further heat. If you knead the bread in a mixer, don't worry about it. The worst that will happen is that you have swirls of chocolate instead of chips. It will be equally DELICIOUS. If you are kneading by hand, I would recommend working in the chocolate chips after you kneaded it for a while.

This homemade bread is definitely worth the effort. It's soft and squishy with bits of chocolate throughout. Plus it makes your house smell WONDERFUL!

LESSON LEARNED: Practice makes perfect with this yummy bread!

Recipe for Chocolate Chip Challah Bread

Lesson #77: Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream

In this recipe two of my favorite desserts are combined: chocolate chip cookies and ice cream! You typically see ice creams that have cookie dough swirled throughout the batter, but this ice cream is different. The ice cream custard tastes like cookie dough even through it doesn't have pieces of cookie dough in it.

You'll see from the picture that the ice cream has more of a golden brown color compared to an off white color of my typical ice creams. This is because both brown sugar and molasses are incorporated into the ice cream custard. When I first tasted the custard (after it was cooked, but before it was churned into ice cream), I thought it tasted too much like molasses. But after churning it and freezing it for a few hours, the molasses flavor really mellowed out and it tasted EXACTLY like cookie dough. Yum!

LESSON LEARNED: This ice cream tastes like cookie dough without any pieces of cookie dough in it!

Recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream

Lesson #76: Cheesecake Mousse

I've been on a cheesecake kick this week! Here's why this dessert ROCKS:

1) It's perfect for a dinner party because you can make it ahead of time.
2) You don't have to turn on the oven to make it (well, if you want to do the graham cracker crumble you do, but that's totally optional).
3) It looks super fancy and you will impress your friends & family with your awesome baking skills.
4) This dessert is super light and fluffy and tastes EXACTLY like cheesecake.
5) You can be creative with the toppings. I chose blueberries, but any kind of fruit or even sauce (e.g. chocolate, caramel) would be yummy.
6) This is SUPER easy to make. It took me 10 minutes from start to finish!

LESSON LEARNED: I'll be making this dessert for my next dinner (or dessert) party!

Recipe for Cheesecake Mousse

Lesson #75: Oreo Cheesecake Cookies

Yes, this recipe combines both Oreo's and cheesecake into one delicious cookie! You begin my making a cream cheese dough, mix in pieces of Oreo's, and roll the dough in Oreo cookie crumbs. The result is a crunchy, chocolate cookie that definitely satisfies your cheesecake craving.

There were two things that I noticed while making these cookies. First, the cookies really flatten out after you remove them from the oven. I've worked with recipes where the cookies flatten out to the point they are hard to remove from cookie sheets, but this is not the case with these cookies. Once they completely cool, they become crispy and have no problems coming off the cookie sheets. Second, while making Oreo cookie crumbs, I noticed that the crumbs seemed to get all over. It's similar to how when you craft with glitter (it gets EVERYWHERE!) It's the same with these cookie crumbs. Just giving you a heads up in case you are a little OCD with cleaning like me :)

LESSON LEARNED: Sometimes when cookies flatten out after baking, it's ok!

Recipe for Oreo Cheesecake Cookies

Lesson #74: Brioche

The first time I had brioche was last year in Thomas Keller's restaurant Bouchon in Las Vegas. My mom and I went there for breakfast and the food was AMAZING! So amazing that we went there twice (that's hard to do with all the wonderful restaurants in Vegas!). After I returned home, I found the recipe for this bread in the Bouchon cookbook and enjoyed this bread again.

If you never had brioche, I would describe it as a cross between a cake and a bread. It's super buttery and very tender. The butter forms a nice crust along the outside of the bread and the center is soft and "cake-like". I slice it thick and serve it with jam (usually homemade during the spring/summer months, but the one here is store-bought). Believe me, once you had this bread, you will fall in love with it too!

Note: This isn't the Bouchon recipe, but a new recipe from one of my dessert cookbooks I received for Christmas. It's equally as delicious! Also, making this bread stretches out over a day and a half, so give yourself plenty of time. After the initial kneading, it's pretty hands off.

LESSON LEARNED: Brioche is wonderful!

Recipe for Brioche