This month Julie chose a recipe from the book Chocolate Epiphany and I knew I was in trouble.  You see, I just cannot resist caramel or toffee.

There’s not a THING healthy about the candy.  We don’t even use dark chocolate.  Still, that wasn’t going to stop me from trying my hand at making a chewy, creamy caramel at home.  Unfortunately, these sweets turned out so good, I’ll probably be using this recipe over and over again.  My dentist and I are going to get very close in the months to come.

Page 77, a Francois Payard recipe.  Makes about 50 caramels.  *I only varied the recipe slightly.  See Julie’s site for the original version.

• Vegetable cooking spray for pan, parchment and storage
• 8 oz heavy cream
• 1 cup of granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup light corn syrup
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 6.5 oz semi sweet chocolate chopped
• Fleur de sel (a high quality salt in the spice section of the grocery store)

Spray a 9 x 13 cake pan with cooking spray.  Line it with parchment that extends 2” up all sides. Spray the parchment with cooking spray.

Combine cream, corn syrup, sugar, and salt in a large saucepan over medium high heat. *Use a large saucepan because the mixture will bubble up and you don’t want it to bubble over onto your stove.

Stir, with a wooden spoon, until sugar dissolves.  Clip a candy thermometer to the side of the pan and cook without stirring until the temperature reaches 243 F.

Immediately stir in chocolate until melted and smooth.  Pour into prepared pan and level out to make smooth. Allow to sit at room temperature for one hour.

After one hour, remove the caramel from the pan by grabbing the parchment.  Spray a knife with cooking spray and cut into 1” squares. Top each square with a few grains of fleur de sel and allow to sit at room temperature for 6 hours, uncovered.  This allows moisture to evaporate and helps caramels retain their shape.

Store in an air tight container by lining with parchment, spray with vegetable spray and repeating to separate each layer of caramels.  This will prevent them from sticking to each other.  Storage time is about 2 weeks.

or…you can make little candy wrappers and give them away to your caramel loving cohorts.

These sweets taste chocolaty and creamy.  The texture was just a bit too soft. Maybe I should cook the mixture a little past 243 F to get a more solid caramel?

For a first attempt at making my own caramels, I’m thrilled with the outcome. That is, until I put on 10 lbs from eating them all!

Coming up:  Do something a little different with those chocolate caramels you just make.  A cookie recipe. Watch for it!

Do you like caramel? Toffee?  or are you simply a chocolate lover with nothing added?

This month, Francois Payard’s recipe for Spicy Chocolate Pots De Crème, made quite the impression in our house. 

After all that Thanksgiving food, after all that holiday baking, the last thing I wanted to do was another sweet treat that would be too much for us to eat and end up tossed away.  That wasn’t the case. This recipe, although nothing healthy about it, was completely addictive.  One bite led to two bites which led to a third and before we knew it, both our dishes were clean.  They were so clean, we looked at Shane as if he somehow snuck in there and licked the plates clean.   There was no blaming it on the dog.  This dessert is good. It deserves to be eaten. 

Great pick Julie.  Make sure to check out Julies blog for the exact recipe.

A very subtle hint of heat from red pepper coupled with rich sweet chocolate creates a festival of life on your tongue and a silky feel of velvet as it’s longingly savored in your mouth.

Makes 6 servings

• 3 1/3 cups heavy cream
• 7 oz 72% chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 tsp red pepper
• 1 large whole egg
• 3 egg yolks  (*save the whites for a healthy egg white omelet to make up for your “sinful” ways after you enjoy this dessert)
• 2 TBS sugar

Preheat oven to 300 F.

Combine cream and chocolate in a pan over medium low heat and stir frequently until melted and mixed smooth.

Stir in the red pepper.

Whisk together the egg, egg yolks and sugar. Then whisk that mixture into the cream-chocolate mixture and turn into 6 oz  oven proof ramekins.  Place on a baking sheet and bake for one hour. Remove and allow to cool.  Refrigerate for about an hour before allowing this dessert to take you as close to heaven as you want to get while your feet are still on solid ground.

I loved the crisp edges which I’m sure Francois would say “don’t let happen so cover with foil to prevent it and add water to the baking sheet and…” but to each his own.  I LOVED those crispy little chocolaty edges.  Oh YUM!

Easy, fairly quick, but definitely HEAVENLY. 

This morning I ran my fourth 20 miler.  Why wasn’t it any easier?  When I got to the grocery store, I just knew getting out of the car was going to be painful.  It was.  I loosened up after a minute, but still, why doesn’t it get any easier?  I wonder what happened to this thing called “muscle memory”.  Maybe my leg muscles suffer from memory loss. Lack of sleep?  Not enough vitamin B12?  Or just plain stubborn muscles?  Any which way, I’m not happy with my legs so I’ll make them suffer JUST ONE MORE TIME before totally putting them through the ringer on November 20th.

Shane and I started off in the dark but by the time I was running on my own, the sun was up and it was a beautiful crisp, fresh, Fall morning.  It put me in the mood for a trail run so I meandered through the switchbacks.  No one else was around.

The hills were tough especially since I was tackling them at 11 miles.  But the freshness of the woods then the overlook at the Eagle somehow gave me an energy boost.

By the time I was one mile from home, I was talking to myself muttering things such as “I just want to be home”…”shut up and get through it”…”only a few more minutes, just do it”…”GEESH! I wish I was done!”   It was a tough run.  The hills right from the start and all the way through challenged my legs like they haven’t been challenged in a while.  As I read earlier this week online, hills are the “other” speed work.   Guess it was all good in the end.

My one worthwhile deed for the day:   Washing the car

Oh! Wait, I’ve done two worthwhile deeds, this is the second one:

October’s Chocolate with Francois recipe chosen by Leslie of Lethally Delicious.

Chocolate – Ginger Angel Food Cake by Francois Payard *I cut the recipe in half and this is what I did.

• 2 TBS Candied ginger *Francois offers the recipe to make your own.  Please see Leslie’s post if you want to make your own. However, being a distance runner who sometimes suffers an upset stomach after a long run, candied ginger can always be found in our house so I used what I had on hand instead of making more.
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
• 1/4 cup Cocoa Powder (Dutch Processed of course)
• 1/3 tsp ground ginger
• 4 egg whites
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 TBS vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• Chocolate glaze to garnish

Chop the ginger into 1/4 inch or smaller slices. Set some aside for garnish.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Mix the flour, confectioners sugar, cocoa, and ground ginger together.

Beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar, salt and vanilla.  When the whites peak, gradually add the granulated sugar, 1/3rd at a time.

Gently stir in the dry ingredients.

Turn mixture into an ungreased cake pan (I did spray my pan a little with non-stick and it was a good thing I did!).  Bake for 30 minutes.

Allow to cool completely before removing from pan.

The result was a slightly chewy texture. It wasn’t as light as the angel food cakes I’m used to but the flavor takes top prize.  It was good.  I liked it best without the added slice of ginger from the top.  Good pick Leslie.  We’ll enjoy nibbling away at this one.

Thanks to Linda of Diva Weigh, we really enjoyed this month’s Francois Payard recipe. Easy and quick and SO, SO good.

The fast track:  Make these treats in less than one hour.

Got home just after 5pm. Pulled out the Promise, the cocoa powder, the peanut butter, the crispy rice cereal, the dark chocolate chips and lined them up strategically on the counter.

I turned the stove top on and added the Promise and cocoa to a saucepan over medium heat. My butter melted, I added the peanut butter which melted pretty quickly and so in went the rice cereal. Stirred just to coat and added half the chips *This 1/2 were mini chips.

I went to the cupboard, lined two baking sheets with wax paper but decided to pull out some mini muffin cups, just in case.

Back to the mix: added the rest of the FULL SIZE chocolate chips. Stirred the mix gently and let it sit while I prepared dinner.

Swim class was at 7pm. It was now 5:25 and we needed to eat. A quick heating of vegetarian beans, whole eggs for Ted and Egg Beaters for me, plus some sautéed asparagus and we were eating by 6:05 pm.

Back it up to 5:45. My chocolate rice mix had cooled and dinner was in the making (with a lot of help from Ted). We were on schedule.

I formed my Chocolate rice crispies. Some were little golf balls, some were blobs, some were golf ball-blobs dropped into mini cupcake wrappers.

While they hardened, Ted and I ate dinner.

After our swim, around 8:15pm, Ted took the first bite of the crispy, chocolate-peanut butter coated rice. He only noticed a hint of peanut butter but was head over heels about the light chocolaty taste.

I took a plate to work the following day because, even though I only made ½ the recipe, we had a lot of chocolate covered rice crispy treats. Success! The treats were gone in a flash!

Another winning recipe by Francois Payard and the point to be made here is – This one is EASY! This one is DELICIOUS! This is one is SO LIGHT (you could eat 4 or 5 or 6 or more of them!). *That’s light in taste, not necessarily calories. But hey! Everyone needs a cheat day!  Enjoy.

Here is my recipe with the original ingredients noted.

• 4 TBS Promise (use butter if you prefer)
• ¼ cup Cocoa powder (Dutch processed)
• ½ cup creamy style peanut butter (Francois uses 10 oz mini marshmallows – I don’t do marshmallows)
• 5 cups crisp rice cereal
• ½ cup dark chocolate mini chips
• *Optional – vegetable oil for your hands if you plan on shaping the balls.

Combine the Promise (or butter) with cocoa in a pan over medium heat. Let the butter melt and stir to combine. Mix in the peanut butter and allow to melt and the mixture to get smooth.

Add the rice and stir to coat. Stir in HALF of the chocolate chips. Let rest for 5 minutes. Stir in remaining chips *I used regular sized chips at this point. Let cool to room temperature.

Oil hands and shape into balls (size of golf balls). Let set and store in air tight container up to 3 days.

*I wonder if you could delete the Promise or Butter completely and still get great results?  What are your thoughts?

Great pick this month Linda

Only Ted and I are amused by Shane’s new toys. When he chews through one, we buy another. This past weekend, we picked up two new squeaky toys. They are LOUD!

My parents let out an “OH NO!” Every time he starts to chew and squeak.  As Ted and I sit in the other room, we look at each other and share a secret snicker.  It really can be a torturous noise to the ears.  Forget watching television, you won’t hear it.  He’s our boy!

Chocolate with Francois:  Chocolate Rice Pudding with Sautéed Cherries and Cream.

Last month I missed the posting date for Chocolate with Francois. This really bugged me because my good blogger friend Peggy of Pantry Revisited picked the recipe. Bound and determined to make amends, I made this delicious chocolaty rice pudding for my parents, Ted and myself. Yes, I even had some and my mother’s comment was “YOUR eating it as well?!!!” (I never eat dessert) but couldn’t resist. I love rice pudding and had never had CHOCOLATE rice pudding. This was a first. It won’t be a last.

The Pudding (original Francois Payard recipe is doubled, except for the rice which I used the original 1 cup and vanilla beans, detailed below)

• 1 cup Arborio rice
• 2 cups 2% milk
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2 vanilla beans, split and scraped of seeds (recipe called for one but mine were a bit dry so I used 2) *Use 1 TBS of vanilla extract if you don’t have the beans.
• Zest from one small orange
• ¼ cup Cocoa powder
• 3 large eggs, slightly beaten
• 1 cup heavy cream

The Cherries (I like cherries so I made the entire recipe)

• 2 TBS unsalted butter
• 2 TBS light brown sugar
• 1 can Sour pitted cherries, drained
• juice of one lemon

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Bring 4 cups water to a boil then add the rice and continue to boil for 5 minutes. Drain through a colander and set aside.

In a saucepan, combine the milk, sugar, vanilla seeds, orange zest and bring to a boil over medium high heat. When the mix has boiled (watch carefully because the milk will rise), remove from heat and immediately add the cocoa powder, whisking until smooth. Stir in rice.

Pour mix into a baking dish, cover with aluminum foil and bake for one hour. Stir every 20 minutes.

Remove the rice from the oven after an hour and add the egg yolks stirring constantly until fully mixed. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing it on the top of the rice pudding so a skin doesn’t form. Allow to cool.

For the cherries, melt the butter in a saucepan over medium high heat and melt until sizzling. Add the brown sugar and stir with a wooden spoon until sugar melts. Add the cherries and cook for 6 minutes. Add the lemon juice and let cool.

To serve:

Whip the cream to soft peaks. Fold half into the cooled rice pudding. Spoon pudding into serving bowls, top with cherries then a glob of whipped cream.

Now, let your mouth go to heaven.

What’s your favorite secret ingredient in rice pudding? Everyone has one.