caramel + chocolate = awesome

a couple of weeks ago, i found this delicious-looking recipe via pinterest (of course).  and then my dear friend lilcee's birthday was last weekend, and so i decided it was the perfect time to give it a shot.

first, i made some salted caramel sauce using this recipe.  i typically avoid recipes that require melting dry sugar in a saucepan, because - well, issues.  it's a total pain in the ass.  but i figured i'd give it a shot, because the rest of the process looked really easy.  plus, it gave me a chance to use some of this precious stuff:

here's the rest of the ingredients.  simple ingredients, but super rich, yes?  look at all that butter!  and full-fat cream!  yowza.

so i dumped a couple of cups of sugar into my saucepan and turned into the whisking nazi - i didn't leave that shit alone for a second.  it took a couple of minutes before it finally warmed up and started to clump.

more whisking led to this.

to pass the time (whisking is boring, yo), i watched a movie.  yup, that's definitely "pitch perfect" on my ipad.  don't judge me.

and then, finally - this:

after stirring in the butter and cream, i was a little concerned that it was so runny and not the lovely thick caramel sauce i'd been expecting.  but i set it aside and let it cool while i worked on the cookies.  i'd splurged and bought some ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips to make sure they turned out just right.

into the bowl with more butter they went.

it only took a couple of 30-second intervals in the microwave to get it all melty.

more ingredients into the mixer.

the batter thickened up after a 10-minute rest in the bowl, and it scooped out nicely.

nine minutes in the oven and they came out puffy and pretty, making the house smell really good.

as i'd predicted, the caramel sauce had thickened up considerably as it cooled.  and there's a lot of it.  i have two jars full of the stuff even after using some for the cookie filling - a simple buttercream with a generous dollop of salted caramel sauce stirred in.

i love making stuff like this.  it was like the old days of making whoopie pies.

look at how pretty they came out!

the recipe warned me that these things were rich.  it didn't lie.

i made up a plate of them to take to lilcee's, and although i haven't heard as to how she liked them, i've at least talked to her.  so i know she hasn't gone into anaphylactic shock from the sugar rush or anything.

that's a good thing, right?

bark like a bear

i'm kinda on a roll with this whole "fly by the seat of my pants" thing in the kitchen lately.  instead of being a recipe nazi like i usually am, i'm finding it rather fun to wing it and toss stuff together at random to see how it turns out.  by no means am i ready to write a cookbook or anything, but i'm learning to relax about precise measurements these days.

last time she was here, MIL discovered chocolate and caramel-covered marshmallows on a stick at "pooh's corner" (a cute little super-duper-out-of-the-way treat shop at disneyland).  while she was standing in line, i was busy drooling over this (and yup, i sure did start munching on it before remembering to take a picture):

really, it's just a pretzel rod that's been dipped in caramel, then in chocolate, and rolled in mini m&ms.  not exactly rocket science, but it's a super delicious, totally tasty treat that combines sweet and salty very nicely.  while i wasn't about to buy a bag of pretzel rods, i remembered that i had something else i could use - and so i decided to make up a batch of m&m pretzel bark.

i'm thinking it's probably a little ridiculous that this is stuff i regularly have in the cupboards, right?

well, sure.  if ridiculous = awesome.

i spread out a layer of pretzel sticks in the bottom of my wax paper-lined pan.  i was a little anal about keeping them straight.

i poured the caramel bits into my mini saucepan and added a little water.  they kinda look like garbanzo beans...only these are SO WAY BETTER.

it only took a few minutes over medium-low heat for them to melt into the lovely gooey-ness that i poured on top of those pretzels.

next, i attempted to melt a cup or so of chocolate chips with a bit of heavy cream.  except that i screwed it up in a big way and the chocolate seized up and turned into a blob of awful.  i couldn't even stop to take a picture of it as i flipped it right out into the trash can.  bah!  i hate wasting chocolate.

never fear - there are always other chocolate options in the house.  i figured a mixture of these would work nicely.

this time, i decided to bust out my ghetto-fabulous faux double boiler - which is what i should've done in the first place.  i broke up the chocolate into pieces and then set the bowl over an inch or so of simmering water.

see?  much better.

it was happy to join the party.

the fun part was sprinkling the mini m&ms on top.

i popped it into the fridge overnight, and the next day i was pleased to see that everything had set perfectly.  well, the caramel was still a teeny-tiny bit gooey.  next time, i need to use less water.

chop, chop, chop with my knife.

pretty, right?  you should make some.  this is what you do:

m&m pretzel bark

pretzel sticks
a bag of caramel bits (if you can't find the ones i used, any caramel candies will do - about 20 should work)
1 cup chocolate chips, or a hershey's milk chocolate bar + a bar of dark chocolate
mini m&ms

line an 8" x 8" pan with wax or parchment paper.  the latter is better, by the way.  spread out a layer of  pretzel sticks, enough to cover the surface.  in a small saucepan, pour about half of the bag of caramel bits and add about a teaspoon of water and melt over low heat, stirring constantly.  spread the caramel on top of the pretzels.

place the chocolate chips (or break up the bars into small pieces) into the top of a double boiler (or, if you're like me, in a glass bowl that fits perfectly into a saucepan), and set it over an inch or so of simmering water.  melt the chocolate, stirring every 10 seconds or so.  this goes on top of the caramel layer.  sprinkle with as many mini m&ms as you want.  as for me, i used about half of that bag.  put the whole shebang into the fridge for at least two hours, or overnight if you do this late-ish at night like i did.

break it up with your hands or slice it neatly with a sharp knife.  eat.  then eat some more.  share some if you want.  or hide it in the back of the fridge where only you can see it.  whatever.  i'm not gonna judge.

chocolate makes everything better

much like my beloved bacon, chocolate is a food group alllll on its own in my diet.  heh.

and so when i saw a picture posted on twitter by my friend (and our day-of coordinator for our local wedding reception) swingingly of a dessert bar featuring a plate of chocolate-covered pringles...well, you know what's coming next.

i surfed the interwebz for details on this magically sweet + salty concoction, and found that it really was as simple as it sounded.  this is all i needed:

yes, for any chocolate snobs out there - i used good old hershey's.  i actually really love the sweet, creamy taste of it, although i sure don't turn down the higher-quality stuff, either.  what can i say?  my tastes are simple.  and cheap.  heh.

i crumbled it up with my fingers because i was feeling too lazy to bust out a knife (which would mean having to wash and dry said utensil).

this is my ghetto-fab double boiler.  it always does the trick, so i stick with it.

i used the two forks dipping method, but because the chips are curvy and stuff, i had to maneuver the melted chocolate a bit with my spatula.

i was totally anal with these things and fished through the whole canister to find the perfect chips, with no cracks or missing chunks.  heh.

my giant bar of chocolate didn't yield many treats, and i scraped the bowl clean.  that's okay though, it was an experiment and now i know how easy it is.  besides, with the teen at her dad's for the week, i'll likely be the only one eating these.  the hub probably won't touch 'em.  he's not much into the whole sweet/salty/out of the ordinary food thing.  more for me!

but they looked a little...blah.  following a tip i'd read on the google, i broke out the good stuff.

i used just a tiny bit of my precious white chocolate chips (procured from whole foods, so you know that shit ain't cheap), because i really didn't need much.

again, i was being unreasonably anal about these, so i scraped the melted goo into a baggie to do the drizzle.

voila! 

the verdict?  ummmm, YES.  you need these in your life, stat.  trust me.