Forget Petite Fours, Give Me the Caramel

I trash on a lot of “trendy” things in the food world; celebrity chefs, cupcakes, overused/wrongly used sustainable buzz words, New York City tourist traps, etc. But as with all things, I tend to eat my words at some point, and this is one such case …

If there is ONE “celebrity” chef I could be it would be Ina Garten. She’s the cat’s pajamas. Swap the adorable Jewish husband who eats everything she makes for a tall, dark, handsome Catholic that eats everything I make. The barnyard style house of the East End for a southern colonial in Charleston. And the soiree of gay men for my dearest best friends. Done!

But the thing about Ms. Garten is that she was a chef before she was a celebrity. Correction, she’s not a trained chef, like Chef Alain, but she’s a learned chef. A gourmet food store owner and more interesting (to me) a caterer.

I’ve said for a while now, that if I were going to work in a kitchen, it would be a catering kitchen. Start to finish, in my opinion, the process is more rewarding. So if you don’t see my name gracing the bylines of The New York Times Dining Section on Wednesdays in the future, I might be running a small boutique catering company somewhere.

Yesterday was my Pastry II class’s Petite Four test. My partner and I had four hours to produce 7 Petite Fours. Petite Fours are clean bite size pieces of dessert that are usually served as a small after dinner compliment or at a party … hmm perhaps served by a caterer?

Three of the Petite Fours were my responsibility, three were my partner’s. One was combined. For one of my original three, I was inspired by Ina, specifically her Fleur De Sel Caramels. So instead of using the recipe the school provides, I used hers. And it was better, way better. In fact, during my evaluation, the chef said that this recipe was better than the school’s and should be used instead. WOW, huge compliment, go Ina … and ME!

Don’t get me started on Fleur, I think its one of the secrets between a good cook and someone who doesn’t know how to cook. Bold words, I’m aware. It’s essential to make a meal that much better. And it’s so simple, it’s just salt!

So here’s Ina’s recipe for Fleur De Sel Caramels. Try them, they’re perfect for a holiday snack while everyone is milling around the kitchen waiting for dinner. For the record, “milling” is not my word, it’s my mother’s, who uses it when my family is doing just that, milling around the kitchen waiting for dinner.

Fleur De Sel Caramels

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon Fleur, plus more for sprinkling
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Line the bottom of a half sheet tray with parchment and lightly spray the parchment with Pam or oil. This will prevent the caramel from sticking once it cools.

In a deep sauce pan (deeper than 4 inches) combine sugar, corn syrup, and water and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Continue to boil until the ingredients are caramel color. The water will evaporate leaving a gradually browning effect on the sugar.

Warm the cream, butter, vanilla, and fleur so that butter is melted. When your sugar is at the right color pour the cream mixture over the sugar mixture. Be careful this is very hot. It will bubble high into the pan, its supposed to. Gradually stir the mixture and the bubbling will calm down.

Place a candy thermometer in the pot. Don’t freak out, its just a thermometer, you’re not going to burn yourself. Allow the mixture to come to 248 degree F, which is “hard ball” sugar, aka forms into a hard ball when cooled. In my opinion, the thermometers aren’t as accurate as one would like. You also have to account for the after-effect of the heat on the caramel after the pot is removed from the stove. I’d take the pot off the heat when the temperature reaches about 244 degrees F. To be safe, better to have softer caramel than caramel you could break a crown on.

Pour caramel onto parchment paper lined tray and allow to cool. When cool roll the caramel up (Fruit Roll Up style) and cut into one inch pieces. Sprinkle each piece with Fleur, and pop in your mouth. When it’s cool, not hot!

Happy Holidays!