Posts
Various tweets this
week have inspired me to write a piece
about the salty sweet combo that the Americans love so much - call it the positive Thanksgiving effect. We are more traditional but celebrity chefs are enjoying
a full on love affair with salted caramel so be brave and give it a try.
To make the salted sweets combo work you need to make a a salty flavour a featured ingredient rather than a secret. It is virtually impossible
to buy a commercially produced pudding that doesn’t have salt added to a sweet
recipe and the reson for this is that salt enhances sweetness on the tongue.
Lets start with peanut butter – Nuts have a neutral flavour
profile so they combine perfectly with savoury or sweet. The ingredients on a
jar of peanut butter are peanuts 95%, sugar, salt so if you add peanut butter to
any cake or cookie you immediately have the salty sweet combo. The reason why
it works is that a little salt brings out the sweetness and you get two flavour
profiles alternating and blending as you
chew and this creates a more interesting taste.
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| Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins |
Here is a simple recipe for 10 large muffins I call PJ’s You
can make and bake them in just over 30 minutes. Just mix the wet ingredients into the
dry ones you cannot go wrong. Go on - put the jam in!
In a bowl beat with a wooden
spoon: 1 egg, 150g crunchy peanut butter, stir in 60ml of
vegetable oil, then 180ml milk. In another bowl sift together 200g self raising
flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/4
teaspoon salt, stir in 130g sugar.
Make a well in dry ingredients
and pour in wet ones, quickly mix together. If you want a jam surprise cooked
into the muffin one third fill 12 large cake cases, spoon on 1 teaspoon of jam
per muffin, (essential to keep the jam neatly in the centre of the muffin)
cover with remainder of mixture and bake for 20-25 minutes at 160 fan oven =
180 degrees.
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| Covering up the secret surprise -a jelly centre |
They will rise and might crack on top depending on how smoothly
you fill the cases, whatever the finish they will smell and taste delicious. If
jam’s not your thing fill after cooking and cooling with chocolate or caramel
spread.
For the more adventurous I give you Chocolate Crisp. First
discovered many years ago when small child decided that both chips and
chocolate milkshake tasted better if combined. However a bit of research and
trial and error in the kitchen means not only can you tantalize your taste buds
with a salty sweet pairing but you can have smooth and crunchy too. In California www.chuaocholatier.com sells
an amazing chocolate bar that is filled with crisps – yes CRISPS.
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| Crushed Sea Salted Crisps |
Here is my recipe for this daringly different salty sweet
snack which is perfect with a glass of red.
Gently Melt 100g dark chocolate
and 50g white chocolate in a bowl (microwave for 1 minute then stir ). Take
your chosen crisps – my favourite are sea salted – and crush up so some are
quite small and the rest are the size of cornflakes. Tip crisps into melted
chocolate and pour out onto a baking tray lined with non stick baking paper.
Smooth out till level with a spatula and leave to set. I prefer to make the
chocolate very thin so I can cut it into diamond shaped crispy thins with my
pizza cutter and arrange decoratively on a plate.
In most circumstances I don’t like dark chocolate but here a
little darkness makes this the perfect nibble with a glass of red wine.
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| Chocolate Crisps |
