Pecan Shortbreads with Maple-Caramel Filling

Some of my favorite memories of my time in Argentina (surprise, surprise) involve food. Pizza napoletana in El Centro, empanadas from the vendors on Puerto Madero, bon-o-bons in every bodega… But one of my favorite foods I discovered in Argentina was the alfajor. Alfajores are essentially two rich shortbread cookies sandwiching a gooey layer of the ubiquitous Latin American treat dulce de leche, and often covered in chocolate, coconut, or powdered sugar. Yeah…

This recipe is a riff on the Argentine alfajor, but it can easily be divided to provide a quick and simple recipe for pecan shortbread, and/or a recipe for caramel that can be cooled on a sheet tray and cut into candies. One point of caution however: if you do use the caramel recipe for candy-making you may want to substitute the maple syrup with light corn syrup. The maple syrup in this recipe makes a far less chewy, much softer and yet more toothsome caramel. It is perfect for sandwiching between cookies, and is delicious on its own, but this recipe will definitely make a different caramel candy than you are used to.

 

Ingredients

Yields 15-20 cookie sandwiches or about 3 dozen individual cookies, depending on size

For the shortbread:

– 1 c. unsalted butter, room temperature

– 3/4 c. powdered sugar

– 1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt

– 2 1/3 c. flour

– 1 c. finely chopped raw pecans

 

For the maple-caramel:

– 1/2 c. butter (1 stick)

– 1 c. sugar

– 1 c. whole milk or cream

– 1/2 c. good quality maple syrup

– 1/2 tsp. vanilla

 

Directions

For the cookies:

1. Combine butter, powdered sugar, and salt. Beat until smooth.

2. Add flour and pecans and mix until just combined — do not over-mix

3. Form dough into a long log, about 2” in diameter

4. Wrap tightly in wax paper

5. Freeze until firm (about 30 minutes, but can be made ahead of time and frozen for 3-4 weeks)

6. Preheat oven to 350F

7. Remove paper and slice into thin disks, about 1/4” thick

8. Place disks onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, at least 1” apart (they won’t spread much)

9. Bake at 350F for 15 minutes, or until golden around the edges

10. Remove from oven and allow to cool on baking sheets at least 5 minutes before transferring to towels or a rack to finish cooling

 

For the maple-caramel:

1. Over medium-low heat melt butter in a medium saucepan

2. Stir in sugar, milk, and maple syrup, increase heat to medium and bring to a boil, stirring often

3. Cook until a candy or oil thermometer reads 245F. This will take a while — probably about 30 minutes — but it is very important to continue stirring frequently so that your caramel does not burn

4. Once caramel has reached 245F remove from heat and promptly stir in vanilla

5. Allow to cool.

— For these cookies you want your caramel to be moderately cooled, but not so cool that it becomes hard and sticky and difficult to work with; about 30 minutes should be sufficient but you can check the consistency as it cools and begins the sandwiching process where you are comfortable.

— If you are making candies on the other hand, you will want to pour your caramel, immediately after adding vanilla, onto a greased and parchment lined sheetpan and allow to cool completely. Use a knife or clean kitchen scissors to cut into pieces and wrap in wax paper.

Welcome to the festival of cookies! Overdo it much?!

Toasted Coconut Cupcakes with Caramel Frosting

It was my birthday last week, so I decided I was going to bake myself something really fun. I have been a coconut fiend ever since I was a little girl, and I have really been wanting to experiment with making coconut-milk dulce de leche and vegan caramel, so it didn’t take long to decide on these Toasted Coconut Cupcakes with Caramel Frosting. My father’s birthday is the day after mine (True story: if I had been born one day later, and another gender, I would have been Peik Johan III…), and since he was about to go out of town, we decided to celebrate our birthdays together.

Now, my Pops is a foodie. The man loves to cook, the man goes out to a good restaurant at least once a week, watches cooking shows, pre-orders cookbooks, etc., etc. Along with that culinary elitism also goes an unparalleled passion for animal protein. Like, seriously: my husband’s a meat-lover but he doesn’t even come close to my old man, not even the same ball-park. I daresay it even borders on mental illness…I’m not bad-talking my dad here — just having a little fun at his expense 🙂 For our birthday celebration I decided that I would challenge myself to see if I could bake vegan cupcakes good enough to slip by the old bear that nary a once-breathing thing was involved in our birthday yumminess. Success!

There are two common misconceptions about vegan food: 1)It never tastes good, and 2) It is always really good for you. Newsflash: any kind of food can be delicious or disgusting depending on the quality of the ingredients and preparation, and vegan definitely does not equal healthy — Oreos, Fruit Loops, and Sour Patch Kids are all examples of vegan junk food. Indeed, these cupcakes definitely expose both of those statements as falsehoods. I wish I could say these were good for you, but alas, find me a healthy cupcake and I’ll be your slave for life…However; creamy, decadent, and outrageously delicious, no one would ever guess these cupcakes were vegan, as my father proved…

Ingredients:

Yields 12 frosted, decorated cupcakes

Coconut Cupcakes:

– 1 1/2 c. flour

– 1 c. white sugar

– 1/2 c. unsweetened coconut flakes

– 1 tsp. baking soda

– 1 tsp. salt

– 1 c. coconut milk

– 1/3 c. vegetable or canola oil

– 1 Tbsp. dark rum, such as Meyer’s

– 1 tsp. vanilla

– 1 tsp. red wine vinegar

 

Coconut-Milk Caramel Frosting:

– 1 13.5 oz. can coconut milk

– 3/4 c. brown sugar

– 1/2 tsp. salt

– 3/4 c. Earth Balance, or other buttery spread (of course, if you are not a vegan you can use regular butter here)

– 1 1/2 c. powdered sugar, or more if needed

– 1 tsp. vanilla

– 1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes

 

 

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350F, grease cupcake tin or ready with paper liners

2. In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, coconut, soda, and salt

3. Add milk, oil, rum, and vanilla to the dry ingredients. Add vinegar last, then stir well to combine

4. Pour batter into tin and place in 350F oven to bake for 30 minutes, or until golden brown and a skewer or knife inserted into the middle of cakes comes out clean

5. Set cupcakes aside and allow to cool while you prepare your frosting

6. Place coconut milk in a small saucepan or skillet over medium heat

7. Once skin begins to form over the milk and small bubbles appear, stir gently while adding brown sugar and salt

8. Gently stir until sugar is dissolved completely and color is consistent. Turn heat to medium-low

9. Cook until reduced by half — about 20-25 minutes — stirring often and scraping down the sides of the pan

10. Remove from heat and set aside to cool (This coconut-milk caramel could also be used as a sundae topping for soy or almond milk ice cream, spooned over grilled bananas with chopped peanuts, or anything else you could think to do with regular caramel sauce!)

11. In the bowl of an electric mixer beat Earth Balance until smooth and creamy

12. Add 1 c. of the powdered sugar and beat until lump-free

13. At medium speed add vanilla to frosting, then slowly begin to add the cooled caramel sauce

14. Once caramel has been combined, add remaining 1/2 c. of powdered sugar. Evaluate your frosting — if you want it thicker and stiffer add more powdered sugar. (Just be careful not to over beat this frosting as it can “break”)

15. Spread your coconut over a sheet pan

16. Bake in your 350F oven for 3-5 minutes. Watch carefully — coconut can burn in an instant!

17. You are now ready to decorate your cupcakes! Use a pastry bag to pipe frosting liberally over cupcakes, or simply slather it on with a knife. Top with toasted coconut flakes.

18. Try not to eat them all at once….

Recipe for cupcake batter adapted from vegweb recipe, coconut-milk caramel and frosting recipe developed completely by my own trial and error and recipe my own.

Caramel Custard Bread Pudding

Its going to be difficult for me to describe just how delicious this is without using expletives…..Let’s just say that this is the kind of thing that you may want to eat in private because there will probably be sufficient eye-fluttering and moaning to cause some embarrassment in mixed company. It’s what would happen if creme brulee, caramel, and French toast had a menage a trois…Yeah, it’s that good…

I never liked sweets. Given the choice of a cheese plate or popcorn (or a cocktail) versus dessert, the savory option would win every time. And then I got pregnant. Aside from wanting to put cream cheese on everything, I also craved sugar. Hard core. There was a key lime pie phase, a lemon bar phase, a chocolate-raspberry truffle phase, a peanut brittle phase, and a cinnamon ice cream phase. Not that I was turning down any other sweets available amidst the cravings….I had assumed that once my daughter was born the cravings, and the sweet tooth, would go away. Incorrect. It seems that the sweet tooth that was neglected for so many years is here to stay, and wants to make up for lost time…

Now, despite my newfound love of all things dessert, I’ve never been a big fan of bread pudding; but, my sweet, wonderful sister recently brought me some amazing local eggs and raw milk from the farm she works on, and I wanted to put them to good use.

(Quick note: Sea Island Eggs are a much-coveted Charleston delicacy. Known locally as “Celeste Eggs” they are found on the menus of all of the best local restaurants. Why? Because they are delicious — nothing like the eggs you find in the grocery store. Next time you’re at your local farmer’s market, see if you can find a local egg purveyor. You’ll never be able to go back to supermarket eggs again, I promise.) I also just baked a loaf of bread yesterday, so putting the eggs, milk, and bread together for an easy dessert seemed like a no-brainer, but how to make it more appealing was another question entirely. I considered strawberries briefly — and then, out of nowhere, it hit me: caramel.

One of my favorite sweet things in the world is caramel. I LOVE caramel. Like, love it the way peanut butter loves jelly, like Ricky loves Lucy (bad analogy: my love for caramel is waaaay more affectionate), like a fat kid loves cake…or caramel for that matter… Eating caramel is an other-worldly experience, but for all of the complexity of its flavor it is astonishingly simple to make: milk (or cream), butter, brown sugar. That’s it — three simple ingredients. For this recipe the milk, butter, and sugar are all baked together with the bread, rather than separately making a caramel sauce, so it’s just about as easy as could possibly be.

Ingredients:

Yields 6-8 servings

– 2 2/3 c.  whole milk

– 1/4 c. butter

– 1 c. brown sugar, plus 2 Tbsp.

– 3 eggs

– 1 tsp. vanilla

– 1/4 tsp. salt

– 3 c. cubed (about 1”) day-old bread — use the rest of that baguette left over from last night’s dinner, or some crusty French bread, or use my easy recipe to bake your own, but don’t use pre-sliced sandwich bread — your results will be disappointing

– 1/4 tsp. vanilla

– 2 Tbsp. ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. Cut bread into cubes, removing crusts

2. Toast bread briefly under broiler, until crisp. I tossed mine in about a tablespoon of melted butter, but it’s not necessary

3. Set oven to 350F

4. Scald milk*

*Scalding milk is not a common practice anymore. It used to be crucial when baking, but now that our milk is pretty much all pasteurized there’s not the same concern about bacteria. However, when working with breads it is a good idea to scald your milk to keep the bread fluffy. To scald milk:

– Heat milk over medium-low heat

– Stir frequently

– Cook until just beginning to bubble and steam, but DO NOT boil

– Remove from heat

5. Add butter to scalded milk and let cool

6. Add two eggs, plus one egg yolk to one cup of the brown sugar. Mix well.

7. Place bread cubes in a greased bread tin or a 1 1/2 quart casserole dish

8. Add cooled milk to egg/sugar mixture. Add vanilla and salt. Mix well.

9. Pour liquid mixture over bread cubes

10. Sprinkle cinnamon and remaining 2 Tbsp. brown sugar over top of bread

11. Set casserole/bread tin in a pan containing about 2” of water

12. Bake in oven at 350F for 50 minutes or until a skewer or knife inserted into the center comes out clean

* Be very careful removing the pan from the oven! That water is HOT — strain it carefully into the sink before attempting to remove your casserole or bread tin from the pan.

Serve warm or cold.

I was kicking myself for not having any vanilla ice cream or whipped cream in the house — that would have been unbelievable. I topped it instead with a little bit of powdered sugar and a splash of raw milk. So good I had two pieces and had to stop myself from eating more…

It also occurred to me that adding chopped apple, pear, or banana into this would be absolutely insane. In a good way. Or chunks of dark chocolate?!? Craziness! It might be too much to handle…

Adapted from Farm Journal’s Country Cookbook, 1959