London Fog Caramel Sauce

If you follow my blog, you know that I have somewhat of a healthy obsession with caramel sauces. You would think that with the few basic ingredients you need to make a good caramel sauce, you would be limited with how much you can play with the classic sauce. However, like with everything in the kitchen, the only limit is your imagination. I love to play around with the basic caramel recipe and tweak it to add an extra flavor note or a different texture or both. Today's caramel sauce features the simple ingredients you need to make a London Fog Tea, sounds interesting, no?

For other caramel recipes, you can try my salted caramel sauce, or how about my spicy and sweet caramel recipe?

The London fog caramel sauce stands out with its floral and citrusy notes, thanks to the Earl Grey tea and the dried lavender flowers. The result is a caramel sauce with a balanced sweet flavor and complex flavor notes.

Let´s make the sauce
For the tea you need:

• 1 earl grey tea bag (use 2 bags for a more intense flavor)
• 50 ml boiling water
• 1 tsp dried lavender petals (adjust to you liking)

In a cup, put the tea bag and the lavender then add the boiling water and let it steep and then cool.

For the caramel sauce:

• 50 ml of the prepared tea
• 120 g sugar
• 50 g cold butter cut into cubes
• 200 ml heavy cream
• pinch of salt (needed to bring out the flavors)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract or paste 

Put the sugar in a saucepan and melt over a gentle heat. Once the sugar is golden brown add the steeped tea  and let it boil for few seconds. Always be careful when adding liquid to a hot caramel as it will splatter. Add the cold butter and let it melt. Add the salt and the cream.
Cook for a few minutes until it thickens. Finally add the vanilla and whisk well

Lift the saucepan off the stove and allow the caramel sauce to cool down.

Pour the sauce in a clean jar and refrigerate, if you will not use it within the day of its making.

Like all caramel sauces, you can use it in so many ways. It is such a useful ingredient to keep in your fridge. It complements pancakes, crepes and sponge cakes perfectly. You can add it to cheesecakes to add a new flavor dimension, or you can use it as a sweet dipping sauce with fruits, biscuits and much more.

You can find here, here, here, here and here many recipes I've shared before with caramel sauces.

Make your own caramel sauce and use it the way you want, it will only enhance your baking and make it more scrumptious.

Super Easy Sweet Canapés!

Each month the Google plus community foodiesplus selects a special theme and for August canapés were featured. Canapés are ideal if you are entertaining a small group of friends or a large crowd during special occasions.
In addition to being elegant, they are extremely versatile and can be either savory or sweet. Canapés are fun to make and can be miniaturized versions of main dishes.
Personally, I decided to make sweet canapés featuring delicious summer fruits in addition to being a snap to make.

The ingredients I used are pretty common and easy to find. Additionally, the combinations you can make are quite flexible and you can alter ingredients according to your liking.

So to make these little beauties you need:

• mini toasts
• cream cheese
• strawberries, blackberries and flat peach
• honey and maple syrup
• rosemary, lavender and pecans for garnish
• chocolate spread

Prepare the fruits by cutting the peaches and the strawberries into thin slices; of course the blackberries are left whole.
The cream cheese should be removed a bit ahead of time from the fridge to make it more spreadable. You can mix the cheese with the maple syrup or honey or you can drizzle them later on the canapés. 

To assemble, spread the cream cheese or chocolate spread in reasonable amounts and layer the fruits on top. Drizzle the maple syrup or honey on top, if you haven't mixed them into the cream cheese.

I used the following combinations:

• Chocolate spread, strawberries and garnished with rosemary leaves
• Cream cheese, blackberries, maple syrup and garnished with a bit of crushed pecans.
• Cream cheese, peaches, honey and garnished with a bit of lavender flowers.

You can play with these combinations as you want, but I do feel these flavors work best together. 

Next time you have friends coming over and you're short on time, these canapés will be a life saver. Enjoy!

Deep Scarlet Red Summer Popsicles

As summer nears its end, its great to indulge in the special moments it gives us. What better way to celebrate vibrant summer flavors than to enjoy delicious deep red sweet and tart popsicles?

Like many of  you, I consider popsicles as the best companion for hot summer days. Forget about those commercial popsicles loaded with artificial flavors, colorings and are way too sugary; popsicles are easy to make at home and you control what goes in. The end result will definitely please you.

The popsicles featured in this recipe combine the robust, fruity, refreshing and fragrant flavors of lemon, blueberries and lavender.

To make 8 popsicles (70 ml approximately each) you need:

• 300 g blueberries
• 1 tbsp of sugar
• 250 ml lemon juice
• Simple syrup (recipe follows)

First put the blueberries in a pan with one tablespoon of sugar and leave it to heat over a low flame. When the berries ooze out their juice, remove them from the heat and set aside to cool. Using a hand-held blender (or a regular one) I mixed the blueberries until smooth. You can pass the mix through a sieve to remove the seeds and the peel if you are picky, but honestly I didn't bother as I like the added texture they give. 

For the syrup you need:

• 100 ml water
• 130 g sugar
• 1 tsp lavender
• 1 small slice of lemon peel and a squeeze of lemon juice

First heat the water, add the lavender and leave it to steep. Now combine the sugar with water, add the lemon peel and let it simmer on a low heat. When the syrup bubbles vigorously  add a squeeze of lemon juice and turn off the heat. Leave to cool a bit.

Now that you have all the ingredients ready, you just need to combine them and mix.

Pour the liquid in the popsicles molds and put in the freezer to set for not less than 4 hours.

Savor these delicious ice pops on a warm summer night, close your eyes and enjoy the explosion of summer flavors.