salted caramel – DessertedPlanet.com

Salted Caramel Apple Pie Bars

September 11, 2017 1 Comment

In the last week we’ve made not one but TWO trips to the apple orchard because they are just SO good right now and there are new varieties every day! Our first trip we picked tons of Jonathan and Grimes and the second time it was all about the Fujis!

So, needless to say we’ve been eating a LOT of apples. And of course I’ve done a little baking…I gave my mom’s German Apple Cake a healthy makeover and it turned out DELISH. But I think our favorite thing so far has been dehydrating apples and making dried apple slices! The kids can’t get enough. And the Jonathan’s are perfect for dehydrating because they’re actually super sweet with a little tartness. Yum!

So with all the dehydrating, I was super excited to stumble upon this recipe for Cinnamon Apple Pie Energy Bites that utilizes dried apples but I knew immediately I wanted to take the recipe a step further and make them into Salted Caramel Apple Pie Bars! And with a little adjusting of ingredients, that’s what I did and the results were DELICIOUS.

All the flavors of apple pie, a touch of salt, tiny chunks of almonds and dried apples, minimal ingredients and no added sugar, make these perfect for snacking or even breakfast! We love them!

Salted Caramel Apple Pie Bars

Author: Desserted Planet

Ingredients

1 ½ c. Dried Apples, finely chopped in food processor
1 ½ c. Raw, Toasted Almonds (you don't have to toast the almonds but I prefer the flavor it gives them)
1 ½ c. Medjool Dates, soaked in hot water for at least 30 minutes
5 t. Pure Vanilla Extract
1½ t. Cinnamon
1½ t. Apple Pie Spice
½-¾ t. Sea Salt

Instructions

Line a 9x9 pan with foil or parchment paper
Blend almonds and dates in a high powered blender or food processor until a thick paste forms. You can get it as smooth as you like..I left a few bits and pieces of almonds in mine because I like the texture.
Transfer the almond/date mixture, along with all other ingredients to an electric mixer. Beat on low speed until everything is well combined and blended. Adjust spices, etc to taste.
Press into your lined pan and place in the refrigerator for a couple of hours to allow mixture to set. Remove from pan and cut.

Notes

Makes 12 bars.

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Cookie, Desserts

Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate Cookies

March 30, 2015 No Comments

I honestly don’t need to say much about this recipe other than MAKE IT. IMMEDIATELY. For your own good and the good of all the people you love around you, make these cookies and share them with the world! Yes, I love them that much.

Once again, Sally of Sally’s Baking Addiction has nailed it with these Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate Cookies. I will admit that at first I was skeptical about putting a Rolo in the middle. Umm, there’s not much gourmet about a Rolo? But once you put it in the middle of this super dark double chocolate cookie that is sprinkled with sea salt and it gets all melty and gooey inside…you forget it’s a Rolo and only know you can’t stop eating it! These cookies are thick and soft and perfect. Honestly, perfection. Grab some milk and enjoy!

Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate Cookies

Ingredients

1 c. Unsalted Butter, softenend to room temperature
1 c. Granulated Sugar
1 c. Light Brown Sugar
2 Large Eggs, rom temperature
2 T. Pure Vanilla Extract
2 c. All-Purpose Flour
1⅓ c. Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
2 t. Baking Soda
¼ t. Salt
¼ c. Heavy Whipping Cream
3 c. Ghirardelli Bittersweet Chocolate Chips (or whatever dark chocolate chip you prefer)
35 Rolos, unwrapped
Coarse Sea Salt

Instructions

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter on medium speed for about 1 minute. Add the sugars with the mixer on medium speed and cream together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Slowly add to the wet ingredients. Slowly mix in the heavy whipping cream then the bittersweet chocolate chips. The dough will be thick and sticky. You can chill it for a few minutes at this point but I used mine immediately and had no issues with it.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
Form a 3-inch ball of dough in your hands and then flatten slightly and make an indentation in the middle. Place the Rolo in the indentation and wrap the rest of the cookies around the Rolo making sure to seal well and form into a slightly flattenened ball again. Repeat with the rest of the dough and remaining Rolos. Sprinkle each cookie with sea salt before putting in the oven.
Bake for 12-13 minutes. Cookies will appear undone and very soft. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 3-4 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Notes

Makes about 36 cookies. Store in an airtight container.

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Desserts, No-Bake, Pie, Recipes

No-Bake Peanut Butter Pie

April 25, 2012 No Comments

Ok, that title is a little misleading…it is kind of a baked pie, at least the crust is baked. But it stays in the oven for such a short amount of time it hardly counts, hence I christen this pie, no-bake!

I dreamed up this concoction when brainstorming what to make my fabulous sister-in-law Rachel (of foodierachel.com!) for her birthday. I wanted it to be something that she would LOVE not just something that sounded good to me or a new dessert recipe I wanted to try. So I thought of peanut butter first…and then banana, caramel and chocolate. Yes, pretty sure all these ingredients met the “will Rachel love it?” criteria!

I have to say this pie was AMAZING…just the right amount of peanut butter, chocolate, banana and caramel. It is, however, very rich so one slice is more than enough! I made a homemade salted caramel sauce from scratch which I think sent it over the top, but for the sake of simplicity I’d just buy a good-quality caramel sauce if I were you–unless you are feeling very ambitious!

It was a big hit at our family dinner and I’m already looking for an excuse to make this one again!

No-Bake Peanut Butter Pie

Ingredients

1 stick Unsalted Butter, melted
2 c. Graham Cracker Crumbs
1 c. High-Quality Caramel Sauce
1½ Ripe Bananas, sliced into ½" pieces
1, 8 oz. package Cream Cheese
1½ c. Powdered Sugar
1¼ c. Smooth Peanut Butter
½ c. Milk
1 T. Pure Vanilla Extract
16 oz. Whipped Cream Topping
6 T. Bittersweet Chocolate Chips, melted
2 T. Dry-Roasted Peanut Halves

Instructions

For the Crust

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease the bottom and sides of a 9-inch springform pan. Combine melted butter and graham cracker crumbs and press into the bottom and up the sides of the springform pan. Bake for 10 minutes and cool completely on a wire rack (I did pop mine in the freezer for a few minutes to speed things up).

For the Filling

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and powdered sugar with an electric mixer on high speed until completely smooth. Add peanut butter, milk and vanilla and beat until thoroughly combined. Gently fold in ¾ of the container of the whipped cream, until there are no white streaks left.

To Assemble

Pour the caramel into the graham cracker crust and spread evenly. Place the banana slices in an even layer over the caramel. Spread the peanut butter filling evenly into the pan. Drizzle with the melted chocolate and sprinkle with the dry-roasted peanuts. Place in the freezer for a couple of minutes to allow the chocolate to harden. Cover with foil and freeze for 4-5 hours until mixture is stiff. Slice and serve immediately.

Notes

Serves 12.

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Brownie, Cake, Candy, Cheesecake, Chocolate, Cookie, Cupcakes, Desserts, Holiday, Ice Cream, Inspiration, Pie

New Year’s Eve Party Mini Desserts

December 27, 2011 1 Comment

I have been in love with mini desserts for years. They are just so darn cute and the fact that you don’t have to pick just ONE dessert but can in fact try several, due to their tiny size, is just awesome to me. I love them so much that I actually used to cater desserts and only did miniature sizes. It was so much fun and sometimes I really miss planning dessert tables for weddings or parties with loads of colorful, bite-size desserts! Thank goodness for the holidays when I can unleash my creative baking skills (obsession?) on all my family and friends!

So, I thought what would be better for a New Year’s Eve party than mini sweets?! Finger foods are VERY popular for New Year’s Eve parties and these desserts stay right with that theme. Some of these are super easy (2-3 ingredients), which is great since you have no doubt been in the kitchen waaaayyyy too much between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Also, another way to make easy miniatures is to bake up a normal 9×13 pan of brownies, blondies, cake, etc. and cut them small with a knife or fun-shaped, small cookie cutters or take any regular ‘ole cookie recipe and just make smaller than normal cookies (be sure to cook them for less time!). Ok, let’s check out some other awesome tiny goodies from around the blogosphere:

First up, Mini S’mores Cakes. How cute are these?! Get a lot more mini ideas from Delish here.

I LOVE baklava. Love it. It was the one thing I was looking most forward to indulging in over the Christmas holiday. I’ve actually made Baklava Cups before and they are super good and MUCH less labor intensive than the traditional way. See more ideas from Women’s Day here.

Mini Oreos. Yum.

Mini Ice Cream Cookie Pops. How fun! However, if you’re afraid of the ice cream melting before people can scarf them down, try it with buttercream frosting.

I love these Mini Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats. Rice Krispie treats are sooo classic and just plain good.

Banana Split Bites. Delicious and gorgeous.

Vanilla Bean Baby Doughnuts. Perfect after a night of imbibing.

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake. One of my favorites.

Poptarts on a stick. Totally awesome. AND easy.

These Chocolate Salted-Caramel Mini Cupcakes look soooo rich and decadent. Pure bliss.

Cut these yummy Red Velvet Brownies super small for bite-size treats.

These Lindt Mini Chocolate Trifles are adorable. Use some larger shot glasses for the cups and think about switching up ingredients…caramel sauce for the fudge, brownies for the cookies, etc.

I have been making Brownie Tassies forever. The only thing I do differently is top them with coffee buttercream and toasted, slivered almonds. People will go nuts over these.

Ummm, excuse me but this Chocolate Covered Bacon Caramel Popcorn is dangerous. Dangerous I tell you!! And I am SO going to make it.

These Mini Cherry Pies are just down right pretty. And begging to be eaten.

I love the playfulness of this Gumdrop Fudge. Very festive and party appropriate. Not to mention easy. We like easy!

Well, hopefully this gives you some inspiration for whatever crazy New Year’s party you may be hosting or attending. Tomorrow I’ll have my own recipe for Mini Doughnut Muffins!

Chocolate, Pie, Recipes

Pecan Pie Trifle

November 23, 2011 No Comments

Ok, I’ve got one more last, LAST minute Thanksgiving day dessert! It’s a Pecan Pie Trifle–layers of chunked pecan pie, whipping cream/cream cheese mixture, fudge, caramel and toasted pecans. Doesn’t that sound like pure evil?! Well, it is! Very rich, delicious evil.

You can make the cream cheese mixture or go really simple and do just homemade (or even store bought…I suppose) whipped cream, which I think I might do next time to cut back on the richness of it. And I also did a ganache and homemade salted caramel sauce which I highly suggest doing but when your short on time a store bought, high-quality hot fudge sauce and caramel sauce will work just fine!

Enjoy!

Pecan Pie Trifle

Ingredients

3 c. Heavy Whipping Cream
1 c. Powdered Sugar
2 T. Pure Vanilla
2, 8 oz. Packages Cream Cheese, softened
2 c. Sugar
1 T. Vanilla
1, 2-lb. Frozen Pecan Pie, thawed and cut into 1-inch cubes
½ c. Chocolate Fudge Sauce (or ganache)
½ c. Caramel Sauce
½ c. Chopped Pecans, toasted

Instructions

For the Whipped Cream:

In a very cold mixing bowl, whip the heavy whipping cream at high speed until it becomes thick and stiff. Mix in the powdered sugar and vanilla. Set aside.

For the Cream Cheese Mixture

Beat the cream cheese and sugar on medium speed in the bowl of an electric mixer until smooth. Beat in the vanilla. Fold in ¾ of the homemade whipped cream.

To Assemble:

Place ⅓ of the pie cubes in the bottom of a large trifle dish or clear, tall glass bowl. Spread half the cream cheese mixture over the pie cubes, drizzle with ⅓ of both sauces and sprinkle with pecans. Repeat two more times, leaving a couple of tablespoons of both sauces and pecans to use for decoration. Spread the remaining whipped cream evenly over the top and drizzle with the rest of the sauce and sprinkle the remaining pecans on top.

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Bakery Reviews

GiGi’s Cupcakes

September 28, 2011 No Comments

Last Friday night Jeremy and I visited one of the two new cupcakes places (yes TWO) that opened up this week in Springfield, MO. GiGi’s is a franchise based out of Nashville, TN and I had heard good things about them so I was pretty excited to visit. The place is cute, simple and clean inside. No frills. And quite frankly they don’t need frills because the cupcakes are gorgeous! At three dollars apiece, they are good-sized and well worth the money. And the frosting…OMG don’t even get me started on the frosting on top of these cupcakes. The minute we stepped inside the doors and my eyes fell upon the mountain of frosting piped on top of the cupcakes, I was mesmerized and drooling. I’m a frosting girl all the way!

Since it was their opening night and they had been giving away free cupcakes all day to all their fans on Facebook, they were down to some basic flavors but still a good variety. I would have LOVED to have tried the Tiramisu or Red Velvet but they were out of those so we went with Wedding Cake (my choice), Midnight Magic (Jeremy’s choice) and Chocolate Salted Caramel.

The Chocolate Salted Caramel consisted of a yummy super dark chocolate cake with caramel buttercream topped with chocolate ganache and a sprinkle of sea salt. It was very good and I loved the salt and chocolate combination but the caramel buttercream was just a tad too sweet for both of us. Somehow we still managed to eat most of it though…how did that happen?!

My choice, the Wedding Cake, was vanilla cake topped with vanilla buttercream. The cake was on the denser side and not so light and fluffy and the buttercream was very thick, creamy and smooth, not greasy at all and had a wonderful vanilla flavor. I really enjoyed it, especially the frosting.

Jeremy’s choice, the Midnight Magic, was our favorite. It was a rich chocolate cake topped with an absolutely delicious cream cheese frosting and mini chocolate chips. We ate the whole thing and loved every bite.

I’m really looking forward to going back and trying more cupcakes. And I will go back! I can’t stop thinking about the frosting…and the Tiramisu cupcake…and the Miss Princess (strawberry) cupcake…and the Red Velvet cupcake..and the frosting..and the Kentucky Bourbon Pie cupcake…and the…

P.S. Check out all GiGi’s offerings here!

P.S.S. After linking to her page, I read her story of how she started and it is totally inspiring! Check it out!