Soft and Salty and Delicious

I just love caramel. Salted caramel, in particular. So when I saw this recipe, which is from The Art and Soul of Baking, which I covet, I knew I had to make it.

Peanut butter cookies are wonderful in general, but when you add homemade peanut caramel to the middle of them...well, I don't know if it gets better than that. The cookies are dense and peanut butter-y, like they should be, and the caramel is soft and salty and delicious.

I also made the cookies much larger than they're supposed to be. For a recipe that's supposed to make 50 cookies, I got 25. Whoops. More room for caramel, is what I say. And you want as much caramel as you can get. I would eat this caramel with a spoon. Actually, I did eat this caramel with a spoon, because the recipe makes a ton of extra. Ice cream? Apple dip? There are a million possibilities. Another note about the caramel is that it doesn't totally set. It's not runny, but if you, say, poked a finger into it, your finger would come away sticky. Just something to think about.

To to sum up: peanuts+salt+caramel=make this now.

Peanut Butter Cookies with Salted Peanut Caramel
From David Lebovitz via The Art and Soul of Baking

Makes 50 small or 25 medium-sized cookies

8 tablespoons (115g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup (120g) packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup (200g) creamy salted peanut butter (regular, not natural, is best)
1 3/4 cups (250g) flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup (250ml) heavy cream
1/2 cup (125ml) water
1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
1 tablespoon light corn syrup or glucose
1/8 teaspoon coarse salt
3/4 cup (100g) finely chopped roasted salted peanuts

Preheat the oven to 350F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

With an electric mixer, or by hand, make the cookie dough by beating the butter, brown and granulated sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla until well blended. If using an electric mixer, scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Beat in the peanut butter.

In a separate bowl, whisk or sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the peanut butter mixture and stir until there are no patches of flour.

Scoop up tablespoon-sized portions of the dough and roll each piece between your hands so they're as smooth as possible so they don't crack at the edges when performing the next step.

Space them 1 1/2-inches (2 cm) apart on the baking sheets, then use the rounded end of a wooden spoon, or your thumb, to make a depression in each one. Don't worry much if the sides crack; push them back together.

Bake the cookies for 13-16 minutes, rotating the baking sheets midway during cooking, until they are light-golden brown and the edges barely start to darken. Remove from oven, and while they're warm, press in to reinforce each depression with the end of the wooden spoon. Let cool completely.

Make the salted peanut caramel by warming the cream in a saucepan or microwave, and setting it aside. (Don't skip this step! If you add cold cream to the caramel, the sugar will crystallize too quickly. If this happens, immediately stir the mixture vigorously over low heat until the sugar melts again.)

Cook the water, 1 cup sugar, corn syrup, and salt to a caramel, gently swirling the pan only if necessary (to ensure it melt and cooks evenly) until it turns a nice golden brown. (This always takes longer than you think it will, but once it starts happening, it goes quickly. My very imprecise measure of timing is this: I wait until I start to get nervous that it's about to burn, let it cook for another twenty seconds, and then take it off. In terms of looks, if you add the cream to the caramel and it still looks translucent and dark, then it's burnt. It should be golden and cloudy.)

Remove from heat and immediately whisk in the hot cream in a slow, steady stream.

Cool until warm and pourable, then add the chopped peanuts. Spoon some of the caramel into each cookie, letting it set for about an hour, if you want to drizzle them with chocolate.

Storage: Cookies will keep in an airtight container, at room temperature, for 3 to 4 days. The unbaked dough can be rolled into rounds and stored in a heavy-duty freezer bag in the refrigerator or freezer, until ready to bake.

Caramel! Peanuts! Brownies!

A few weeks ago, my next door neighbors had a party and I, as usual, promised to bring dessert. But this was actually a selfish act. I just bought Dorie Greenspan's book and couldn't wait to try something out.

There are a lot of tempting recipes, (devil's food cake! quintuple chocolate brownies!), but the one I knew I had to try, like right that moment, was the brownie cake with caramel and peanuts. The picture was just too beautiful to ignore, with a thick, dense brownie layered with dripping golden caramel and peanuts. I've always been a sucker for caramel and peanuts.

The cake, unfortunately, I overbaked just a wee bit. It still tasted good, but the brownie was cake-ier than I would have liked. I prefer the fudgy, almost under-baked kind. The caramel, though, was wonderful. I think I would put in a touch less corn syrup in the future, but other than that, it was perfect. And it went over beautifully with the guests.

Caramel Peanut Topped Brownie Cake
from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

For the cake:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1 stick(8 TBSP) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
3 large eggs
½ cup light brown sugar
¼ cup sugar
3 TBSP light corn syrup
½ tsp vanilla extract
For the topping:
2 cups sugar
½ cup water
1 ½ TBSP light corn syrup
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 TBSP unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup salted peanuts

Butter and flour a 8 inch springform pan. Line bottom of pan with parchment paper. Put the pan on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

To make the cake: Whisk the flour, baking soda and salt together. Melt chocolate and butter together using a double boiler.

In a large bowl whisk the eggs and sugars together until well blended. Whisk in the corn syrup, followed by the vanilla. Whisk in the melted butter and chocolate. Still working with a whisk, gently stir in the dry ingredients, mixing only until they are incorporated. You will have a thick, smooth, shiny batter. Pour the batter into the pan and jiggle the pan a bit to even out the batter.
Bake the cake at 350F for 40-45 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the centre comes out almost clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool he cake for 15 minutes, then run a knife between the cake and the pan and remove the sides of the pan. During baking the cake probably will have puffed to the top of the pan don’t be concerned if tit sinks a little or it if develops a crater in the centre. Cool the cake to room temperature.

When the cake is completely cool, invert it, remove the base of the pan and peel off the paper.

Wash and dry the springform pan, and return the cake to it right side up. Refasten the sides around the cake.

To make the topping:
Put the sugar, water and corn syrup in a medium heavy bottomed saucepan, stir just to combine the ingredients and then put the pan over medium-high heat. Heat, without stirring , until the caramel turns deep amber., 5-10 minutes. Lower the heat a bit and, standing back from the saucepan add the cream and butter. When the spatters are less vehement, stir to calm down the caramel and dissolve any lumps. Stir in the peanuts, and pour the caramel and peanuts into a 1-quart Pyrex measuring cup or heat proof bowl.

Spoon the peanuts on top of the cake. Then spoon the caramel on top of those. You’ll have a layer about ¼ inch high. Allow the topping to set to room temperature-about 20 minutes before serving.

To serve, run a blunt knife between the caramel and the pan and simply remove the sides of the springform. If this isn’t the case, hit the sides with some hot air from a hairdryer or wrap the sides in a towel moistened with hot water.