Salted Beer Caramels

 

As good as it sounds. I imagine this is how the butter beer in Harry Potter actually tastes. Super creamy, a nice beer taste, and the salt really puts it over. Be generous so that each bit will have a little bit of salt on it. 

Ingredients

2 cups brown sugar

2 sticks butter

1 cup corn syrup

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 bottle of Ale (I used Anchor Steam's Brown Ale)

Sea Salt

Directions

Line a 9x13 pan lined with parchment paper.

Melt butter and brown sugar together in medium saucepan over medium heat.

Slowly add beer, syrup then milk while stirring constantly.

Cook caramels to 240°F. Do not stop stirring once milk is added or caramels will scorch.

Once you reach 240°F, take mixture off of heat and stir in vanilla extract.

Pour mixture into pan.

Sprinkle sea salt on top of hot caramels. Let caramels set for a few hours until firm enough to cut.

Wrap in wax paper or caramel wraps. 

They will keep for a couple weeks at least. They would probably work well with something like Guinness or another kind of stout. St. Patrick's Day is coming!

Iron Cupcake SF Contest

So it was a huge success. My friend, and fellow baker, Carol has been forwarding me Iron Cupcake emails for a couple months now and we just haven't quite made it. But when she sent me the email saying this month's ingredient was "alcohol," I decided to clear the calendar, and made a batch of my Margarita cupcakes.

And lo and behold, everyone loved them - I won first place! Rumor was, these events don't usually go over 30 people, but this time there was an influx of contestants and taste-testers, which caused the hosts of the event Leland Tea Company to rent a space nearby to accommodate the 24 bakers and over 100 testers. And it was steep competition too! There were some very creative and tasty creations to choose between.

Some highlights were the Absinthe, "the Hangover" a Bloody Mary cupcake with maple bacon mimosa buttercream, coffee candy, and chardonay toasted sea salt (!), "The Dude" which was a White Russian a la Big Lebowski, Violet Beauregarde which was a port and chocolate cupcake with ganache and a Zinfandel soaked blueberry, and of course "Sex on the Beach", which was a very clever decorating experience. Needless to say, I was proud to be in such good company.

Thanks to everyone for being so friendly and welcoming, it was a wonderful experience and am totally jazzed about future competitions! Special thanks to the hosts, the donators of prizes, and my friend Tom who came out to help sway the vote in my favor by at least one more opinion!