It was not too long ago that salted caramel became the “in” flavor of
our age. According to food writer and
eater extraordinaire Nigella Lawson (see my post on her here), salted caramel is the “class A drug of the confectionary world”. And she has the
photo to prove it.
Perhaps it was the ongoing fascination of sweet and sour
that Americans had acquired, mostly through ill-prepared Chinese food, that
made it stick. I still remember when four years ago I made a
stop at my local Starbucks drive-in on very chilly night and saw they were
offering a salted caramel hot chocolate. Keen on the combination, I ordered it at once
and was not disappointed. The slight
hint of saltiness added that extra kick that made the already rich hot
chocolate a multi-dimensional treat.
Earlier on during that same dreadful year of the global financial
crisis, Häagen-Dazs had introduced their version of salted caramel
ice-cream. And the craze in America had
begun.
Since then, the
flavor has appeared in everything sweet and savoury – cocktails, main courses,
appetizers, sauces, you name it. The
trend started in France’s Brittany region, where famous pattisier Pierre Hermé
initially invented a salted caramel macaroon, while also spreading a few grains
of fleur de sel on top of exquisitely dark, almost glinting chocolates. Going back to Nigella, she claims salted
caramel is one perfect combination because it brings together effectively
opposing flavours, which cause a highly positive physiological reaction in the
brain.
For me, the allure of this flavor became compellingly
attractive in a recipe I found through Pinterest for a vanilla cheesecake with a salted caramel sauce. The original was in a Polish website called
Art Kulinaria. And no, before you ask, I
don’t speak polish. But here is where
Google’s translator feature becomes highly useful; so much so, that it allowed
me to actually bake the recipe to perfection.
What also attracted me to this recipe was the fact that it contained
topfen, a curd-type cheese from the Alps within its ingredients, along with the
ubiquitous ricotta. This is, in fact,
what a true cheesecake should be like, its deliciousness extending even to the
crust, which incorporates ground almonds to give it that extra touch of luxury
throughout. No brick-like firm texture here, as is the one obtained when using
American cream cheese, but the light, airy smoothness of fresh, almost always
unpasteurized curd cheeses like the Italian ricotta and the Eastern-European
topfen. It is indeed a delicate cake.
This is a luscious recipe and it proves an
elegant dessert for tea-time or the end of a light dinner. It fits into a 22mm diameter mold – roughly
8.5 inches.
Ingredients
for the base:
- 270gr.
Graham crackers crumbs
- 30gr.
Ground almonds
- 85gr. melted
butter
Ingredients
for the curd:
- 450gr.
Topfen
- 400gr.
Ricotta
- 175gr.
sugar
- 4 eggs
- ¼
teaspoon salt
- 1
vanilla pod
- 500ml
very cold cream, 36% milkfat or higher
- 1
level Tbsp. of sifted icing sugar
Ingredients
for the caramel sauce:
- 250ml.
cream
- 1 cup
sugar
- 60gr. butter
- Fleur de
sel for sprinkling
Preparation:
Line
the bottom of a circular mold with parchment paper and lightly grease the sides
with butter. From the outside, wrap it
tightly with plastic wrap so that when inserted into the bain Marie water will
not leak into it.
Combine the Graham cracker crumbs, ground almonds and melted butter and
mix thoroughly to the consistency of wet sand.
Cover bottom and sides of mold with the crust and refrigerate for 1
hour.
Preheat the oven to 300F degrees.
Prepare a vessel larger than the mold of the cake and a kettle of
boiling water for the bain Marie. In a
separate bowl, mix the topfen and ricotta cheeses. Add the sugar and one egg at a time,
combining thoroughly in between each egg.
Add the salt, scrape the seeds of the vanilla pod and mix. Pour this mixture into the mold with the
refrigerated base, then place it into the larger vessel and fill half way up
with boiling water. Insert into the
preheated oven and bake for about an hour to an hour and a half (depending on
the oven). Remove from the oven when a
knife inserted in the center comes out almost clean, but watch that the
cheesecake does not become extremely firm (you do not want an overcooked
cheesecake, trust me on this one). So
watch your oven like a hawk. After
baking, remove from the oven and leave to cool.
Once at room temperature, place in the refrigerator at least 3 hours or
– better – overnight.
Once
the cake has cooled, whip the very cold cream with the sugar to stiff, in a
bowl that has been previously placed in the freezer for a few minutes, along
with the beaters. Top the cheesecake
mold with the cream and place back into the refrigerator to stiffen.
In the
meantime, make the caramel sauce by placing the cream, butter and sugar in a
saucepan, stirring under low heat, until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat, bring to a boil and cook
on low for 5 to 7 minutes, until the sauce thickens. Stir several times during cooking and watch
that it does not burn. Put aside to
cool. This will also help the sauce
thicken.
Bring the cheesecake out of the
refrigerator, carefully remove it from the mold and place it on a cake
pedestal. Pour the caramel sauce in a
thin abstract pattern on top of the cake and sprinkle with fleur de sel crystals.
This cake can be served with a nice coffee flavored with – why not? – salted
caramel creamer. International Delight has a very good one, the Salted Caramel Mocha, which is a seasonal product, mostly available
during the holidays. My advice is to
rush over to your neighborhood supermarket and grab two or three (they last
about 5 months in the refrigerator). It
is a rich coffee creamer that adds just the right amount of saltiness to the
already rich mocha flavor. I like it better
with a medium roast blend, like a Viennese (I use Helmut Sachers’). You should grind the beans just before brewing
them.
 |
| Best latte ever |
The holidays are definitely a time to indulge. So when gobbling all that fruitcake and panetonne, I suggest a
salted caramel macchiato martini. Just mix in a cocktail shaker with ice:
Strain into a martini glass. It tastes very much like a white Russian. I chose to coat the rim with salted caramel sugar from the
The Spice & Tea Exchange.
The holidays are THE time of the year to indulge. I have found salted caramel, as a flavour, encompasses it all. There is no better way to celebrate than by going from one side of the tasting spectrum to the other. Regardless of what your beliefs are, my wish is for you and your family that of truly Happy Holidays, full of warmth, cheer good food and, above all, good company.
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References:
- Lawson, Nigella,
My love affair with salted caramel, Stylist.co.uk
- Severson, Kim, How caramel developed a taste for chocolate, New York Times, December 30, 2008
