Caramels and Apples for October's National Apple Month!

In the United States, October has been designated National Apple Month.  Just in case that is not good enough, October 21^st is National Apple Day.  Over the many years of writing this food column, I have shared many a recipe revolving around apples.  Pies, cakes, donuts, cider, even as an addition to a main meal dish.  I was wondering how I missed out writing about caramel apples, then figured out that I sort of had already.  San Juan Record, October 9, 2018 column was on Caramel Apple Cake.  ….and so, the trek into caramels and apples now begins.

Turning apples into a candy seems kind of redundant.  Apples are basically Mother Nature’s natural candy; crunchy, sweet, and satisfying.  A good bite fills the mouth and as one chews, the juices get the taste buds tap dancing. Of course, there are so many varieties of apples available, some not so sweet, but perfect for making treats, like Granny Smiths.  There is something about its tartness, mixed with spices and sweeteners, that make the final products irresistible.

Take, for example, Newark, New Jersey candy-maker William W. Kolb.  In 1908, he wanted to make something eye catching for his store’s display window.  How to show off all those chocolatey Christmas candies, how to make them catch a customer’s eyes?  One popular hard candy was red cinnamon; it certainly spiced up the tongue and mouth, but was not very sweet.

Now hold on, cinnamon goes in apple pie, apples are popular during the holidays of Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas; what if?  Yes, he did it.  He made a mixture of those red cinnamon hard candies, melted down with sugar, inserted sticks into the center of apples, and dipped them into the mixture.  They rested on wax paper until cooled, adorned with silver ribbon, and nestled amongst piles of chocolates.  Here was this bright red, candied apple, drawing eyes to it, and the chocolates keeping it company; of course, sales went up!

Traveling forward in time to 1950, Kraft Foods employee, Dan Walker, experimented with leftover caramels which did not sell during Halloween.  There had to be a way to use them, to create a new, and profitable, product for the company.  Taking a cue from candied apples, he melted the caramels, dipped the apples, and the recipe for caramel apples was born.  The recipe was printed onto new packages of caramels, and for Thanksgiving and Christmas, became the newest treats for adults and children alike.

As time went on, enhancing candied and caramel apples took on a whole new world of experimentation.  After dipping the apples, they were rolled in a variety of different candies or chopped nuts; or drizzled with chocolate, vanilla or peanut butter sauces.  Only the imagination was the limit.  Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory (Cortez or Durango, CO, or Farmington, NM) have a large variety; and make sure to have a napkin at the ready for the drool coming out of your mouth.  Our favorite is tiger butter, a mixture of creamy peanut butter, white and semi-sweet chocolates, and caramel encasing a large and juicy Granny Smith apple.

 

However, not everyone can bite into a caramel apple, so does that mean they will never get to taste one?  The only person, who can limit imagination, is yourself.  As I mentioned, in the first paragraph, I made a cake to simulate the caramel apple experience.  Recently, I experimented with my cinnamon roll and apple pie recipes, and you guessed it, simulated the caramel apple experience.  Wow, sounds like a ride at Disneyland; The Caramel Apple Experience!

 

For the cinnamon rolls, instead of coating the dough with melted butter, I brushed on caramel sauce, then sprinkled cinnamon and chopped up bits of apple.  This was going to be super sweet, so the dough was cut into a baker’s dozen (13 for those not in the know), so a smaller roll would be baked.  Serve one of these, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side, prepare to go to dessert heaven.

 

 

 

 

For the apple pie, instead of having the sliced apples sit in sugar, or brown sugar, to release some of their juices, I poured a half cup of caramel sauce over them. After brushing the top crust with egg wash, brown sugar was sprinkled over to create a shiny caramelized topping.  Once the pie was cooled though, a quarter cup of more caramel sauce was drizzled over the crust.  How good was it?  Roy asked me to please hide the pie, as he could not stop eating it, and did not want to go into a diabetic coma.   

 

So, there you have it, the wonderful world of caramels and apples.  What, you do not have a recipe for homemade cinnamon rolls or apple pie?  Shocking!  Do not fret, my recipes are available on my food blog, or you can do a search of my articles at the San Juan Record website.

Enjoy National Apple Month!

Mary Cokenour

 

Semi-Homemade Caramel Apple Cake.

As much as I enjoy making recipes from scratch, there are those times that I want to cut corners too due to time constraints or just plain old laziness.  Now usually for the holidays I make dozens of different types of cookies and give them out.  Oh don't worry, I keep a good amount for us too.  However, this year I'm not able to do this because I had carpal tunnel surgery done on my left hand.  If you don't know what this means, basically a nerve in my wrist began to become compressed from repetitive work; for me it was from working with computers.  It begins with a tingling in the thumb, index and middle fingers gradually progressing to numbness to the point of not being able to feel something you are holding.  It also can be accompanied with severe pain in the hand, wrist and radiating up to the elbow.

Anyway, it takes about 4-6 weeks for complete recovery and you have to use the hand minimally which means no heavy lifting.  The bowls I use for my baking are of a heavy ceramic and definitely need two hands for handling them when they are full of batter or dough.  It's been 4 weeks now since the surgery and I have no intention of having a holiday dinner without some sort of dessert.  So, what to do, what to do?  Basically, do it semi-homemade, so it is as easy to manipulate and handle as possible; my right hand could still do all the work while my left hand kind of just went along for the ride.  While my right hand did all the grunt work, l let my lower left arm and inside elbow cradle the bowls; it still hurt a little, but my left hand didn't have any pressure on it.

Lets get to it then; to make it especially easy, I used a Super Moist Yellow Cake mix; but remember, this recipe is semi-homemade, so don't hesitate to use your own cake batter if you prefer.  Yellow cake mix can also be bland, so I umpted up the flavor intensity by adding apple pie spice mix and a bit of ground ginger.  You could also think of this as a type of "upside down" cake where the toppings are baking in the pan underneath the cake layer, but when you flip the finished cake out, you see all the lovely apples and caramel.

Caramel Apple Cake

 

Ingredients:

 

For the Caramel Layer:

 

8 Tbsp butter, melted

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

4 cups brown sugar

1 Tbsp ground cinnamon

 

For the Apple Layer:

 

1 (21 oz) can apple pie filling

 

For the Cake Layer:

 

1 box Super Moist Yellow cake mix

1 tsp apple pie filling

pinch of ground ginger

 

Preparation:

 

Preheat oven to 350F; spray two 9 inch cake pans with nonstick baking spray.  Cut out two circles from parchment paper to line bottom of cake pans; spray the paper with the nonstick baking spray.

 

In a medium bowl, mix together the ingredients for the caramel layer until it resembles coarse crumbs. 

 

Divide the mixture up between the two pans pressing to the edges and 1/4 inch up the sides. 

 

Divide the pie filling between the two pans, spreading it out up to one inch from the edges.

 

Prepare the cake mix according to packages directions, but add in the apple pie spice and ground ginger.  Divide the batter up between the two pans and use a spatula to smooth it out.

 

Bake for 35-40 minutes; cake will be golden browned and you might see some of the caramel oozing up the sides of the cakes.  Remove pans to a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes.

 

When cooled, use a hot knife around the edges to make sure the caramel will not stick to the sides of the pan.  Carefully flip the cakes onto a serving plate and peel off the parchment paper.  Cut into 8 wedges and serve with a scoop of ice cream.

 

Makes 2 cakes, 8 servings each.

 

Mary Cokenour

 

 

 

 



The Help Serve a Southern Cake.

In 2009, Kathyrn Stockett introduced us to the Southern black maids' view of the 1960's Equal Rights Movement. Even though the book was supposed to be written by a white young lady; "Skeeter" made sure that the maids were the focal point of our understanding. In 2011, the movie version of the book came out; it was a story that made many reminisce about the 1960's era, or introduced itself to those ignorant of that part of American history.

However, this post is not about the book, its meanings or the history behind it; this post is about the cake. Caramel cake to be more precise, which is mentioned time and again by the maids. It was served for special occasions, luncheons or simply as a feel good food. Depending on what recipe you read, the cake itself could be yellow or white; dense, or as airy as angel food cake; even the frosting differed from thick and smooth to thin and running down the sides of the cake.

Well I'm going to give you my simplified version of this most sinful cake and I hope it make you feel good, no matter why.

Caramel Cake

For the Cake
Ingredients:

8 Tbsp (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 cups cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 cup milk
2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350F; coat 2 (8 inch) round cake pans with baking spray and line the bottom with parchment paper. Lightly spray the paper with the baking spray; if you cannot find baking spray, use regular cooking spray and lightly dust with flour.

In a large bowl, at medium speed, beat the butter and sugar together until creamy; beat the eggs in one at a time. In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Add half the flour and half the milk into the large bowl and beat on low speed until just combined; add the remaining flour, milk and vanilla extract; blend well.

Pour even amounts into each cake pan; bake for 25 minutes or until toothpick comes cleanly out of the centers of the cakes. Cool cakes in pans for 10 minutes before removing; peel off parchment paper from bottoms and cool cakes on wire rack while making the frosting.

For the Frosting
Ingredients:

1 cup dark brown sugar
6 Tbsp butter
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
¼ tsp salt 2 (14 oz) cans sweetened condensed milk

Preparation:

In a large saucepan, medium heat, combine all frosting ingredients and bring to a boil. Stirring constantly, continue cooking mixture until it thickens.

Assembling the Cake

Place one cake layer on plate and spread 1/3 of the frosting over the top. Place other cake layer on top of first; frost top and sides with remaining frosting.

Options: sprinkle with chopped pecans or peanuts; Heathbar or Skor bits. Makes 16 servings.

Mary Cokenour

Bugles Adds Sweet to their Salty.

In 1966, a cone shaped snack made from corn and fried in coconut oil hit the market; it became a big hit. I was a little kid then and I still remember my first box, yes, they came in a box, of Bugles. Even though they have flavors called Sour Cream and Onion, Nacho and Barbeque; the original flavor was always my favorite. If I wanted a little extra something, I would dip them in French onion dip, but that's about all.

Then they decided to add two new flavors to the line up; Caramel and Chocolate Peanut Butter. At first I was hesitant to try them, thinking that the corn taste would not pair well with the sweet flavors, but I was pleasantly surprised.

The Caramel Bugles have a tendency to be broken up in the package. Though they have a nice, smooth caramel flavor; the coating is hard and seems to make the crispy corn snack break more easily.

The Chocolate Peanut Butter has a more silky texture on the outside, so the crispy cone stays intact. The peanut butter flavor is more predominant with this snack; and it is listed higher up on the ingredients list. The chocolate flavor comes from cocoa and is very faint.

Surprisingly, a 2/3 cup serving has either 19 or 20 grams of carbs, depending on whether you're indulging in the caramel or chocolate peanut butter. However, don't get me wrong, I'm not proclaiming this to be a 100% healthy snack, but one you don't have to feel as guilty about. If making a snack mix for a party, definitely include both of these products.

Mary Cokenour