Salty Sweets (16 page)

1. Combine the sugar, cream, butter, vanilla, and salt in a medium-size saucepan. Stir over low heat until the sugar is completely dissolved and the butter is completely melted.
   
2. Raise the heat to medium and bring the mixture to a boil without stirring at all for about 3 minutes. Watch it carefully to make sure it doesn't boil over. Let cool for 5 to 7 minutes (or longer, just make sure it's still pourable), then stir and serve. Or let cool completely and refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 1 day; warm it gently over low heat before serving.
   

The name says it all: This sauce combines two of the world's most delicious flavors (those would be caramel and hot fudge) into one drool-worthy sauce. Try it over ice cream, if you can resist eating it straight from the jar with a spoon. This one makes a great hostess gift.

 

MAKES
ABOUT
1
CUP

 

1. Combine the sugar, water, and corn syrup in a small heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, swirling the pan occasionally and brushing any sugar crystals off the sides of the pan with a damp pastry brush.
   
2. Cook without stirring (just gently swirling) until the mixture turns amber colored and reaches 340°F on a candy thermometer. Immediately remove the pan from the heat and stir in the cream carefully—it will foam up quite a bit.
   
3. Add the chocolate and salt to the pan and let sit for 1 to 2 minutes to melt the chocolate. Add the vanilla and stir until everything is fully combined and the sauce is of a uniform consistency. Pour the sauce into a jar and let cool until thickened a bit before serving. Serve warm. The sauce will keep for up to 5 days in the refrigerator; warm it gently over low heat, stirring, before serving.
   

Maybe there was a time when blackberry and slightly salty caramel didn't seem like the most obvious combination, but now that I am obsessed with this sauce, I can't remember it. When I make this, I have a hard time not eating it on its own with a spoon. I tell myself it's a healthy habit because blackberries are so loaded with fiber, antioxidants, and other good stuff. (BTW, they are!) This is fantastic served over ice cream and pound cake.

 

MAKES ABOUT
2½
CUPS

 

1. Put the sugar in a medium-size heavy saucepan. Add ¼ cup of the water and the vanilla and bring to a boil over medium heat without stirring. Let the mixture cook for 8 to 10 minutes, gently swirling the pan every minute or so, until it turns a golden caramel color.
   
2. Meanwhile, combine the remaining 2 tablespoons water with the cornstarch and set aside.
   
3. When the sugar mixture has caramelized, turn the heat down to medium-low. Add the blackberries and brandy to the pan. The sugar mixture will harden somewhat; let everything cook together without stirring for about 3 minutes, until the berries give off liquid to dissolve the sugar.
   
4. Strain the mixture, reserving the berries in a medium-size bowl and returning the strained liquid to the pan. Bring the liquid to a boil over medium heat and whisk in the cornstarch mixture in small increments. Cook until the sauce thickens, 3 to 5 more minutes. Whisk in the salt until it dissolves. Pour the sauce over the reserved berries and mix well before serving warm.
   

A simple strawberry sauce is all you need to take a bowl of ice cream to guest-worthy status. This version is sweet but not cloying. Making it with brown sugar instead of granulated sugar and adding a hint of
fleur de sel
at the end gives it a deeper, mouthwatering flavor. Spoon some over Almond Ice Cream (
[>]
), Butterscotch Ice Cream (
[>]
), or Bittersweet Chocolate Ice Cream (
[>]
), or over a slice of Lemon Cake with Lemon-Brown Sugar Glaze (
[>]
).

 

MAKES ABOUT
1½
CUPS

 

1. Combine the strawberries, brown sugar, and lemon juice in a medium-size heavy saucepan over medium heat. Stir until the sugar is dissolved, then bring to a boil, stirring and mashing the strawberries somewhat with a spoon.
   
2. Turn the heat down to low and let simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the
   fleur de sel.
   Serve warm, at room temperature, or cold. The sauce will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.
   

One of the first salty-sweet combinations I ever remember having was cinnamon-sugar toast at my grandmother's house. She spread lightly salted butter on toasted bread right out of the oven, then sprinkled a mixture of cinnamon and sugar on top of that, which partially dissolved in the warm, gooey butter. Perhaps it wasn't a culinary innovation, but it was a delicious way to start the day. This sauce, which is amazing over vanilla ice cream or fruit, is also yummy drizzled on toast, waffles, or pancakes.

 

MAKES ABOUT
1
CUP

 

1. Put the sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a small container and shake to combine thoroughly. (You could stop right here and have a delicious, slightly salty cinnamon sugar for sprinkling on buttered toast.)
   
2. Combine the cinnamon-sugar mixture, water, and butter in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and let boil gently, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes, until the sauce is dark brown and slightly thickened. Let cool for 10 minutes before serving. The sauce keeps in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Stir and rewarm in a small saucepan over low heat until just heated through before serving.
   

This sauce has intense flavor and is nice and gooey. Your friends will beg you for more. (To quote one friend who tried it, "I'd suck it up with a straw.") This is the ideal (read: over-the-top good) companion for Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding (
[>]
), and the recipe makes enough to spoon about 2 tablespoons around and over each serving, which is enough to lend plenty of flavor. But if you don't want fights over who gets more sauce, you may want to double the recipe. You can also try this on ice cream or with just about any apple, pear, or fig dessert.

 

MAKES
ABOUT
1
CUP

 

1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the brown sugar and salt and stir until the sugar is completely dissolved and the sauce is smooth, about 5 minutes.
   
2. Remove the sauce from the heat and stir in the rum and vanilla. Serve immediately.
   

During my first year out of college I worked until nine or ten o'clock every night as an analyst at an investment bank in Boston and lived in a tiny apartment (with an even tinier kitchen) on Beacon Hill. I didn't do much—okay, any—cooking then, and I missed it. One warm spring night I'd had enough, and I left the office early and invited a few friends over to sneak up to the roof of my apartment building. There was no deck up there, but it had fantastic views of the Charles River. I didn't have much time, but I wanted to make something, so I put together bowls of ice cream with juicy sliced strawberries and this crunchy graham-cracker topping. It was simple, but so tasty—and it was very satisfying to have turned on my oven and filled my little kitchen with the fragrance of something baking, even though the whole thing only took about 10 minutes.

 

MAKES ABOUT
1½
CUPS

 

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
   
2. Crush the graham crackers into large crumbs. Stir the crumbs with the melted butter, sugar, and salt, and stir to coat evenly.
   
3. Spread the crumbs on a baking sheet and bake until light golden brown, 4 to 5 minutes. Let cool, and use as a topping for ice cream, yogurt, or fresh fruit.
   

Homemade whipped cream is so easy to make, and it's orders of magnitude better than anything from a can. You can play around with the sweetness and the flavoring to mix things up (try rum or bourbon, or just about any flavor of extract, in lieu of the Scotch).

 

MAKES ABOUT
1½
CUPS

 

Combine the cream, brown sugar, Scotch, and salt in a medium-size bowl. Using an electric hand mixer, or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whip the mixture until soft peaks form. Serve immediately.