Salty Sweets (2 page)

Use the best ingredients.
This is a universal truth of cooking and baking: The better the ingredients, the better the final product. It's especially true when you're making simple dishes—like most of the recipes in this book—in which the flavors of a few key ingredients are the stars of the show. Look for quality ingredients, and opt for organic whenever you can. Not only is the production of organic ingredients (such as fruits, chocolate, milk, and eggs) better for the planet, these ingredients taste better and are better for you, too.

Always choose organic chocolate.
Conventional chocolate is often grown on plantations where rainforests have been clear-cut to allow full sun to reach the cacao plants. But cacao grows best—and doesn't need synthetic fertilizers and pesticides—under the shade of a rainforest canopy. Buying organic chocolate means keeping potentially harmful chemicals out of your body and helping to save the rainforest. Thank you, in advance.

Buy local honey and support local beekeepers whenever you can.
The bee population in the United States has been dwindling in recent years, and no one quite knows why. But experts do know that bees are hugely important if we want them to keep pollinating fruit trees—and they also believe that small, local beekeepers may be helping to preserve the bee population. So buy your honey locally! The same is true for fruits: Choose fruits in season, and support local organic farmers whenever you can. Locally grown fruits taste delicious and are richer in nutrients than produce that's been shipped thousands of miles or that's been sitting around in a warehouse, and buying local and organic is a great choice for the planet.

Be patient.
Taking shortcuts while cooking isn't always the best idea, and spending a little extra time to do things right can greatly improve the results (and, of course, it often saves you time in the end). Following are a few techniques—none of them difficult—for which doing it right is preferable to doing it fast.

• MELTING CHOCOLATE.
  When a recipe calls for melted chocolate, avoid melting the chocolate in a pan over direct heat. The chocolate could easily scorch if you do it that way. Instead, chop the chocolate and place it in a heat-proof glass or metal bowl, then place the bowl over—not in—a pan of simmering water (or use a double boiler) and let it heat gently, stirring occasionally to encourage even melting. Do not cover the chocolate during or after melting, because you don't want any condensation to drip into the chocolate (water and melted chocolate don't mix—the chocolate could seize, or harden). When you remove the bowl from over the simmering water, do so using a kitchen towel, which serves double duty as a potholder and to wipe the bottom of the bowl free of moisture. If you are pouring the chocolate, don't let any condensation from the outside of the bowl get into the chocolate.
  
• TOASTING NUTS.
  When a recipe calls for toasted nuts, take the time to toast them. Toasting brings out the flavor of the nut and makes it more intense, meaning your recipe will taste better. It doesn't take long. Heat the oven to 350°F and spread the nuts evenly on a baking sheet. Toast for 7 to 10 minutes, until golden brown and just fragrant. Be careful not to let them get too dark or burn, because then they will taste bitter. Remove them from the oven and let them cool before using in most recipes.
  
• TEMPERING EGGS.
  If you dump a lot of hot liquid into raw eggs all at once, you will cook the eggs and wind up with something that looks more like breakfast (scrambled eggs) than dessert. When a recipe calls for adding hot liquid to eggs in small increments, do it slowly, as directed.
  
• MEASURING FLOUR.
  If you're in a rush, it's tempting to stick your measuring scoop into a bag of flour and get your entire ½ cup or 1 cup at once, but that will give you too much flour, and your pastries could end up denser and drier than you want. To measure flour properly, lightly and gently scoop it in spoonfuls into your measuring cup. Don't pack it in, and use a straight edge, like the back of a knife, to level the surface and fill the cup to the rim.
  
• SIFTING FLOUR.
  Cake recipes often call for sifting flour, and when they do, it's worth the time. It doesn't take long, and it will help give your cake a lighter and fluffier texture.
  

For every recipe, give yourself time! All these techniques that require patience remind me that it's a good idea to allow plenty of time to complete a recipe and let it cool or freeze, if necessary. Baking great treats should be fun, not stressful, and all the recipes in this book are totally doable, but making anything is a much lovelier experience when you don't feel pressed for time. Relax, read the entire recipe before you start, turn on some music, get your ingredients and equipment ready, and enjoy!

You don't need to have a kitchen stocked with every last culinary toy in order to enjoy baking. In fact, if all you have is a mixing bowl, a wooden spoon, and a few baking pans, you can probably make most of these recipes. But here are a few gizmos I strongly recommend.

 

• STAND MIXER.
  A good stand mixer makes the life of a baker ever so much easier. It doesn't have to be an over-the-top, restaurant-style setup with hundreds of bells and whistles. A basic stand mixer will do a lot of the work of creaming, whipping, stirring, and blending for you in no time.
  
• ICE CREAM MAKER.
  This just might be my favorite kitchen toy. It is so much fun to make your own ice cream and then to experiment with flavor combinations once you have the hang of a few basic recipes. And it's easy to use! An ice cream maker doesn't have to be pricey, either. You can pick up a good-quality Cuisinart ice cream maker for about $50 or an ice cream maker attachment for a KitchenAid stand mixer for around $80.
  
• CANDY THERMOMETER.
  You can get by without one of these, as I did for years, but that might make you afraid—and reasonably so—to try any recipe that mentions one. Making things like caramel and fudge without one can be tricky, because sugar behaves in very specific ways at different temperatures, and trying to guess whether a bubbling pot of goo is 230° or 250°F is impossible. With a candy thermometer, there's almost no guesswork. They aren't expensive (mine was less than $20), and they are simple to use.
  
• SIFTER.
  Become friends with your sifter. Yes, it takes an extra minute or two to sift flour and other dry ingredients, but it makes a nice difference in the texture of your cakes and cupcakes.
  
• ICE CREAM SCOOP.
  Handy for doling out equal-size portions of cookie dough and for filling muffin tins, this is also the ideal tool for—you guessed it—scooping ice cream.
  
• SALT GRINDER.
  You can purchase finely ground and coarsely ground sea salt, but when you want salt with a little more texture than fine, but not quite the heft of coarse, a grinder does the trick. I keep mine loaded with coarse sea salt and I use it to grind (and distribute evenly and easily) salt lightly over cookies and cakes. Many salt grinders have an adjustable grinding mechanism so that you can regulate the coarseness to suit your textural preferences. It might seem like more of an investment to buy a salt grinder and bulk salts than to purchase those pre-filled, disposable salt grinders you see in the spice section at most grocery stores, but you can refill a grinder with the salt of your choice, and over time it will be a money-saver. (Plus it's more earth-friendly to use—less packaging.) Look for a good-quality grinder with a ceramic grinding mechanism, which won't be corroded by the salt.
  

All salt is not created equal. The iodized table salt that many of us grew up with is salty, sure, but it has been refined and stripped of minerals and treated with anti-caking agents. And it just doesn't have very good salt flavor. Kosher salt is preferable to table salt; it is coarser and has no added iodine, so the flavor is more pure. If that's what you have on hand, you can substitute kosher salt for sea salt. For flavor, though, I think sea salt is the way to go, and that is what I call for in these recipes. It's harvested from seawater, and it tastes the way salt is meant to taste.

There are many, many varieties of sea salt. Most of the recipes in this book call for either fine sea salt, coarse sea salt, grinder sea salt, or
fleur de sel.
Here's some more information on each kind:

• FINE SEA SALT.
  This is a great all-purpose sea salt that I use for many recipes. It dissolves readily and has delicious flavor.
  
• COARSE SEA SALT.
  This sea salt has a much larger grain than fine sea salt. It doesn't dissolve as well, so it's not a good substitute for the chemically required salt in many baking recipes, but it adds lovely salt flavor and interesting texture to recipes.
  
• GRINDER SEA SALT.
  This is coarse salt that you grind yourself right when you need it—it comes out medium-ground, coarser than a fine grain but not in big crystals.
  
• FLEUR DE SEL.
  French for "flower of salt," it's the slightly sweeter white layer of salt generally harvested by hand from salt ponds in France.
  C'est magnifique!
  

In this book, I didn't want to call for a different kind of specialty salt in every single recipe, but I do encourage you to experiment with a variety of salts. Different salts really do have distinct tastes, so buy small amounts and discover what flavor combinations you like. Especially in the recipes that call for
fleur de sel,
consider trying another artisan sea salt, such as one of the following:

• SEL GRIS.
  An unrefined gray salt found off the coast of France,
  sel gris
  is generally coarse, fairly moist, and rich in minerals.
  
• MALDON SALT.
  A light, flaky, flavorful white sea salt from the British coast, Maldon is a favorite finishing salt (a salt added to a dish—sweet or savory—just before serving) of many chefs and foodies I know.
  
• SMOKED SEA SALT.
  Infused with a deep, smoky flavor—subtly different depending on what kind of wood is used to smoke it—smoked sea salt is usually dark in color and adds a surprisingly earthy kick to recipes.
  
• TROPICAL SEA SALT.
  Rich in minerals, tropical sea salt is harvested from oceans in warm climates, and tends to have a mellow yet decidedly sea-like flavor. My brother-in-law David and his partner, Cory, gave me a Bali sea salt that I particularly love to use as a finishing salt for fruity sweets.
  
• HAWAIIAN PINK SEA SALT.
  Enriched with iron oxide from volcanic red clay, Hawaiian sea salt is subtle and distinctive in flavor—try it with spicy island foods and play around with it to see what other combinations work for you.
  

 

There are countless other salts to sample, from Maine sea salt to Australian lake salt (super salty) to red sea salt from Peru. Like wine, artisan salt showcases
terroir
—well, not quite
terroir
since that refers to the flavor of the earth, and salt is harvested from water—but the flavor of the place it comes from. Have fun tasting all sorts of salts and seeing what you like best. Find out what salts your favorite gourmet market stocks, and look online at
artisansalt.com
,
saltistry.com
(which also sells some killer sea-salt caramels),
salttraders.com
, and
saltworks.us
. Become a salt snob—salt is the new black. Or something like that.

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Salted Caramels

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Bittersweet Chocolate Truffles

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Nana Rodda's Peanut Butter Fudge

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Perfectly Imperfect Pecan Pralines

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Almond Brittle

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Salty-Sweet S'Mores

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Black-and-White Almond Bark

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Sweet and Salty Pecans

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Dark Chocolate and Sea Salt Crostini

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Old-Fashioned Kettle Corn

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Dark Chocolate-Covered Pretzels

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Chocolate-Coconut Mini Candy Bars

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Decadent Hot Cocoa

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Sweet Cornbread with Honey Butter

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Cocoa Nib and Dried Cherry Granola