Flashback Friday - Pear and Fig Turnovers with Bourbon Caramel

Sometimes a good restaurant meal inspires good home-cooking. Perhaps not replicating the entire meal, but just one course. Or borrowing the flavors from the appetizer or dessert to create a completely different dish, as in these crisp turnovers filled with a combination of pears and figs and jazzed up with bourbon caramel sauce.

--Kathy

This post was originally published on January 17, 2012.
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Pear and Fig Turnovers with Bourbon Caramel

We spent a couple of the last remaining hours of 2011 having a lovely dinner at B&O American Brasserie. Among the five courses we consumed were two that really inspired me to try a variation at home, one of which was a brown butter pear cake paired with figs and bacon.

The cake itself was just a rather plain yellow cake; the pear actually appeared to be within the jam-like accompaniment of caramelized dried figs sprinkled with bits of bacon. I thought the fig/pear/caramel combination was delicious and made a mental note to try it at home, with or without the bacon.

After a bit of thinking, I decided figsnpears would work nicely as a filling for tartlets, hand pies, or turnovers. Because I was already making a fairly complicated dinner the same night, I decided to forego the bacon, although it would have been a tasty addition.

Commercial puff pastry is always a breeze to use - just thaw, fill, and bake. The puffy little pies were terrific hot out of the oven and drizzled with a bit of the caramel sauce, but equally as good at room temperature with a scoop of butter pecan ice cream and more caramel.

Pear and Fig Turnovers with Bourbon Caramel

2 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed
8 dried figs, quartered, stems removed
1 cup water
2 medium pears, skinned and diced
1 tablespoon butter
Bourbon Caramel Sauce
1 egg, beaten

In a small saucepan, bring figs and water to a boil. Turn down heat and simmer for 20 - 25 minutes, or until figs are tender, adding more water as necessary. Remove from heat and drain figs. Set aside.

Melt butter in a medium sauté pan. Add pears and cook over medium heat until tender. Add 2 tablespoons of the bourbon caramel sauce, stir in reserved figs, and cook an additional five minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Preheat oven to 400F.

Unfold one puff pastry sheet and use a rolling pin to flatten the seams and stretch the dough out a bit. Cut dough into six squares. Place a tablespoon of fig and pear filling in the center of each square (if some of the squares are rectangles, stretch the dough accordingly). Fold dough to form a triangle and seal edges with the tines of a fork. Place pies on a parchment-lined baking sheet and brush each with the beaten egg. Repeat with second pastry sheet.

Bake for 18 minutes. Serve with little ramekins of caramel sauce for dipping.

Bourbon Caramel Sauce

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup half and half
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons bourbon

Place sugar and water in a saucepan and cook over medium-high heat until sugar has dissolved. Turn heat to high and bring sugar mixture to a boil. Cook without stirring until the syrup turns a medium amber and starts to smoke (but is not burning!). Remove pan from heat and add butter and cream. Stir in bourbon and vanilla. Pour into a clean glass pint jar and allow to cool. Store in the refrigerator.

Reheat caramel by placing a couple of spoonfuls into a microwave-safe ramekin and microwaving for 5-second increments until caramel is hot and bubbly. Remove carefully, as it will be very hot.

Posted on Minxeats.com.



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Butterscotch Bourbon Apple Bread Pudding

Every year, when Fall comes along, I have a strong urge to bake up a big dish of apple crisp. My mama used to make it pretty regularly, and I adored it. Still do. But, hubby isn't a fan. I know - he's weird. He loves apples, and will happily eat apple pie, but top those apples with a crumbly topping and it's game over.

A couple years back, I switched things up and tried an apple cobbler on him, but it still wasn't a favorite. No worries - that cobbler was so damn good, I ate it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner until it was gone, with absolutely no regrets.

This time, I put apples in a bread pudding. Mr Minx has no argument with those. I even sprinkled the top with a bit of brown sugar partway through baking in order to get a little crunch. He seemed to enjoy it just fine. So while it's not apple crisp, it was tasty and apple-y and fall-ish.

I used whole wheat bread, just shy of an entire grocery-store loaf. You can use what you like, from challah to baguette to plain old white bread. If you don't have apple cider and don't want to invest in it, then just use an extra cup of milk. Cider, however, gives the dish a more apple-y flavor. You can add some cinnamon, too, if that's your thing, but I preferred to taste the subtle butterscotch combo of brown sugar, booze, and salt.

Butterscotch Bourbon Apple Bread Pudding

3 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons brown sugar (divided use)
3 apples, peeled, cored, and diced
4 tablespoons bourbon
1 tablespoon heavy cream
Large pinch of sea salt
1/4 cup melted butter
1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup whole milk
1 cup apple cider
3 large eggs
Enough stale bread to fill about 8 cups

Heat oven to 350°F.

Melt butter and 3 tablespoons of the brown sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Add apples and toss well to coat. Add the bourbon and cream and cook for five minutes, until apple has softened a bit and the sauce is bubbly. Stir in the salt and remove from the heat.

In a large bowl, stir melted butter into condensed milk. Whisk in milk, cider, and eggs. Add the bread and press down on the mixture to ensure all of it is saturated with the milk mixture.

Place half of the mixture in a greased  9- or 10-inch springform pan. Top with half of the apples. Pour in remaining bread mixture and sprinkle with remaining apples.

Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle remaining tablespoon of brown sugar over top. Bake for an additional 20 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Allow to cool for a bit before cutting into wedges and serving. Softly whipped cream or vanilla ice cream is a nice touch, but not necessary.

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Squash Hand Pies

Thank goodness winter squash are so hardy. We had a lone sweet dumpling squash, left over from one on-demand CSA or another, sitting on the dining room table for what seems like months. Sweet dumplings are fairly small, only about 8 ounces or so, and I had no idea what to do with just one of them. Since I was going to roast some other vegetables, I chopped it into quarters and threw it into the oven, too. I'd worry about what to do with it later. At least it was off the table.

After turning the other veg into soup, I tasted the dumpling squash. Unlike many other varieties of winter squash, it was naturally sweet, so it seemed like a perfect pie filling. Except that there was just one of them. Once roasted and scraped, there was a scant cup of filling. I seasoned it up until it tasted even better, then decided to utilize the box of pie crusts I purchased before Thanksgiving (just in case I needed to bake a pie).

All-ready pie crusts are round. I cut one into quarters and added a dollop of filling to the center of each wedge. To form roughly rectangular pies, I folded the dough like an envelope. You may choose to make them look more like a samosa. Either way, they taste yummy eaten warm with a dollop of ice cream.

Winter Squash Hand Pies

1 sweet dumpling squash
Olive oil
Salt
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 tablespoon heavy cream
1 tablespoon bourbon
Squeeze fresh lemon juice
Pinch freshly grated nutmeg
Pinch cinnamon
3 tablespoons sliced almonds
1 all ready pie crust, at room temperature
1 egg, beaten

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Cut the squash into quarters, remove and discard seeds. Rub flesh with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt. Place on a foil-lined baking sheet and bake until tender, 40 minutes to an hour. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Turn oven down to 350°F.

When squash is cool, scrape flesh from skin and put in a bowl. Season with maple syrup, heavy cream, bourbon, lemon juice, spices, and nuts. Stir well.

Unroll the pie crust onto a cutting board and cut into quarters. Brush with beaten egg. Place a dollop of the filling onto each quarter. Fold like an envelope or a samosa, pressing edges together to seal them. Brush each pie with egg and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Bake at 350°F for 35-40 minutes, until golden brown. Allow to cool slightly before serving.

If there's any filling left, eat it with a spoon.



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Bourbon Salted Caramels

I started making caramels around the holidays a couple years back, just on a whim. It seemed easy, and the homemade caramel I'd eaten was delicious, so I knew the payoff would be worth the effort. And it is.

Patience isn't my strong suit, and it does take a little while for the caramel to reach the perfect temperature. Like 45 minutes. The sugar mixture hits 220°F pretty quickly, but it takes f  o  r  e  v  e  r for it to get another 20 degrees hotter. I usually try to find something else to do in the kitchen to pass the time, like work on dinner. It's not a good idea to leave the room while sugar is cooking, because sometimes it rises up while boiling, and hot sugar spilling all over the stove top would be bad news. I have found that caramels made with sweetened condensed milk, rather than heavy cream, are a bit less likely to boil over, but I still watch that pot like a hawk.

These caramels have a rich, dark, flavor, because of the brown sugar. You can use white sugar instead, if you want, for a lighter flavor. And I suppose, if you don't like bourbon, you can use another type of liquor. Rum might be nice, for example, or Kahlua.

Brown Sugar Bourbon Salted Caramels

1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup corn syrup
1/2 cup water
1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 stick butter, cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons bourbon
1/2 teaspoon salt
Sea salt

Cut a length of parchment to fit the bottom of an 8" square metal baking pan, with about 6" overhang on each side. Set aside.

Put both sugars, corn syrup, and water in a 2 quart saucepan. Turn heat to medium and stir sugars to combine. Cook until bubbly, 3-4 minutes. Add the can of sweetened condensed milk and the butter, and stir until the butter is melted. Clip a candy thermometer to the pan. Make sure the tip of the thermometer is in the syrup, but not touching the bottom of the pan.

Close, but no cigar. 

Continue to cook syrup over medium heat until thermometer reaches 240°F. It's likely the temperature will jump to 220° pretty quickly, then take half an hour or so to get the rest of the way to 240°.

Once the syrup has reached temperature, remove from the heat, remove the thermometer, and quickly stir in the bourbon and salt.

After pouring into pan. The stuff sets up pretty quickly, but should be completely cool before cutting.

Pour into prepared pan, sprinkle with sea salt, and allow to cool completely before cutting into squares. Wrap each in waxed paper and store in a zip top bag in the fridge (they'll stay fresher that way). Allow to come to room temperature before eating.

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Carrot Cake Blondies

I love carrot cake, but don't always want to go through the whole rigmarole of making the typical layer cake and frosting, or doing math to make a single layer cake. I had been wondering what blondies would be like with some carrots and spices added. Would they be chewy, or cakey?

Turns out, when a quarter cup of bourbon is added to the batter, they turn out cakey. And super boozy. Probably not the thing I should be taking to work for a lunchtime dessert, but....I did. Kinda takes the edge off of things, you know?

Carrot Cake Blondies

1 stick butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup bourbon
1 cup + 1 tablespoon flour
1/8 baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cups shredded carrot (approximately two medium carrots)
1/2 cup chopped, toasted walnuts

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Beat in the egg until well combined, then add the vanilla and bourbon.

Mix the dry ingredients and spices in a bowl. Combine with wet ingredients. Stir in carrot and walnuts.

Bake for 25 minutes. Allow to cool before cutting into squares.
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Bourbon, Bacon, and Caramel Cocktail

I'm going to the Fancy Food Show in NY next week. This will be my first one, and I'm excited! In preparation, I contacted a couple of the purveyors listed on the Specialty Foods web site in order to get information in advance. There are way more exhibitors than I'll be able to visit, and I figured this way I'll get a better idea of products that might be of the most interest to me.

One of those products was Lori's Salt Caramel Syrup, from the French Connection in Ashland, Oregon. They won't be at the show, but they were willing to send me some of their product to sample.

The syrup is made from caramelized cane sugar, Tahitian vanilla, Celtic sea salt, and a soupçon of maple. The flavor is subtly salty, and subtly maple-y, and I can see how it would be terrific on pancakes. Their marketing director suggested that it can also be used on ice cream, oatmeal, and corn bread, but I thought it would make a nifty addition to a cocktail. With bacon.

After trying the syrup with both rum and bourbon, I determined that bourbon was the perfect choice. The resulting drink is simple, and reminiscent of a Manhattan. Because of that, I'm calling it an Ashland, after the town in which Lori's Salt Caramel Syrup is produced.

Ashland

Lori's Salt Caramel Syrup
bourbon (if you can get some bacon-infused bourbon, all the better)
Angostura bitters
crumbled crisp bacon
twists of lemon peel

For each cocktail, stir 2 ounces of bourbon, 1/2 ounce of salt caramel syrup, and a dash of bitters together with ice.

Dip the rim of a cocktail glass in a bit of the syrup, then in the crumbled bacon. Strain the drink into the glass. Add the lemon twist.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats.

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Cherry Barbecue

I broke out the now-trusty stovetop smoker the other day to make some 'cue. I got it in my head to experiment with a cherry barbecue sauce, made with dried cherries and a good dose of bourbon. The sauce was just fine and dandy eaten straight out of the jar, but was even better on some smoked chicken thighs.

In previous smoking events, I didn't leave the food in contact with smoke for nearly long enough. This time, I cooked the bone-in, skinless, chicken thighs for a good 45 minutes, which imbued them with a ton of smoky goodness. I popped them into a saute pan with several tablespoons of sauce and a bit of vegetable stock and simmered it until the liquid reduced into a nice glaze. Delicious!

(The sides, an oatmeal risotto and sauteed radishes, did not match at all, but they were what I had. Next time - cole slaw!)

Cherry Bourbon Barbecue Sauce

3/4 cup dried tart cherries
1/4 cup bourbon
1/2 cup minced onion
olive oil
salt
1/4 cup vegetable stock
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon ancho chile powder
salt and pepper to taste

In a medium saucepan, bring cherries and bourbon to a simmer, then turn the heat down to medium-low. Cover and cook for 15 minutes, until cherries are nice and plump and much of the bourbon has evaporated. Transfer to a food processor and puree. Set aside.

Wipe out the saucepan and add the onions, oil, and pinch of salt. Cover and cook onions over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until they are quite soft, 15-20 minutes.

Add the cherry bourbon puree to the onions. Add the stock, ketchup, vinegar, garlic, honey, and ancho powder, and stir to combine. Cook over medium heat for about 15 minutes until thickened. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat.

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