I am Invisible.....

Yes its THAT day again. I have been moping around the house this morning, filling in the form with all the jobs that weren't available and I couldn't apply for over the last two weeks; and am due to go in for my bi-monthly humiliation this afternoon. Still enough of that....

...and on to this.
My first attempt at caramel, and I was very impressed. I was making it for an ice cream recipe, one of David's of course; and followed his instructions to the letter. Well as far as I could not owning a candy thermometer or anything, but he makes it easy without having to own a professional kitchen full of fancy gear; so I was chuffed that it all went so well. The sugar bubbled away happily, didn't burn ; or seize and although I think I maybe should have cooked it a tad longer till it was slightly darker, I was impressed with the result. The only problem I had was the salt all seemed to end up in the middle, despite sprinkling it in and not stirring; so I may leave it till its poured next time and sprinkle it over more evenly.
Not owning a baking tray ( although I could have sworn I had one in the cupboard), I had to use a pizza tray which has holes in it; hence the greaseproof paper. However once oiled that proved a bonus as the caramel lifted straight off beautifully and I just ran over it with a rolling pin to break it up. It probably could have been more 'burnt' tasting, but I am not a fan of it too harsh so actually it was just fine.

The recipe I was attempting was this one Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream, and the second lot of caramel was more involved; so I wisely followed David's advice on his Caramel page , and lined up all the ingredients in order of use; took a deep breath, borrowed a long sleeved tee-shirt form son#2 ; and dove in!

Imagine my surprise, not one mistake; no lumps, no seizing; nothing left in the strainer, perfect caramel! There is no doubt the man is a genius and has some weird psychic ability to affect my cooking skills for the better. Off it went into the freezer, after the first hour I whizzed it once through with the hand blender; then again after the second hour. I have found this gets enough air in to give it the nice creamy consistency I like. After that I use a fork to gather in the frozen mixture and smooth it each hour till I can barely stir it. So, at midnight ( again) there I was; stirring in the caramel bits and loading up the container for the final freeze; with enough left over for a small bowl before bed whilst catching up on David's last few posts. I have now read his whole blog from day one. A quick look on Amazon and I ordered his book 'The Perfect Scoop' and it was off to bed, to dream of ice cream.

The end result.

Now , tell me that's not making you yearn..to churn.