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Kelsey Nixon’s Carmelitas

January 10, 2012 by 1 Comment

Over the holidays I made a variety of baked goods to give to some of my family members. I love baking, but I never  have anything to do with all of the baked goods, so I don’t get to bake stuff as often as I’d like. Mr. Curly Fry doesn’t like any kind of nut, so if I make something with nuts in it I’m on my own to eat it. And while I’d LOVE to have an entire 13 x 9 baking dish full of Carmelitas for myself, I know it really wouldn’t be a good idea.

The night before I was going to make the Carmelitas, I decided to make the Salted Caramel Sauce. I wanted to give it plenty of time to cool and set up.

SALTED CARAMEL SAUCE:

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 3/4 cup heavy cream
  • 3 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1 teaspoon gray sea salt, crushed or kosher salt

In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine the sugar and water over medium-low heat until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat and bring to a boil, without stirring. If necessary, use a wet pastry brush to wash down any crystals on the side of the pan. Boil until the syrup is a deep amber color, about 5 to 6 minutes.

Remove the sugar from the heat and carefully whisk in the heavy cream. The mixture will bubble. Stir in the unsalted butter, and salt. Transfer the caramel to a dish and cool.

I transferred it to the fridge once it cooled and let it set there over night. I took the caramel sauce out of the fridge about an hour or so before starting the Carmelitas.

CARMELITAS:

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 3/4 cups quick-cooking oats
  • 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 cup chocolate chips (I didn’t use the chocolate chips)
  • 3/4 cup chopped pecans
  • 1 1/2 cups Salted Caramel Sauce
  • 2 1/2 tablespoons flour

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 by 13-inch pan.

Combine the flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, and softened butter in the bowl of a mixer. Mix on low until crumbly. Divide the mixture into 2 equal portions.

Press half the crumb mixture in the prepared pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove and cool slightly.

 

Sprinkle the chocolate chips, and chopped pecans over the cooled crust.

Mix the salted caramel sauce, and flour together, and drizzle over the chocolate chips, and nuts.

Top with the remaining crumb mixture. Return to the oven and bake for an additional 15 to 20 minutes or until the crust starts to brown. Allow the pan to cool, and refrigerate it until the caramel filling is set.


Cut into bars and serve.

They were all ready to be delivered to my family members!

I can’t even begin to tell you how delicious these bars are. The Salted Caramel Sauce is so good! The recipe really only made enough for these bars, so if you want some for the Milkshake or something else I’d double the recipe. I really loved the bars straight out of the fridge. They were very good when they weren’t refrigerated too. I highly recommend these and I’m plotting out the next time I can make these! I know it won’t be soon enough!

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Filed Under: Cooking Channel, Dessert, Desserts, Kelsey Nixon, Recipes · Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Souper Bowl Sunday ['11] ~ Week Six

October 17, 2011 by 2 Comments

It’s a beautiful fall day here in Philadelphia and the perfect day for soup! I wanted to try something different, so I decided to throw together a Creamy Tortellini Soup. I’ve seen Tortellini Soups before, but they were different from what I had in mind. Most of them were broth based, but I wanted mine to be creamy so I decided to get creative and come up with my own.

  •  4  tablespoons  butter
  • 1/2 cup leeks
  • 1/2 cup chopped onions
  • 1/2 cup chopped carrots
  • 1/2 cup chopped celery
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 4 cups fresh spinach
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 32 ounces chicken broth
  • 1/4  cup  all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup + 3/4 cup half & half
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
  • 1/4  teaspoon  ground black pepper
  • 1/8 teaspoon fresh nutmeg, grated
  • 1 teaspoon fresh thyme
  • 1 teaspoon fresh parsley
  • two 9 oz packages Tortellini (I used Wegman’s brand)

In a Dutch Oven, heat the butter over medium heat. Add onion, carrots, celery and leeks; reduce heat to medium low.


Cook, stirring frequently, about 10 to 15 minutes or until the vegetables are very soft and golden.

 

Start to bring water to a boil in a large saucepan so that you can cook the Tortellini. Once the water is boiling, cook the Tortellini as directed on the package. Do not overcook.


Drain and place in a bowl. Set aside.

 In another pan, heat the olive oil over low to medium heat. Smash the garlic and add to the pan. Make sure it doesn’t burn. Add in the spinach and season with a pinch of salt & pepper.


Cook until wilted.


Transfer to a bowl and set it aside.

Add in the chicken broth, and let it simmer for about 10 minutes or so.


Add in the milk and 3/4 cup of half & half.


In a large screw-top jar, combine 1/4 cup of half & half and flour. Cover and shake until combined and smooth.  Add that into the soup mixture.

Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes or until the mixture thickens.
Add in the Spinach (drain it), Thyme, Parsley, Nutmeg, salt (to taste) and pepper.
Add in the cooked Tortellini and let it simmer over low heat for a couple of minutes to incorporate all of the flavors.

Serve with your favorite bread.

I must say that this soup was pretty good, if I do say so myself. I was very happy with how it came out. I thought it was packed full of flavor and this will definitely be put in my recipe box to make in the future. The Spinach added a lot of flavor to the soup. The nutmeg is a key ingredient that really brings all of the flavors together. This recipe as written is vegetarian, but if you want to add in some chicken or another kind of meat it would work well for that too.

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Pizza Dough with Debi Mazar & Gabriele Corcos

August 29, 2011 by 1 Comment

We were in Hurricane Irene’s path this past weekend, so everything was closed. So that meant it was a weekend spent at home, which is very rare. We’re usually out and about doing something, somewhere. So I decided to take advantage of the time spent at home. Since I knew that no local places would be delivering pizza, I figured it would be a good day to make some Homemade Pizza Dough! I always feel like I accomplished so much when I make my own dough. Silly, I know.

I have a stand-by dough that I make, but I wanted to try something different. I came across a Pizza Dough  recipe from Debi Mazar and Gabriele Corcos, hosts of Cooking Channel’s show Extra Virgin. I had a chance to meet them at the South Beach Wine and Food Festival back in February and they are very nice! I’ve never made any of their recipes, so I figured this would be the perfect one to try!

 

  • 1  (.25-ounce) package dry active yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
  • 1/2 cup lukewarm water (about 105 to 115 degrees F)
  • 4 cups bread flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 3/4 cup cold water
  • 1/4 cup olive oil, plus more for bowl

 

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the yeast, lukewarm water, and 1/2 cup bread flour. Mix well and let sit until bubbly, about 30 minutes.

Yeast, lukewarm water & 1/2 cup flour

Let it sit for at least 30 minutes and there should be bubbles

Whisk together the remaining 3 1/2 cups bread flour and salt in another bowl so it will be evenly distributed.

Once the yeast mixture is nice and bubbly and looks like foamy beer (like the above picture), add 3/4 cup cold water and olive oil. Using a dough hook, turn the mixer on and add the flour in increments.

Mix the dough for about 5 minutes, until the dough starts creeping up the dough hook and comes away from the sides of the bowl.

Place the dough in a large bowl lightly greased with olive oil. Turn to coat all sides of the dough with oil. Cover the bowl loosely with a clean tea towel. Let rise until doubled in size, about 2 hours. Punch dough down, and let rise another hour.

I didn’t follow the rest of the recipe – I wish I had a wood-fired pizza oven, lol!  So here’s what I did…

I decided to make two pizzas. I did one in a larger pizza pan that had holes in it so the air can circulate and make the dough crispy. I did the other pizza in a smaller pan that was more for a deep dish type of pizza (not quite like Pizzeria Uno’s though).

First: Thinner Crust

Thinner crust pizza

Add some Sauce, Fresh Mozzarella and a little Sharp Provolone

Close up of all of that Cheese…yum!

Baked at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes

Second: Thicker Crust

Thicker crust pizza

Add Sauce, Mozzarella, Sharp Provolone and BACON!

Bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes

I really enjoy this Pizza. I thought the dough was very good. Instead of regular salt I add in Sarah’s Tuscan Sea Salt (this stuff is my favorite!) and it gives it extra flavor. I coated the bowl in Garlic Olive Oil and that gives it a little extra garlic punch as well. So be sure to play around with the pizza dough recipe! Add in whatever seasonings you want (fresh garlic, oregano, parsley, etc) and you can even switch up the liquid. I LOVE using beer in place of water in pizza dough. It gives it a really good flavor. Try it sometime!

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Filed Under: Cooking Channel, Debi Mazar and Gabriele Corcos, Italian, Pizza · Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,