How do you make it

Lemon sugar is so easy to make. All you have to do is rub together granulated sugar with the zest of a lemon (or two). Use your finger tips to rub the two ingredients together to damage the cells of the lemon zest, releasing their natural citrus oils and infusing the sugar.

You can also do this with any other citrus fruit, whether that's orange, lime, grapefruit, or even bergamot!

Regardless of the citrus fruit you choose, make sure to:

• wash and dry the citrus fruit well, removing any stickers or dirt, before using
• use a microplane to remove only the outer layer of the zest, leaving behind the light coloured, white pith that is very bitter and not tasty

What to do with it

The beauty of lemon sugar is that it allows you to add tons of lemon flavour to recipes without adding excess moisture. Replace granulated sugar in any cake or cookie recipe with lemon sugar, and you will add lemon flavour without throwing off the ratio of liquid-to-dry ingredients and without throwing off the pH of the recipe. I used lemon sugar to flavour these cranberry lemon muffins.

Another great use for lemon sugar is as a finishing ingredient. For example, you can sprinkle them on crêpes before folding them up to serve them. This is a much simpler presentation than the strawberry crêpes served with vanilla bean pastry cream. Garnishing crêpes with lemon sugar is the traditional way of serving crêpes in France and parts of Europe, actually. This adds a ton of flavour, but still leaves room for serving with maple syrup, honey, or even crème anglaise or a caramel sauce.

One thing to note is that lemon sugar won't add that tart acidity that many expect from lemon-flavoured baked goods. Neither will lemon oil or lemon extract for that matter.

If you are looking to bring a bright acidic note to your dessert, whether that's a cookie, a cake, or even a muffin, it's best to top the dessert with a lemon sauce or a lemon glaze made from fresh lemon juice, which allows you to finish with a bright, tart icing that will provide a punch of flavour.

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Lemon Sugar

Lemon sugar is so easy to make with this recipe and you can use it to flavour baked goods, like cakes, cookies, and muffins, but also as a filling for crêpes!

Course pantry staple

Cuisine French

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 10 minutes minutes

Servings 16

Calories 49kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Microplane zester

Ingredients

For the muffin batter

• 200 grams granulated sugar
• 30 mL finely grated lemon zest

Metric - US

Instructions

• In a large bowl, combine the granulated sugar and lemon zest. Using your fingertips, rub the ingredients together. This will help bring out the oils in the zest, adding more flavour.
• Store lemon sugar in an airtight container in a cool, dry place.

Nutrition

Calories: 49kcal | Carbohydrates: 13g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 1mg | Potassium: 3mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 13g | Vitamin A: 1IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 3mg | Iron: 1mg

The post How to Make Lemon Sugar appeared first on The Bake School.

What it is

The name maple butter, also known as maple cream, is a misleading name: there's no cream or butter in pure maple butter. Maple butter is a spread made from pure maple syrup that has been boiled, cooled, and whipped so that the syrup crystallizes in just the right way to give it this spreadable smooth, creamy texture.

Maple butter is made through the controlled crystallization of sugar. So, while you are trying to prevent sugar crystallization when making caramel sauces, with maple butter, you are aiming to force the sugar to crystallize in just the right way to achieve the correct, soft, smooth, spreadable consistency. It's readily available in the New England area, as well as Quebec and Ontario, where most maple products are made. In Quebec, it may be labelled as "beurre d'érable."

Maple butter versus maple compound butter

Though some will post "easy maple butter" recipes that are made by creaming together softened butter and maple syrup, that's actually not what maple butter is at all! Don't be fooled! Real maple butter is made from pure maple syrup. It's a maple spread that is vegan and dairy-free. If you want to make maple compound butter by mixing butter and maple syrup, that's another option, and you can follow this honey butter recipe.

What's in it

Maple butter is made from pure maple syrup and nothing else. You may also add a tiny amount of vegetable oil (or canola oil) when you make it to prevent the maple syrup from boiling over, but there are no other ingredients in pure maple butter.

How to use it

There are so many recipes you can make with maple syrup. You can use maple syrup to sweeten an apple pie. You can use it in this maple fudge recipe or a maple syrup pie. However, maple syrup is quite fluid and "loose" so it doesn't make the best topping or filling in certain instances. This is why maple butter is more interesting in baking: it has less water!

This delicious, creamy, thick maple spread is a more practical way of baking with maple syrup without the mess of dealing with the extra water in the syrup. In instances where you want a maple-flavoured filling, maple butter is what you should use:

• sandwich it in between two cookies to make maple cream cookies where the maple butter is mixed with butter and maple sugar to make a filling for maple shortbread cookies
• spread it on toast for breakfast, like this no-knead cinnamon raisin bread or this Irish soda bread with raisins
• spread it on homemade brioche bread for the ultimate decadent breakfast!
• eat it straight with a spoon

How to make it

This maple butter recipe is the simplest of the maple syrup recipes and it's made from only 1 ingredient, as a rule: maple syrup. The science behind maple butter is relatively simple but the temperature is key to success!

• Boil maple syrup until it reaches 235°F (that's 112ºC), which is 22–24°F (12ºC) over the boiling point of water. By doing this, you are basically concentrating the sugar, making it easier to crystallize because all the tiny sugar molecules are now really close to each other in the syrup.
• Cooling the concentrated syrup in an ice bath quickly drops its temperature. This is an essential step favouring crystallization (and specifically smaller, finer crystals over bigger, chunky crystals).
• Stirring the cooled mixture for a very long time (crystallization is a process, so patience is key here): eventually, it will turn opaque/creamy-looking and become maple butter.

I encourage you to sample after cooling the syrup both before and after the long stirring process because the mouthfeel is really quite different, and that's how you know it's "done". However, avoid sampling the boiling hot syrup. It may be tempting, but it'll burn you really badly. Hungry for more recipes with maple syrup, I have a whole category of posts dedicated to baking with maple syrup to explore.

Trick to prevent sugar syrups from boiling over

Though maple butter or maple cream is made from pure maple syrup, you might have noticed that this maple butter recipe also calls for ¼ teaspoon of canola oil (you could also add a little butter, if you prefer). There's a reason for that oil. If you've ever boiled a large amount of maple syrup, you will probably have noticed that boiling maple syrup has a tendency to boil over and make a real mess of your stove if you aren't careful.

By adding a tiny amount (¼ tsp) of canola oil to the pot, the chances of maple syrup boiling over are greatly reduced because the oil helps burst the larger bubbles. This trick with oil works with boiling pasta water, though some purists will argue that the little bit of oil may interfere with the sauce sticking to the pasta. I'll leave that discussion for another time.

Top Reader Tip

A reader gave an excellent tip for this recipe that I thought I'd share:

If you have an electric hand mixer, pour the warm syrup into a large mason jar and attach only one beater to the mixer. Then mix the syrup in the jar until it becomes opaque.

Troubleshooting and FAQs

Storage and shelf life

Maple butter, also known as maple cream, is a creamy spread made from 100% pure maple syrup. This spread is dairy-free and vegan. Maple butter can be stored at room temperature in a sterilized mason jar for up to a month, but it's best to refrigerate maple butter to help improve shelf life.

The maple cream is more likely to break down and liquefy at room temperature: maple syrup may separate out. At room temperature, mold may also be an issue to watch out for. Maple butter can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 6 months. The same goes for maple syrup: store maple syrup in the fridge too to reduce mold production.

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Maple Butter

Ever wonder how to make maple butter from pure maple syrup at home. This maple butter recipe will help you make creamy smooth maple butter from pure maple syrup at home.

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 20 minutes minutes

Servings 24

Calories 56kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• ChefAlarm thermometer
• 5-quart KitchenAid Artisan mixer
• Mason jars

Ingredients

• 500 mL pure maple syrup I used Grade A, amber syrup from Quebec
• 1.25 mL canola oil

Metric - US

Instructions

• In a deep saucepan, boil the maple syrup with the oil, until it reaches about 235°F (112ºC) on medium–high heat. Monitor the temperature using a fast-reading digital probe thermometer (see notes).
• Immediately, transfer the boiled syrup to your stand mixer bowl, and drop the bowl into a big ice bath to cool the syrup down to about 60°F (15–16ºC). Then let the syrup warm back up to room temperature.
• With the paddle attachment, beat the syrup on low for a very, very long time (like 30 minutes even) until it turns opaque and the color of sesame butter (the texture on your tongue when you sample it will go from syrupy at the beginning of the process to very finely powdery).
• Quickly transfer the maple butter to a large jar and store in the fridge.
• If the maple butter separates at any point, just give it a good stir before using.

Notes

Temperature is very important when making maple butter (or maple cream) at home: use a thermometer so that you boil the maple syrup to the correct temperature (235ºF or 112ºC) and then you have to cool it down to the correct temperature (60ºF or 15–16ºC). This digital probe thermometer from Thermoworks is a good option: the ChefAlarm

Nutrition

Calories: 56kcal | Carbohydrates: 14g | Sodium: 1mg | Potassium: 46mg | Sugar: 12g | Calcium: 23mg

Where to buy it (if you have zero desire to make it at home)

Maple butter spread, also called maple cream, is available where other maple products are sold, but as you can see, you can also make it at home. In Canadian grocery stores, it's either in the aisle with the maple syrup or stocked next to the breakfast spreads (jams, jellies, peanut butter, caramel spreads). In Quebec and Ontario, maple producers usually have stores where you can stock up on maple products, including maple syrup, maple butter, maple sugar, and maple flakes. Farmers' markets in Ontario, Quebec, and the New England area usually have maple stands run by local maple producers where you should be able to find maple butter.

The post How to Make Homemade Maple Butter appeared first on The Bake School.

I used to love eating Nutella smeared thick on a slice of soft white sandwich bread. Then, one day, I developed a hazelnut allergy. No more Nutella for me! So I decided to investigate how to make Nutella without hazelnuts at home.

Ingredients to make homemade chocolate hazelnut spread without hazelnuts

Turns out, to make homemade Nutella with any type of nut or seed, all you need is nuts, cocoa powder, icing sugar, oil, and a little salt. That's it! This recipe couldn't be easier and the options are endless.

The chocolate

You have two options for making chocolate spreads at home: melted chocolate or cocoa powder. I used cocoa powder to make this chocolate spread, allowing me to control the amount of sugar that goes into the recipe.

If I recommended using melted chocolate, it would be difficult for me to know what chocolate you use and your chocolate may be more or less sweet than the chocolate I use, and that could lead to flavour issues. So for this recipe, we're using cocoa powder. Also, when working with melted chocolate and incorporating other ingredients, you might end up with separation issues where the oil separates from the spread. Cocoa powder is easier to handle.

I bake exclusively with Dutch-processed cocoa powder, which has a better chocolate flavour and a darker colour. Cacoa Barry "Extra Brute" dark cocoa powder is what I use (available on Amazon or from Vanilla Food Company). That is the cocoa powder I used for this recipe. Dutch-processed is quite different than natural cocoa powder. You can read more about the difference and how they aren't the same as other types of chocolate for baking. 

Hazelnut substitutes

The most common substitute for hazelnuts is almonds. Both nuts have a similar texture. Other nuts you can try are cashews. Often cashews are used in baklava instead of hazelnuts or pistachios. For example, you can replace the pistachios in this pistachio baklava with cashews and see how you like it! Macadamia nuts are sweeter and pecans have a different texture, but even these would work as a replacement for hazelnuts. Basically, you can use any nut to replace hazelnuts quite successfully in a simple recipe like the one below, but it's a matter of personal preference.

For those who really can't eat any nuts, use seeds, like sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, or pumpkin seeds to make nut-free Nutella at home. Actually, bakers grind up sunflower seeds to replace almond flour in baking recipes, such as macarons if they want them to be nut-free! You could even try sesame seeds in this recipe.

I tried seven different roasted nuts to find which would work best in my hazelnut-free homemade Nutella: almonds, cashews, macadamia nuts, peanuts, pecans, pistachios, walnuts. I also tried sesame (by using tahini). All roads lead to a delicious chocolate spread that kids and adults will love.

Why do we need oil?

Without the oil in this recipe, the chocolate spread is too thick to smear on toast or bread, and you end up tearing the bread while struggling to smooth the spread over the surface of it. Not ideal. The oil thins out the spread, while allowing you to maintain the emulsion you've developed processing the nut butter with the other ingredients. 

I tested milk and water for this purpose but it wasn't as successful with either of these in this recipe. Best to use oil. You can use an affordable neutral tasting oil (like canola oil or sunflower oil), or you can use a nut oil. For example, it would be interesting to use almond oil to make a chocolate almond spread!

Making chocolate hazelnut spread at home without hazelnuts

Special equipment

To make homemade Nutella, you will need a food processor or a mini food processor for a small batch. There's no avoiding it. Even if you start with natural unsweetened peanut butter or tahini, you still need a food processor to properly incorporate the ingredients to make a silky smooth spread that is glossy, thick, and spreadable. I tried. Mixing by hand does not work well for this recipe and if you try, you will find that your spread is too thick to smear on any bread.

For a small batch, I used a small 3.5 cup KitchenAid food processor from Amazon. For a larger batch, I used my Cuisinart 11 cup food processor, also from Amazon. I suspect high powered blenders like Vitamix or Blendtec would also work, but I haven't tried either of these for this recipe. Let me know in the comments if you do!

Steps

The steps to make Nutella without hazelnuts are pretty simple (and yes, you could also use hazelnuts but that's not the point):

1. Do your mise-en-place, which is fancy French baking term telling you to measure out all your ingredients before you begin. This way, it'll take you just a few minutes to whip up a batch in the food processor.
2. Whisk together the dry ingredients, which include powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and salt. This step is optional, but it helps you avoid any clumps and also ensures an even distribution of the ingredients.  
3. Toast the nuts you want to use to add flavour. You can do this in a dry fry pan on medium heat, until they are nice and roasty-toasty or for large batches, like this recipe, toast the nuts in your oven preheated to 350 ºF. Toasting could take 10 to 20 minutes. Make sure to stir often and to watch them because nuts quickly go from toasted to burned. If using nut butter, you can skip this step.
4. Grind the toasted nuts until they are finely ground in the food processor. I used a small 3.5 cup KitchenAid food processor from Amazon for a small batch. For a larger batch (double the recipe below), I used my Cuisinart 11 cup food processor, also from Amazon. If using a nut butter, you just place it directly in the food processor.
5. Add the dry ingredients, along with some vanilla (⅛ tsp) and blend until smooth. It takes several minutes to transform the mixture into a thick spread.
6. Adjust the consistency of the spread with a little oil, the amount varies and you could use up to 45 mL (3 tablespoons). Keep processing the mixture until you form a spreadable paste. 

Homemade Nutella made this way is dark brown, very nutty and very chocolate-y. This homemade chocolate spread might not be as silky smooth as the original store-bought product if you process the mixture for less time or if your food processor isn't powerful enough. The spread will be shiny and glossy.

I think it's worth exploring making this recipe with sesame paste, like tahini (this is the tahini I buy on Amazon), if nuts aren't your thing. Replace the nuts with the same weight of tahini. I think you will find the resulting chocolate tahini spread very tasty!

Here's the base-recipe I used to make my homemade Nutella without hazelnuts to get you started. Please note it was originally published in the LA Times to be made with hazelnuts, but because I am allergic, I tested the recipe with almonds, cashews, macadamia nuts, pistachios, walnuts, pecans, and peanuts. I've also tested this recipe with natural peanut butter and also tahini. Both work great and allow you to skip a few steps and the spread is smoother if you start with a nut butter. 

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Nutella without Hazelnuts

Make a small batch of homemade Nutella without hazelnuts and with any nut with this easy recipe.

Course Breakfast

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes minutes

Total Time 15 minutes minutes

Servings 25

Calories 40kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• OXO balloon whisk
• Food processor
• Mason jars
• Sheet pan

Ingredients

• 280 grams nuts or 250 mL (1 cup) nut butter or seed butter (the natural unsweetened kind that separates)
• 125 grams icing sugar
• 45 grams Cacao Barry extra brute cocoa powder
• 0.625 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 45 mL canola oil more or less depending on nut or nut butter used
• 2.5 mL pure vanilla extract

Metric - US

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350 ºF. Place the nuts on a large rimmed sheet pan.
• If using nut butters or seed butters like tahini, you can skip this step and go to the next. If you are using whole nuts: Place the sheet pan in the oven, and toast the nuts for about 10 minutes, being sure to open the oven door to shake the pan up to ensure they will toast evenly. When toasted, remove the pan from the heat and immediately pour out the nuts to cool. In the bowl of a food processor, pulverize the toasted nuts for several minutes. They should be as fine as you can get them. Scrape down the bowl as needed.
• In a small bowl, whisk together the cocoa, sugar, and salt. Set aside.
• Add the dry ingredients, and the vanilla to the food processor. Continue blending until you obtain a spread (this could take at least 5 minutes if you started with whole nuts). The more you blend, the more the oils of the nuts will be released, rendering the spread glossier. For a liquidier spread, add a little oil (up to 45 mL or 3 tablespoons) and blend. Continue to do this until you obtain the desired consistency.
• The spread can be stored in the fridge. Just bring it to room temperature before using it (or it may be difficult to spread).

Notes

• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• If you want, you can replace the 280 grams of nuts with the same weight of unsweetened nut/seed butter (like natural peanut butter or tahini). This works out to using 1 cup of nut butter.
• Calories calculated based on 1 tablespoon serving size.
  The homemade Nutella recipe makes about 1.5 cups of chocolate spread, about 25 tablespoons.

Nutrition

Calories: 40kcal | Carbohydrates: 6g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 10mg | Potassium: 27mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 5g | Calcium: 2mg | Iron: 1mg

The post How to make nutella without hazelnuts appeared first on The Bake School.

Crème anglaise is the French pastry term for a sweet egg-yolk-thickened dessert sauce, but you may also see it called English pouring cream or custard sauce. You may also see shortened names for this custard sauce, like "anglaise."

It's a common misconception that crème anglaise includes cream (especially heavy cream or whipping cream). Actually, it doesn't contain any cream! It also doesn't call for any starches or flour thickeners, which is how it differs from pastry cream (also called crème pâtissière).

Ingredients to Make Crème Anglaise

Crème anglaise is made from a simple list of ingredients that you probably already have in your kitchen. That's the beauty of this easy vanilla custard sauce. All you need are egg yolks, sugar, milk, and a little vanilla.

• milk—you can use either 2 % or 3.25 % (full fat) milk
• egg yolks, not whole eggs, which help thicken the sauce but also provide a richer flavour and a smoother sauce
• sugar—use granulated sugar or special fine sugar because you don't want to use sugar with flavour (like brown or maple), which will interfere with the taste of vanilla (unless that's your goal, obviously)
• vanilla—you can use a vanilla bean, vanilla bean paste, or vanilla extract, but remember these are added at different stages in the recipe. Read about how to use vanilla if you are unsure.
• salt—it's optional but a pinch of salt can really enhance the flavours and make this simple custard sauce taste more complex

Note that crème anglaise is not made with thickeners like flour or cornstarch. Starch and flour thickeners are used for pastry fillings like vanilla pastry cream.

See recipe card for exact quantities.

Substitutions and Variations

• vanilla: whether you use vanilla extract, vanilla bean paste, or vanilla beans is up to you. Just remember that when you cook or bake with vanilla, depending on which product you use, you will add it at different stages: vanilla beans are added before the sauce is cooked, while vanilla bean paste or extract is added after the sauce is off the heat.
• milk: a real crème anglaise is made with milk, not cream, either 2 % fat or even 3.25 % whole milk.
• orange: add the zest of an orange to the milk when you heat it on the stove. This will lead to a lovely orange-flavoured custard sauce.

Homemade eggnog is a variant of a crème anglaise, flavoured with freshly grated nutmeg and rum.

How To Make Custard Sauce

The steps to make a crème anglaise are very similar to those for making pastry cream, with a few key differences: crème anglaise is cooked low and slow on the stove, stirring with a wooden spoon, while a pastry cream is heated at a higher temperature to cook it fast and thicken it quickly.

Step 1: Combine the egg yolks with half the granulated sugar in a bowl (image 1).

Step 2: Whisk them until very light in colour (image 2). This step is called blanchir les oeufs in French pastry.

Step 3: Meanwhile, heat the milk with the rest of the sugar in a saucepan (image 3). If you are using a vanilla bean to flavour your custard sauce, you would add it at this stage.

Step 4: When the milk is hot, pour it over the whipped egg yolks to temper them (image 4).

Step 5: The tempered egg yolk and milk mixture will be quite light in colour initially (image 5).

Step 6: Transfer the mixture back to the saucepan and gently heat it over medium–low heat until the custard sauce coats the back of the spoon. The sauce will have a richer more yellow tint to it and the foam will disappear when it's cooked (image 6).

Step 7: It's preferable to strain custard sauces (image 7), just like pastry cream, before chilling them to remove any lumps and the vanilla bean (if using). If using vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste, you can add them now that the sauce is off the heat.

This custard sauce gets its rich, creamy texture from milk that is heated with egg yolks to thicken it. The thickness comes from the slow evaporation of the mixture on the stove. It takes about 10 minutes or more to achieve the right texture, without having to resort to any thickeners or cream.

Top Tip

As recommended by the FDA and the CDC, you need to ensure your custard sauce containing egg yolks reaches 71 °C (160 °F) to be safe to consume.

You should also cool them down fast to make sure the custard sauce doesn't linger in the danger zone between 4.5 °C and 60 °C (40 °F and 140 °F) for more than 2 hours. Use an ice bath to bring the temperature of the sauce down as fast as possible before putting it in the refrigerator.

Crème Anglaise FAQs

Serving Suggestions and Uses

Crème anglaise is actually the cooked custard base you use to make ice cream. You combine crème anglaise with whipping cream before churning it to make the best ice cream.

Crème anglaise is a sauce that is served over soufflés or steamed puddings (like these marmalade pudding cakes). You can also serve it with bread pudding (like this raspberry bread pudding is served with a coffee-flavoured crème anglaise). It's perfect for pouring over berries or slices of warm milk sponge cake, or even this fallen chocolate cake.

Crème anglaise is also the base for homemade eggnog. To make eggnog, you incorporate freshly grated nutmeg and spike it with rum or brandy.

Recipes With Crème Anglaise

Now that you have mastered how to make crème anglaise, here's how to use this recipe and technique. You can make:

• mint chocolate chip ice cream
• dark chocolate ice cream
• cardamom ice cream
• spiced chai ice cream
• lemon custard ice cream

If you tried this vanilla crème anglaise recipe (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!

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Vanilla Bean Crème Anglaise

Crème anglaise is a custard sauce made from milk, egg yolks, and sugar, flavoured with vanilla. It's easy to make and you can serve most desserts with crème anglaise or transform it into ice cream!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 20 minutes minutes

Servings 6

Calories 215kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• OXO balloon whisk
• Wooden spoon
• ChefAlarm thermometer

Ingredients

• 500 mL whole milk (3.25 % fat) up to 750 mL (see Notes)
• 150 grams granulated sugar divided
• 5 large egg yolk(s)
• 0.625 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 5 mL vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract

Metric - US

Instructions

• Set a medium metal bowl in a large bowl of ice water and have a fine sieve at the ready.
• Combine the milk and half the sugar in a 3-quart saucepan. Set the pan over medium heat, stirring occasionally to encourage the sugar to dissolve. Heat the mixture through but do not allow it to boil (this is key to avoid making scrambled eggs!). Remove from the heat.
• Put the egg yolks and salt in a small heatproof bowl and gently whisk to break up the yolks. Whisk in the remaining half of sugar and beat the mixture until the yolks become very pale and light. Gradually whisk in the warm sweet milk mixture. Pour the yolk mixture back into the saucepan, and whisk to combine.
• Cook over medium-low heat (slow and steady), stirring constantly with a clean wooden spoon until the custard thickens enough to coat the back of the spoon and hold a line drawn through it with a finger, about 10 minutes. An instant-read thermometer should register around 85 ºC (185°F). Do not let the sauce overheat or boil because then you will probably curdle the mixture, making scrambled eggs. Immediately strain the sauce through the sieve into the bowl set in the ice-water bath.
• Gently whisk in the vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract). Stir the custard occasionally until cool, about 10 minutes. Transfer it to a large container. Cover and refrigerate for about 1 hour, until the custard sauce is velvety and thick.
• Serve over summer berries, slices of cake, or you can add cream and churn it to make your vanilla bean ice cream.

Video

Notes

This recipe makes about 2 cups of custard sauce. Remember that crème anglaise and custard sauces are not made with thickeners like flour. Flour and/or cornstarch are thickeners used to make pastry cream.

• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• Vanilla: You can make this vanilla custard sauce with vanilla extract, paste, or beans, but you add them at different points in the recipe:
  • vanilla bean: add it to the milk at the beginning and heat them together to infuse the milk with the bean before tempering the eggs
  • vanilla extract: add it off the heat, whisking it into the hot custard sauce after cooking it
  • vanilla paste: add it off the heat, whisking it into the hot custard sauce after cooking it
• Milk: a real crème anglaise is made with milk, not cream, either 2 % fat or even 3.25 % whole milk. Use between 500 mL (2 cups) and 750 mL (3 cups) of milk. The more milk, the thinner the custard sauce. The less milk, the thicker the sauce.
• Egg yolks: Typically a ratio of 5 yolks for 500 mL (2 cups). The number of yolks will have an impact on texture and thickness of the dessert sauce. More yolks:milk will create a thicker sauce. Less yolks:milk, you will have a thinner sauce.
• Temperature: Cook crème anglaise to 81–85 °C (175–185 °F). If you are using more milk and less yolks in your recipe, you may go slightly higher, but make sure to stir constantly to avoid scrambling the yolks.
• Orange flavour: add the zest of an orange to the milk when you heat it on the stove. This will lead to a lovely orange-flavoured custard sauce.
• Custard sauce containing egg yolks must reach at least 71 °C (160 °F) to be safe to consume
• Cool custard sauces down fast to make sure they don't linger in the danger zone between 4.5 °C and 60 °C (40 °F and 140 °F) for more than 2 hours. Use an ice bath to bring the temperature down as fast as possible, then refrigerate immediately.
• Custard sauce is generally served cold.

Nutrition

Calories: 215kcal | Carbohydrates: 23g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 143mg | Sodium: 100mg | Potassium: 178mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 23g | Vitamin A: 376IU | Calcium: 157mg | Iron: 1mg

Short on time? Premium churned ice cream is crème anglaise so this is a good substitute when you are in a pinch! Just melt it in the fridge overnight. But be sure to check the ingredients of your favourite premium ice cream to make sure it's indeed made with the same ingredients, namely milk, cream, eggs and/or egg yolks, vanilla, and salt. Then you can melt it and use it as a custard sauce!

The post How To Make Crème Anglaise appeared first on The Bake School.

On school mornings, breakfast would usually involve a bowl of cereal (preferably Frosted Mini-Wheats for me), and maybe a fruit or half a grapefruit sprinkled with a little sugar. But sometimes, I would make a special request for cinnamon toast, which my mom would make for me by generously smearing hot pieces of toast with lots and lots of butter, and then a good sprinkling of cinnamon and sugar.  Best breakfast ever in my opinion, but not just because it was sweet and cinnamony: my mom made it especially for me.

I think most of us grew up eating cinnamon toast for breakfast or as a snack, but as adults, when was the last time you had a slice? Sadly, I think I might have made cinnamon toast for myself maybe once or twice in my entire adult life, and with the nostalgic Christmas season upon us, it's one of the comfort foods I've been craving.

I put together three festive sweet butter recipes, perfect for Christmas brunch, and of course a fourth recipe for the classic cinnamon sugar butter because that's what I was craving. These are all extremely easy to make and can be tweaked to suit your taste buds. Sweet compound butters can be thrown together in literally minutes if you have some softened butter in your kitchen (which you probably do since we are all in peak Christmas cookie production mode) with odds and ends of the ingredients you've probably stocked up on for all your holiday baking. These sweet compound butters would make lovely homemade hostess gifts if you put them in mason jars too.

For this post, I made small sticks of butter using a silicone pan. By the way, I don't recommend using fresh fruit to make compound butters because given the sugar in each recipe, the fruit will lose water as the butter chills and then the butter gets messy and isn't as pretty. Trust me, I know from experience. Definitely stick to candied or dried fruits and peel.

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Cinnamon Sugar Butter

Course Breakfast

Cuisine French

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Total Time 5 minutes minutes

Servings 8 tablespoons

Calories 116kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Ingredients

• 115 grams unsalted butter softened
• 26 grams granulated sugar
• 5 mL ground cinnamon

Metric - US

Instructions

• Cream together the ingredients. Transfer to a clean jar and store in the refrigerator.

Nutrition

Calories: 116kcal | Carbohydrates: 3g | Protein: 0.1g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 0.5g | Cholesterol: 31mg | Sodium: 2mg | Potassium: 5mg | Fiber: 0.1g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 360IU | Vitamin C: 0.01mg | Calcium: 6mg | Iron: 0.03mg

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Cranberry Honey Butter

Course Breakfast

Cuisine French

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Total Time 5 minutes minutes

Servings 8 tablespoons

Calories 127kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Ingredients

• 115 grams unsalted butter softened
• 15 mL honey
• 40 grams dried cranberries chopped finely
• 10 mL clementine zest

Metric - US

Instructions

• Mix together the ingredients. Transfer to a clean jar and store in the refrigerator.

Nutrition

Calories: 127kcal | Carbohydrates: 6g | Protein: 0.1g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 0.5g | Cholesterol: 31mg | Sodium: 2mg | Potassium: 7mg | Fiber: 0.3g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 359IU | Vitamin C: 0.02mg | Calcium: 4mg | Iron: 0.03mg

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Candied Orange Butter

Learn how to make an orange-flavoured butter with candied orange and orange zest with this easy recipe!

Course Breakfast

Cuisine French

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Total Time 5 minutes minutes

Servings 8 tablespoons

Calories 132kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Ingredients

• 115 grams unsalted butter softened
• 26 grams granulated sugar
• 40 grams candied orange peel chopped finely
• 10 mL clementine zest

Metric - US

Instructions

• Mix together the ingredients. Transfer to a clean jar and store in the refrigerator.

Nutrition

Calories: 132kcal | Carbohydrates: 7g | Protein: 0.1g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 0.5g | Cholesterol: 31mg | Sodium: 7mg | Potassium: 6mg | Fiber: 0.1g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 360IU | Calcium: 4mg | Iron: 0.01mg

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Gingerbread Butter

Learn how to make gingerbread butter with this easy recipe. This is a sweet compound butter that is a great spread for toast during the holiday season.

Course Breakfast

Cuisine French

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Total Time 5 minutes minutes

Servings 8 tablespoons

Calories 116kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Ingredients

• 115 grams unsalted butter softened
• 10 mL fancy molasses
• 13 grams light brown sugar
• ⅖ mL ground cinnamon
• 2.5 mL ground ginger
• 1 pinch ground cloves
• 1 pinch ground nutmeg

Metric - US

Instructions

• Cream together the ingredients. Transfer to a clean jar and store in the refrigerator.

Nutrition

Calories: 116kcal | Carbohydrates: 3g | Protein: 0.2g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 0.5g | Cholesterol: 31mg | Sodium: 3mg | Potassium: 34mg | Fiber: 0.1g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 360IU | Vitamin C: 0.01mg | Calcium: 10mg | Iron: 0.1mg

The post Sweet compound butters appeared first on The Bake School.

Salted caramel sauce is made from just 3 ingredients (4 if you count water)

All you need to make caramel sauce is a lot of sugar, whipping cream, butter, and a little water, which helps dissolve the sugar to form a syrup that is easier to work with, especially for beginner bakers. Other optional ingredients include vanilla extract (to give the caramel sauce more flavour), and salt (often sea salt), but you may skip the salt if you make your caramel sauce with salted butter.

Some recipes may include a splash of lemon juice or vinegar, or they may include a little glucose, corn syrup, or honey. These ingredients are optional and they are added to reduce the risk of the caramel sauce crystallizing at any point in the process. Florentine cookies are made with a little honey, not only adding flavour, but also preventing crystalllization.

Unsalted butter versus salted for making caramel sauce

The French baking term for salted caramel sauce is "caramel au beurre salé" because this is a recipe that can be made with salted butter. If you use salted butter, feel free to taste and adjust with a little extra salt (making sure to let the sample cool down BEFORE you try to eat it!). I find with most brands of salted butter, they provide plenty of salt. 

If you make this recipe with unsalted butter, you will have to add salt. Use up to 5 mL (1 teaspoon) of flaky sea salt or fine kosher salt (such as Diamond crystal). If you are using table salt, add less salt! Use half that amount, so 2.5 mL (½ teaspoon) of salt because table salt is saltier than sea salt and the baking substitution table salt and sea salt isn't 1-to-1.

The impact of temperature on flavour

The sugar in caramel sauce contributes the caramel flavour but that sugar has to be heated, otherwise it doesn't contribute much of any flavour and actually will make a sauce cloyingly sweet. The sugar breaks down when it's heated above a certain temperature, causing it to change colour (to amber-brown) and change flavour. Caramelization occurs above 330 ºF (165 ºC), at which point there is very little water left in the hot sugar syrup. Below this temperature, the mixture contains enough water that the sugar doesn't break down, but above that temperature, it does, leading to a colour change and also the development of flavour compounds.

Making caramel starts with dissolving the sugar in water, with the help of a gentle heat. The goal is to dissolve all the crystals to avoid any crystallization down the road. Once the sugar is dissolved, the syrup is heated past 330 ºF (165 ºF), at which point the water has mostly evaporated and the sugar begins to caramelize, changing colour and developing flavour.

The high temperature of hot caramel means that when you add the cream and the butter, the milk solids brown almost immediately, leading to even more flavour in the sauce.

Using a thermometer for caramel sauce

While I always recommend using a thermometer when you are making recipes that are sensitive to temperature, like those made by heating sugar, in this case, you don't need a thermometer. When you are making preserves, I always suggest using a digital instant-read thermometer to make sure you've hit the jam setting point. The same goes for if you are heating a sugar syrup to the soft ball temperature to make an Italian meringue buttercream or a batch of vanilla marshmallows.

For caramel sauce, I've found over the years that some thermometers aren't very accurate at higher temperatures and using a thermometer can be misleading and lead you to turning off the heat before the sugar has caramelized enough, leading to a blonder caramel that is more cloyingly sweet and less flavourful. For this reason, I encourage you to watch the sugar syrup as it boils. You will see it turn a pale yellow colour at the beginning of the process, and that colour will develop and deepen into a rich, dark amber, at which point you can safely turn off the heat and add the butter and the cream. You will obtain a rich tasting dark caramel sauce that is full of flavour.

While I suggest you don't use a thermometer to make caramel sauce, I do suggest you use one to make soft, chewy caramels. You can make caramels by heating caramel sauce (made from caramelized sugar, cream, and butter) to 250 ºF or 121 ºC, which is the firm ball stage of sugar syrups (which is in the middle of the hard ball temperature range which spans from 240 ºF and 265 ºF or from 116 ºC to 129 ºC). So if you cook the recipe below for caramel sauce to 250 ºF (121 ºC), and pour it in a buttered pan. Let the boiled caramel set in the pan and then cut into squares so you can share your chewy sea salt caramels.

Salted caramel sauce is a little different than dulce de leche, which is another flavourful sauce made from sweetened condensed milk that is heated until the sugar and milk solids caramelize. Both dulce de leche and caramel sauce make great glazes for bundt cakes, like to glaze this apple bundt cake, as well as fillings for layer cakes, like in this chocolate caramel cake. You can also swirl it into a batch of homemade vanilla bean ice cream or serve it with crêpes.

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Salted Caramel Sauce

Salted caramel is easy to make from just sugar, water, salted butter, and whipping cream with this recipe!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 15 minutes minutes

Servings 33

Calories 98kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Pastry brush

Ingredients

• 125 mL water plus more for brushing sides of pan
• 400 grams granulated sugar
• 115 grams salted butter cut into cubes
• 250 mL whipping cream (35 % fat)

Metric - US

Instructions

• Measure all your ingredients before beginning and have them ready. This is very important.
• In a deep 3 quart saucepan, pour the water, and then the sugar. Don’t stir it.
• Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat. If there’s sugar stuck on the sides of the pan, carefully brush it with a heat-resistant silicone brush dipped in a little water. Feel free to swirl the pan to give the mixture a stir, but when you set it back on the burner, brush the edges of the pan with water to dissolve the sugar crystals from the walls of the pot.
• Once the sugar is completely dissolved and the mixture starts to bubble, you can increase the heat on the stove to medium–high, or you can leave it on medium. The only difference is that on medium, it will take longer for the mixture to caramelize.
• Continue to boil the caramel until it turns amber in colour. As soon as the caramel has reached the desired colour, slide the pan off the heat, and turn the burner off.
• Slowly and carefully drop in the cubed butter (it will bubble and erupt so be careful!). Pour in the cream, slowly and carefully.
• When the bubbling has calmed down, begin to gently whisk the caramel until it is smooth and homogeneous.
• Poor the salted caramel in a large jar and cover loosely. When the caramel has cooled to room temperature, you can tighten the lid and store it in the refrigerator. It will thicken as it cools.

Notes

• I highly recommend watching the colour change closely to determine if your caramel has cooked enough, but if you want to check the temperature, aim for somewhere between 350°F and 360°F with a candy thermometer before adding the butter and cream.

Nutrition

Calories: 98kcal | Carbohydrates: 12g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 18mg | Sodium: 28mg | Potassium: 6mg | Sugar: 12g | Vitamin A: 198IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 6mg | Iron: 1mg

The post How to make salted caramel sauce appeared first on The Bake School.