This is how I roll

Today I offer a little insight into what goes on inside my mind and inside my kitchen when I'm left unsupervised.

I spend a lot of time thinking about food. When I'm not browsing food blogs, I'm playing games with myself, thinking up new flavors of ice cream, cupcakes, whatever. Recently, I was brainstorming cupcake ideas with Ben and he was thinking raspberry, I was thinking something with a caramel filling. And, oooh, raspberry caramel would be good. Taking stock of my kitchen, I decided to attempt a raspberry flavored dulce de leche.

It was good, definitely tasty. A nice combination of the sweet caramel creaminess and the slight tartness of the raspberries. It was lovely. But I didn't want to use it in my cupcakes. It just wasn't right.

So then I had a container of raspberry caramel sitting in my fridge. Taunting me. Every so often I would go back to it and take a little spoonful and ponder its fate. Cupcakes? Still no. Filling for sandwich cookies? Maybe. But I don't know what kind of cookies to make. Use it in/on ice cream? Nah. Toss it and call it a day?

I was actually about to just get rid of it because I didn't know what I wanted to do and I'm a little obsessive (who me?) about having a neat and tidy refrigerator, free of rogue leftovers and random items. But then Ben got around to finally tasting it and said, "Oh, that's nice".

"Oh, well, I was about to throw it away. It's been sitting there and I don't know what to do with it."

"Well, it's good. Don't throw it out just yet."

"Ehhh..."

"Give it until the end of this weekend. Maybe I'll just eat it."

"Okay."

So the raspberry dulce de leche got a stay of execution. And Ben's admiration of it inspired me to get cracking and just try something with it.

This is what I came up with.


Raspberry Dulce de Leche Balls

1/3 seedless raspberry preserves*
1 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
8 oounces dark chocolate
Fancy colored sugar (optional)

*I only found raspberry jam with seeds, so I heated it a little to make it liquidy, and then strained it. Easy peasy.

Pour the sweetened condensed milk into top of double-boiler pan and stir in raspberry Usually when making dulce de leche, I know it's done because it gets a lovely golden caramel brown color, but with the raspberries it will be harder to judge. Because it's pink. I would err on the side of a few more minutes if you're not sure.

Remove from heat and whisk until smooth. Put in the refrigerator to chill. Once the dulce de leche is nice and cold and firmed up a bit, scoop spoonfuls and then roll into balls. It'll be sticky, so I found it's easiest to roll with slightly damp hands.

Put the balls of caramel on a parchment lined cookie sheet and place in the freezer.

Chop the chocolate and place in the top of a double-boiler, or a bowl set over a simmering pan of water. Melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally and then remove from heat.

Working quickly, take each cold caramel ball and drop into the chocolate using two forks to turn, coat, and remove from chocolate. Tap off any excess and place the caramel on a silpat or piece of parchment paper. Sprinkle with fancy pretty sugar, if desired, and let set. Eat. Admire the pretty chocolates. Eat another.


And they're pretty good. A sweet, fruity, soft caramel that melts in your mouth after your teeth crack the bittersweet chocolate shell. And pink sugar sprinkles! Just for fun! Something pretty for me to make, and a more dignified way for Ben to eat a bowl of caramel. Everybody wins!

Except for Wesley.

We keep telling him he at least needs to grow some teeth first. Man, he's gonna be disappointed when he gets teeth and I still don't give him candy.