I am new to the Secret Recipe Club.
Amanda at Amanda’s Cookin‘ organizes the whole club and every month she assigns each member a foodie blog to explore. I was thrilled when I got my assignment: to check out Love Veggies and Yoga, peruse some of Averie’s great and healthy recipes, and post! This is my first “mission” for the club. (The theme to Mission Impossible is going through my head!)
If I could ever look like Averie while eating the great recipes that she has posted (like Peanut Butter Marshmallow Chocolate Bars with Vegan Chocolate Frosting), I could die a happy woman. I had also just gotten back into yoga myself, so I was intrigued to explore her site further.
What kind of recipe was I looking for. Well, let me say that it has been over 100 degrees for the past two weeks with NO rain since a smattering on July 3.
During the heat of summer, I often find myself anticipating fall and the cool weather that will soon be upon us. With no end for our dry hot weather in sight, I was pining for the crisp sounds, smells, and tastes of autumn.
As I perused Averie’s site, I found a recipe that helped my wistfulness for fall: homemade Dark Rum Caramel Sauce. “What a great way to quench my autumn nostalgia,” I thought as I pictured caramel apples in my head. (This must be a favorite recipe for her family because ironically she highlighted it again last week!)
Averie used dark rum and states that you can use “bourbon, whiskey, other rum, or other liquor such as Gran Marnier, Cointreau, etc. – adding alcohol is entirely optional and if you omit, you’ll still have amazing caramel sauce.” Since it seems like any alcohol will work 🙂 , I decided to rename the recipe. I used Amaretto because that is all I had on hand.
Drunken Caramel Sauce
1 c sugar
1/4 c water
1/2 c butter
1/2 c heavy cream
1 t pure vanilla extract
2 T liquor
I used Amaretto because I love it!
Directions:
- Since you have to work quick, have all of your ingredients ready to go and handy.
My "mise en place" (such as it is).
- Place sugar in a heavy sauce pan and add the water. Turn stove to medium-high heat and stir until sugar has dissolved (avoid letting sugar burn).
- Cover pot, turn heat to high, and boil for 2 minutes. (I was scared to turn it to high so I left my heat on med-high and it seemed to work well.)
- Remove lid and continue to boil on med-high heat until syrup turns brown around the edges of the pan.
After I removed the lid, a bit of the sugar had crystallized around the edge of the pan. I used a pastry brush dampened with water to get rid of the crystallization.
- Swirl the pan occasionally until mixture turns a deep amber and begins to smoke.
- Remove pan from heat.
- Add butter (the mixture will really bubble) and gently stir until all butter is mixed in.
Cut the butter into slices before you dump it in. Averie is correct, it will bubble!
- Stir in cream (more bubbling).
Lots more bubbles and a super rich aroma.
- Add vanilla extract and liquor of choice. 🙂
- Stir until bubbling stops. (If sauce become lumpy, set pan over low heat and stir until smooth then remove from heat.) I had no problems with lumpiness.
- Pour into glass (or heat-safe) container.
The finished product. It is the same hue as the kitchen table.
Try to let it cool and try to serve with at least some healthy fruit! I chose apples so I could sit in the air conditioned kitchen, imagine myself eating a caramel apple, and try to trick myself into thinking it was fall!
I encourage you to check out Love Veggies and Yoga for yourself. I really love Averie’s casual style, her healthy outlook, shopping addiction :), and her great photos. And, she has a real cutie for a daughter!
Thanks for a great recipe, Averie.
I would also encourage everyone to check out the Secret Recipe Club. I had fun on “my mission” and it really helps all of us in the foodie blog world to get to know each other.
See more recipes from the bloggers of The Secret Recipe Club by clinking on the the link below!
Comments & Replies
28 responses to “Secret Recipe Club Post: My first mission”
Oh my gosh. I am so flattered!!!!!! I love your post! Thank you for all the super kind things you said about me, too 🙂 And I LOVE that you picked this recipe and the caramel sauce. And used amaretto. I love it too! I used to drink amaretto sours like they were going out of style back in the day 🙂
But anyway…you picked a BRAVE recipe. It’s one of my trickiest recipes (But I guess that’s not saying too much because most of my stuff is SUPER simple) but it can be tricky to make candy or sauces because ruining/burning them or having a wicked bubble-over accident all over the kitchen is a real possibility but you just proved that it’s a very do-able recipe. With amaretto involved, even better 🙂
Thank you again!!!
And I can’t even get the link thing to work on my site, the web-linkup widget thing. ugh!
Averie,
It was my pleasure and this recipe is divine. Good luck with the widget and LOVE your site. I am glad I got your blog for my “first mission”!! LOL
Omg, why have I never thought to do this?! I’m going to try to wait until fall to try it but no promises – it might get made very soon!
That is a wonderful snack! Great SRC entry!
Yum! I would probably eat this with a spoon…haha 🙂
Thanks for everyone’s kind comments. I had a great time getting this post together and I love the SRC. I think Averie may have mentioned something about this sauce being sooo good she wanted to drink it out of shot glass. LOL
This sounds so good! I have been trying to get back into yoga, I’ll have to check out Love Veggies and Yoga for a jump start! Great job with this month’s SRC!
Oh this sounds so divine!
Averie is a great friend of mine…sooooo fun to see what you cooked up.
Wonderful to be in the Secret Recipe Club with you. This looks amazing 🙂
Oh this sounds so yummy! I love Averie’s blog and had been eying this caramel sauce to try myself with some KY Bourbon!
Oh, how fun that the two of us were one and two in the Eggland’s contest! Your recipe looks so good. We love okra so I’ll keep it to try 🙂 I just tried to find you on Facebook and friend you but can’t find Eliots Eats on there. I’m on under kateiscooking and Kate Marvel.
This is my first Secret Recipe Club too. You look like you got paired with a great site! Thanks for sharing!
My goodness I could eat that whole bowl it looks so good.
If you haven’t already, I’d love for you to check out my SRC recipe this month: Holy Guacamole.
Lisa~~
Cook Lisa Cook
I adore guac so am checking it out now!
Oh, I LOVE this! Drunken caramel sauce???? YUM!
I love Averie’s blog, but I’ve not seen this recipe. OH MY!! This is a must try. Excellent SRC post!
The title says it all! I need about 3 pints of this STAT. It looks awesome and I love your blog. Thanks for stopping by my place and come on over for Friday Night Drinks….
Making caramel sauce has always scared me (as does turning a burner to high heat!). Your step by step photos are really helpful and hopefully will help me overcome my fears!
Yum; I love apples and caramel sauce, autumn or no!
My first time too and love what you made. Would be good drizzled over ice cream too!
This looks fabulous. Nice work on the Secret Recipe Club. Isn’t it fun. I love finding new blogs and reading through them.
I know! I have wasted the past two days checking out all these great foodie blogs.
You’ve taken apples and dip to a whole new level. Yum!
I’m imaging a chocolate or peanut butter liqueur for this recipe….*lick lips*
Wow, lovely colour, as I don’t use alcohol, may be I can substitute with something else, looks yum, you have a lovely blog!, I am here through SRC, it’s been fun going through all the blogs…
Of course. Just omit alcohol. I wonder what would happen if you used flavored syrup like hazelnut???
OMG so yum! I am sold, I’m coming over 🙂
Come on down!