Storm, Instant Pot, Pickling, Holiday,

Well Tuesday we certainly got the weather that was forecast. The snow was patchy on the ground, due to the wind I suppose. We didn't go out but were told that the roads got pretty icy around noon. The woman who is our cleaner said she went home at noon as it was pretty bad. I am not sure if she will make it to us tomorrow or not.

I was surprised that my Instant Pot arrived in the afternoon but, once we unpacked it, decided it was much to big and heavy for our tiny kitchen so have decided to return it and order a 3 quart instead of a 6 qt. Matt isn't too happy about the whole thing and says we don't need it anyway. Hopefully he will settle down eventually.

I spent a large part of the day pickling. I have found that using the brine I use for pickling asparagus works very well for lots of things. I don't go the whole hog with the water bath, but I pour boiling brine on various vegetables and then when they cool, put them in the fridge. In a couple of days I will have various pickled vegetables which I can munch on. They do have to be refrigerated as they are not being fully scalded etc. Funnily enough I know they last a long time because I had several jars in the fridge when I went into hospital and I didn't touch them for quite a while when I came out. I wasn't hungry and nothing tasted worth eating anyway. When eventually I went to the pickles, they were fine.

Tomorrow I hope to hear from Community Support that they have a ride for us on Friday. Matt has his ultra sound in the afternoon at one of the local hospitals. Then we have a holiday weekend, not really for us of course, but Feb. 18 is Family Day - it is one of the few holidays when the bowling alley closes too.

Well, this is a bit different. A take on Chocolate Lava Cakes which are favourites of mine. Mind you, I can't make Lava Cakes, only tried once and they were failures. Matt used to make them very successfully. Doesn't cook any more unfortunately. Luckily for me/us my grocery store sell them frozen. Pretty good. This Caramel version is recommended for Valentine's Day.

Molten Caramel Cakes

Everybody has heard of molten chocolate cake, so we thought we’d try to create a caramel version, with a toffee-ish tender cake encasing a runny dulce de leche center. Well, folks, it worked.

Filling
¼ cup store-bought dulce de leche
1 Tbs unsalted butter, room temperature

Cakes and Assembly
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp kosher salt
¼ tsp baking powder
6 Tbs unsalted butter, plus more for ramekins, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar, plus more for ramekins
¼ cup store-bought dulce de leche
2 large eggs, room temperature
½ tsp vanilla extract

Special Equipment

Four 6–8-oz. ramekins

Filling

Stir dulce de leche and butter in a small bowl until well combined. Dollop in 4 equal-size blobs on a metal baking dish or baking sheet. Freeze at least 30 minutes or up to overnight until very firm (the sugar will keep it from freezing completely solid).

Cakes and Assembly

Preheat oven to 350°F. Whisk flour, salt, and baking powder in a small bowl; set aside.

Coat ramekins with butter in a thin, even layer, then coat with sugar, knocking out any excess.

Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed (use the paddle attachment if you’re using a stand mixer), beat 1/3 cup sugar and 6 Tbsp. butter in a medium bowl until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add dulce de leche and continue to beat until incorporated, about 1 minute. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until combined, followed by vanilla. Beat mixture on medium-high speed 1 minute (it might look slightly grainy and separated, and that’s okay!). Reduce mixer speed to low and beat in reserved dry ingredients until smooth.

Divide batter among prepared ramekins. Make a small divot with a spoon in the top of each mound of batter. Place frozen filling onto divots, but do not press down into batter; you want the filling cradled by the batter but still on the surface, as it will sink to the center during baking. Place ramekins on a small rimmed baking sheet. Bake cakes until tops are browned, firm to the touch (be careful when checking as the filling may ooze out and it is very hot), and a tester inserted into the cakes, avoiding the liquid centers, comes out clean, 23–25 minutes.

Invert cakes onto plates to serve. (If you invert the first cake and see slightly underdone batter—it will be tan against the filling’s dark brown color—keep remaining cakes in ramekins a couple minutes longer before unmoulding. You can still eat the underdone one!)

Servings: 4

Source: Bon Appétit

Have a great day