beer tasting

Old Tom Salted Caramel Topped Blondies

/ The Beer Artist / 1 Comment

IMG_7201When I woke up yesterday morning I had no idea how awesome my day would end! Granted I was looking forward [and I was a little antsy] to this months’ Barley’s Angels Rhein-Main Tasting at Naiv in Frankfurt in the evening.

Since I didn’t have to be anywhere till the evening I took my time getting up and making breakfast for hubby and me when unsuspectingly I had this bright idea to bake something for the tasting at night… I didn’t know what yet, I only knew it had to involve beer, preferably an Old Ale, since we still had one bottle of Old Tom Chocolate left over, which I was going to serve at the tasting. So I started reading through a handful of Cooking with Beer blogs before I came across a recipe on The Beeroness.com: Salted Beer Caramel Topped Blondies…. Picture looked awesome the description sounded yummy and hey, I’m blond 😉 couldn’t have found a better recipe! Only “problem” it calls for a Stout, since I tend to NOT follow recipes when it comes to cooking I didn’t do so with this recipe either… so substituting the Old Tom for the Stout sounded great…

So here we go, I printed the recipe and made my changes… started mixing and blending, baking and boiling… and about 40 min later … Holy Beer’n’Baking baby Jesus…. [Sorry!]

I seriously – SERIOUSLY – got never so excited about something I cooked or baked… hubby has I think when he smoked a brisket one time … And that moment he walked in and I made him try – he didn’t want at first because the caramel-salt-combination sounded a bit weird to him…. Well, if he didn’t before he loves me now 🙂

On this note happy baking & good luck!

INGREDIENTS

Blondies

  • 1/2 Cup Butter
  • 2 Eggs
  • 1 Cup [Dark] Brown Sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
  • 3 tbs Old Tom
  • 1 1/2 Cups Flour
  • 1 tsp Salt

Caramel

  • 1 Cup Butter
  • 1 1/2 Cup [Dark] Brown Sugar
  • 1/4 White Sugar
  • 1/4 Cup Corn Syrup
  • 1/4 Cup Maple Syrup
  • 1/4 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream
  • 1/4 Cup Old Tom and 2 tbs, divided
  • Sea Salt

Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C).

For the Blondies layer, add butter and brown IMG_7188sugar in a bowl and mix until well blended. Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix until well blended then add the beer and continue to mix until well blended. With the mixer still on now add the flour and salt – I put the flour through a strainer to prevent it from clotting.

When all ingredients are well blended and the batter is nice anIMG_7189d smooth spread it into a greased 8×8 baking pan. Bake it for 20-25 minutes or until the top turns golden brown and let it cool.

I used a Thermapen to get the exact temp which took about 8 minutes

For the Caramel layer add the butter, brown & white sugar, corn & maple syrup, cream and 1/4 cup of beer in a pot @ high heat. Stir until butter has melted, sugar has dissolved and all ingredients are smooth. Let it boil until the color becomes dark caramel and the temperature reaches 240F [I used a Thermapen to get the exact temp which took about 8 minutes]. Then remove pot prom heat and stir in the remaining 2 tbs of beer. Let it cool for a few minutes then pour caramel over the IMG_7190Blondies layer and chill it for 2-4 hours.

Just before serving sprinkle with Sea Salt – I also tried it with Smoked Sea Salt which tasted great as well – if you like smokey flavors 🙂