Passionatemae turns 5!

Passionatemae turns 5! Seriously, time really flies. But truth be told, even though I've had my blog for 5 years, I've not had the chance to fully dedicate myself to my blog. Life always gets in the way. And if it really wasn't for your continuous support, Passionatemae wouldn't have survived this long. Because of the support that I get from all of you, it has kept me motivated to continue to share my journey on baking and open up about my other passions related to food. 

I am so very thankful to be celebrating the 5th Anniversary of my blog!

Here are my favourite highlights turning a year older. 

Met these ladies at the Cake, Bake and Sweets show! You can also check out my review .

An afternoon with Heston for the "Heston for Coles" VIP launch!

These melt in your mouth Sea Salted Caramel with a shot of Rum (recipe)! Yum! Personally not a fan of caramels, but these..yum! 

 Torta Alla Gianduia (Nutella cake), I made for my husband's birthday! Check out the video below! 

In June, I started a new series called "Sweet Findings" featured every Fridays! Check out this week's entry!

I have also branched out into other things other than just baking (recipes). Also, am very grateful to hear from my readers and I took some time to answer questions from my dear readers here (Part 1) & (Part 2).

My posts are growing more in the "Did you know?" section of my blog! 

Latest addition to the family. Kitchen Essentials Part 5 : How long can you store your Ingredients? (Part 1| Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4) . More topics in this section.

I believe that I have finally found my style of writing. It took me a long time. The kind of tone, style to communicate with you. But I believe I have found it! I am glad! :) *grins*

 This is soooo not food-related, but from time to time, I talk about our adorable four-legged baby beagle, Cooper! 

Thanks again for believing in me. I'm happy to say that I've achieved more things these couples of months when I started investing more of my time to my blog than before. And I will continue to do more from now on! 

xo,

Mae

Sea Salted Caramels with a shot of Rum!

Seriously, there are SO MANY recipes out there on how to make Salted Caramels.

Some uses condensed milk while others use cream.

I decided to go with the condensed milk recipe! I have adapted this recipe from Bon Appetit.

This recipe caught my eye a while back, but I never gotten the chance to make it.

Honestly, I'm not really a Caramel kind of girl...I always find it too sweet and I hate that it sticks on my teeth when I eat them. So generally, I tend to not eat anything that has caramel.

This Salted Caramel made me think of caramels in a different way...

They are salty, and sweet at the same time...and of course with a light punch of Rum.

Originally this recipe uses Bourbon, as I do not have any, I decided to go with Rum.

If you don't want any alcohol in them, just replace it with Vanilla Extract.

It is really important to ensure that you have all your ingredients and tools ready! As we are dealing with sugar! There is really no time to wait, as the temperature rises so quickly!

Here is what you need:
(makes about 120 pieces - depending on the size that you've cut)

Nonstick vegetable oil spray      

2 cups sugar

½ cup light corn syrup

395g sweetened condensed milk - a whole can - I used Nestle

½ cup unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

2 tablespoons Rum (or use 1 tbsp of vanilla extract)

½ teaspoon salt

Flaky sea salt (such as Maldon)

Here is what you need to do:

1) Coat an 8x8” baking pan with nonstick spray. First spray your pan, then line with parchment and spray again. Make sure to leave some parchment paper overhanging both sides - easier to pull it out later.

2) Bring sugar, corn syrup, and ¼ cup water to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Cook, swirling pan occasionally, until mixture turns a deep amber color (it took me about 14 minutes).

3) Remove pan from heat and whisk in sweetened condensed milk and butter (pour in slowly, as mixture will bubble up) mix until smooth. Use the candy thermometer to measure temperature of the mixture in the pan and return it to the heat.

4) Cook, whisking constantly, until thermometer registers 115 Celsius.

5) Remove from heat and whisk in rum and salt. Pour into prepared pan; let cool.

6) Once it is warm to touch, sprinkle caramel with sea salt.

7) Cut into the sizes you want and wrap individually in parchment paper. 

Tips:

- Do not need to store it in the fridge

- I use a sawing method to cut the caramel so that it doesn't stick to the knife

- Ensure you have a parchment paper underneath to cut/place your salted caramel

- Store in cool area

- You can make this 2 weeks ahead!

Happy Caramel-ing! :)