International Incident Salt Party - Fleur De Sel Caramel 'Sneakers'

It's that time of the month again for another International Incident Party post! This time, the key ingredient was to be Salt...

The Boy and I cracked our heads and nearly gave up.. throwing our hands up in frustration as we couldn't decide on a Salt recipe...

He finally decided on a Salted Caramel theme, but he couldn't decide on whether it'd be plain caramel, peanuts, or ice-cream.

So we decided to do all three!! I welcome you to our very own version and play on the 'Snickers' to our Fleur De Sel Caramel Sneakers (with its own shoe-string caramel!)

For the Fleur De Sel Caramel Noodles (Shoe-String)
Ingredients
1 cup double cream
5 tablespoons of unsalted butter (cut into pieces)
1 teaspoon of Fleur De Sel (Flower of Salt) (we got ours from Simon Johnson)
1 and a half cups of sugar
Quarter cup glucose syrup
Quarter cup water

Method
Line baking tray (we used Pyrex dishes) with lightly oiled parchment paper (line first, then brush on the oil). Use a clear oil (vegetable oil), as that is tasteless.

In a small saucepan, add the cream, butter and salt and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and set aside.

In another small saucepan (heavy base), boil the remainder of the ingredients, the glucose syrup, sugar and water until the sugar is dissolved.

Without using a spatula or a spoon, gently swirl the boiling mixture around until a light golden caramel is formed.

Carefully stir in the cream mixture and simmer, stirring frequently until the caramel for about 10-15 minutes (Temperature should be around 120 degrees Celsius).

Pour the mixture into the prepared lined tray/dishes and let cool for 2 hours.

Cut lengthwise to form strips (this will act as the Caramel Noodles/Shoe-String

For the Fleur De Sel Caramel Ice-Cream
Ingredients
1 and a quarter cups sugar, divided
2 and a quarter cups double cream, divided
Half a teaspoon of Fleur De Sel
Half a teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
1 cup whole milk
3 large eggs

Method
Very carefully, dry heat a cup of sugar in a medium saucepan (heavy base), spreading it out with a fork. It will heat up pretty quickly and can turn burnt and smoky if you don't pay attention to it.

Once the sugar melts, the colour should change to a dark gold. Once that's done carefully add 1 1/4 cups of cream into the mixture (be careful as it will splatter!). Stir until all the caramel has dissolved.

Transfer to a bowl to cool and add the Fleur De Sel and vanilla extract.

In another saucepan, boil milk, the remaining cream and sugar until all sugar is dissolved. Lightly whisk eggs in a bowl and pour half of the hot milk and cream mixture in a steady slow stream (taking care to not cook the eggs). Pour the mixture back into the saucepan with the rest of the milk/cream mixture and cook over medium heat (be careful not to let it boil). Constantly stir with a wooden spoon until the custard coats the back of your wooden spoon.

Pour your custard through a fine mesh sieve twice. Stir in the cooled caramel. Mix both custard and caramel until well combined.

Chill the mixture around 4-6 hours or until completely cold (stir the mixture a few times during the chilling process). Place your mixture into an ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer's instructions to form your ice cream.

For the Fleur De Sel Peanut Caramel

Ingredients

40 grams of glucose syrup

100ml thickened cream
75 grams caster sugar
25 grams butter
50 grams coarsely chopped peanuts
Quarter of a teaspoon of Fleur De Sel salt

Method
Add glucose and thickened cream in a saucepan and bring it to boil (stirring the mixture). Place it aside and keep it warm.

In another saucepan (heavy base), heat the sugar over medium heat (constantly stirring) till it dissolves and turns to a light gold colour.

Gradually add your hot cream mixture into the caramel (in a steady slow stream) while constantly whisking it to combine.

Add butter and stir well till combined.

Turn off the heat and add peanuts and fleur de sel. Mix well to combine. Leave mixture to cool and it should harden up.

When mixture has hardened, break into small chunks/clusters.

For the Chocolate Pieces
Method
Take about 4-5 small squares from a block of chocolate. Microwave them on high for 30 secs. Take the chocolate out and stir until they completely melt.

Spread a thin layer of melted chocolate onto baking paper. Place in the freezer till it turns solid again (you can curl the baking paper so it forms a U-shape or any other shape you prefer).

Take the chocolate out and break into any shape that you like.

For the Plating-Up
Brush a small amount of chocolate on the plate. Use the peanut caramel to form the base. You can choose the fleur de sel caramel shoe-string/noodle to form a nest for the ice-cream. Scoop a generous amount of ice cream and place on the peanut caramel. Using the chocolate pieces, scatter around the plate. For an artistic touch (because this is a Salt theme after all), scatter some Fleur De Sel around the caramel shoe-string/noodle.

Voila! There you have it! A beautiful and fun creation to enjoy and feast upon!

The creamy texture of the ice-cream goes extremely well with the chewy texture of the caramel shoe-string/noodle and the crunchy texture of the peanuts.

Absolutely divine! Be prepared for a super sugar rush!

Hope you enjoy this version of our Fleur De Sel Caramel 'Sneakers'!

Recipes were adapted from several other recipe's that are out there on the big wide web :)

I would like to give special attention to Epicurious.com and David Lebovitz's Salted Butter Caramel Ice-Cream and Phillipa Sibley's Snickers Recipe, for recipe inspirations to this dish.

Note: I have to apologise, it was a really busy week and I didn't really manage to take as many photos as I would have liked of each step in the process of making this.

Do visit the other blogs listed below on their amazing Salt recipes! Have fun and Happy Sunday to you all :)