Remember our salted butter caramels? How about our salted caramel chocolate chip cookies? If so, you are going to love this!

The other day, my mom came over for lunch. After lunch, we sat down and watched an episode of The Barefoot Contessa, an episode that immediately transformed me into an OH-MY-GOSH-I-NEED-TO-MAKE-CARAMEL-SAUCE kind of mood. After an easy sell to Adam, we rushed to the store, bought what we needed (which wasn’t much, because you only need 5 ingredients, one being water and got to making this delicious and creamy caramel sauce. Our spin on the recipe is that it’s salted ), a spin that makes this sauce addictive, especially when drizzled over butter pecan ice cream, brownies or whatever else I could get my hands on.

-Joanne

How to make Salted Caramel Sauce

You will need sugar, water, cream, vanilla extract and salt.

Add the sugar and water to a large saucepan over low heat. Stir just to combine, but be careful not to slosh the sugar up the sides of the pan. Cook over low heat until the sugar has dissolved into the water. This would be a good time to add a candy thermometer to the pan, too!

If some sugar granules have made their way up the side of the pan, knock them back down using a wet pastry brush. If you do have granules on the sides of the pan, they could cause crystals, which could burn later on.

Now, go ahead and increase the heat, stop stirring the mixture and bring the sugar to 350 degrees F. This step takes 5-10 minutes, but stay close. Remember, you are working with very hot sugar, so be careful. If you need to, swirl the pan carefully to disperse any hot spots.

At 350 degrees F, the caramel will look like this, a dark brown color.

Turn off the heat, then add the cream. It will violently bubble, so stand back a bit.

Next, add some vanilla extract.

…and the salt.

Now, place the pan back onto the heat and stir until smooth. Don’t worry if the caramel is lumpy at first, any lumps will melt into the caramel after a minute or two. Then, allow the caramel to cool. You could give it a taste at this point… just be careful and blow on the spoon before trying — remember it is crazy hot right now. With that said, I like to try it (after blowing on it until cooled) to check for the saltiness — you may want to add an extra pinch or two.

Once cooled, you can store the caramel in an airtight container in the fridge for two weeks! Although, we doubt it would last that long.When you want to use it, throw it in the microwave for 30 seconds and pour over whatever you desire… me? I went for butter pecan ice cream.

*Recipe adapted from The Barefoot Contessa

These should come with a warning, make a double batch. I promise they will fly off the plate. Wonton wrappers are turned into mini taco cups, cups that you can fill with anything you desire. In this case, we fill them with flavorful fish and a spicy cabbage slaw. For the fish, we chose tilapia, it is really inexpensive and holds up well when baked. You could replace tilapia with another  flaky white fish or even salmon. The red cabbage slaw has a bit of spice, we add a small amount of chipotles in adobo sauce, something you can find in most grocery stores, just look in the international aisle. They usually come in a small can. We have used chipotles in adobo sauce before, give our Salmon Burgers with Chipotle Mayo or Oven Roasted Corn a try.

How to make Mini Fish Tacos

It’s really easy to transform store-bought wonton wrappers into mini cups. Start by lightly brushing each side of the wrapper with some olive oil.

Then, just press the wrappers into mini muffin/cupcake cups and bake in a 350 degree F oven for 5-7 minutes. They will become crisp and stable enough to fill with whatever you desire.

While the wontons are baking, bake the fish, which takes just about 12 minutes. Easy! Season both sides with some salt then rub  a mixture of garlic powder, paprika and ground coriander all over both sides.

Add a tablespoon or so of olive oil to a baking sheet then place the fish on top. Don’t add any oil to the top of the fish. This way, the spices will dry out just a bit, making the tacos really pretty in the end.

While the fish bakes, you can get your slaw together. Finely chop some red cabbage.

Then toss with sour cream, salt, lime and spicy chipotles in adobo sauce (you can find that in the international aisle of the grocery store).

Then, assemble and enjoy!

Anything “mini” totally scores points on the cuteness scale, these mini upside down cakes are no exception! A muffin pan helps out to make the most adorable little cakes, perfect for mid-morning, late afternoon or dessert. To make things easy, we used a boxed cake mix, you certainly could supplement your favorite yellow cake recipe, though.

The secret to these is a grapefruit. We used the zest and juice to add just a touch of citrus and tang, it lifts the flavor of the cake just enough to make you question, what is in this? The cakes themselves are addictive, especially since we bake them with a layer of brown sugar, butter and blueberries on the bottom.

How to make Mini Blueberry Upside Down Cakes

You’re going to need a yellow or vanilla cake mix, we used Betty Crocker’s French Vanilla mix. You will also need some vegetable oil, eggs, a grapefruit, frozen and thawed or fresh blueberries, butter and brown sugar.

Zest the entire grapefruit, then juice it. The cake mix calls for 1 cup of water, instead of the water, we replace that with grapefruit juice.

Add the cake mix, oil, eggs, grapefruit zest and juice to a large bowl and beat until combined.

Now, add a little bit of butter to the bottom of each muffin cup then place in the oven for about 1 minute – just until the butter melts. Take the pan out of the oven and add a layer of brown sugar and blueberries then top with the cake batter. Finally, bake 20 minutes until the cake is done!

Allow the cakes to cool in the pan for about 5 minutes then run a knife around the edges of each cake to release them from the pan. Invert the pan and allow each cake to fall out then cool completely. Serve each cake with a dollop of whipped cream or cool whip and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

*recipe developed for Betty Crocker