Hi everyone... It's Jane tonight, writing about this month's Daring Bakers challenge.

Our hosts, Dolores of Culinary Curiosity, Alex of Blondie And Brownie, and Jenny of Foray Into Food, presented us with two options; we could either make the Caramel Cake devised by  Shuna Fish Lydon of Eggbeater (recipe here).  Or we could take the optional challenge: Alice Medrich’s Golden Vanilla Bean Caramels.  Since Lane is not a fan of caramel, and I don't need to be eating an entire cake by myself, I opted for the caramels.  This was certainly a challenge for me.  I've never made candy before, and I've only rarely worked with a candy thermometer.  (The cake recipe looked veganizable, if any of you are interested in giving it a go.) The caramel recipe is from Pure Dessert. (Caramel Recipe below.)

First, let me say again, that this was my very first experience making candy.  Hard ball, soft ball, hard crack.  Who knew?

My next hurdle was finding the elusive "Golden Syrup."  I went everywhere, except online.  I even hit the local Cost Plus, where I was assured they would have the product.  My store is indefinitely out of stock, but I did find a recipe at RecipeZaar.com, and was able to make that with a reasonable amount of success.  As it turns out, any invert syrup will do.

The Daring Bakers have a private message board, and some of the DBs jump on the challenges the day their issued.  So that means those of us who wait until the last minute are able to read about any problems the rest of the group is experiencing.  A number of the posts I read indicated that my fellow DB were coming up with some rather hard candies.  I did a little research and found that caramels should be cooked to the firm ball stage 245° F–250° F (courtesy of the science of candy), not the 265° F our recipe called for, so I planned on going to 250° F.

As I mentioned previously, Lane doesn't care for caramels. I, on the other hand, have always loved them, so in the interests of my waistline, I quartered the recipe. That was a mistake. There wasn't enough product in the bottom of my pan for the thermometer to get an adequate read. While nothing burned, I wound up with a brick of caramel. It would work as doorstop!  The only consolation I have here is that I wasn't the only one!!!

So, for my next attempt (earlier this morning), I decided I'd have to make 2/3s of the whole recipe and hope my willpower would hold out.  Also, horrors, I used Karo syrup.  I didn't have enough time to make the golden syrup again.  (Hey I tried, I stopped at the grocery store again this morning!  Still no golden syrup!)  I cooked the sugar and syrup a bit slower this time, and since there was more product in the pot, my thermometer worked well.

It was fun to see the sugar carmelize, and I really enjoyed how everything behaved when I added the cream mixture to the bowl.  The temperature dropped immediately, but there were pockets of boiling caramel as I stirred things together.  It looked like a science experiment.

I cooked the caramels.  Things were going along swimmingly.  The color was right, the smell was right, and as I approached my target temperature, things were behaving as they should (hard ball stage).  From my previous experience, I knew I didn't want to pour the caramel into a foil lined pan.  The foil didn't want to come off last time, and left impressions in the caramel.  So this try I followed someone's suggestion and poured the mixture straight into a non-stick cake pan.  That worked well.  When I unmolded my caramel, everything was rather smooth.  Unfortunately, it's still too hard.  I couldn't actually cut little caramels, I wound up scoring the hardened caramel and breaking off a few pieces.

The taste was wonderful.  If I were to make this again I think I'd try lollipop molds.  The caramels tasted exactly like See's Candies Vanilla Caramel Lollipops (however, See's Candies are not vegan!).  YUMMY!  Just don't chew or you'll be heading to the dentist.

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Golden Vanilla Bean Caramels
- makes eighty-one 1-inch caramels -

Ingredients
1 cup golden syrup - Or any invert syrup
2 cups sugar
3/8 teaspoon fine sea salt - I omitted the salt as Earth Balance is salty
2 cups heavy cream - (I used soy creamer)
1 1/2 teaspoons pure ground vanilla beans, purchased or ground in a coffee or spice grinders, or 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (The first time I split the bean and cooked it in the creamer.  For my second attempt, I used vanilla extract.)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into chunks, softened -- I used Earth Balance

Equipment
A 9-inch square baking pan
Candy thermometer

Procedure

Line the bottom and sides of the baking pan with aluminum foil and grease the foil. Combine the golden syrup, sugar, and salt in a heavy 3-quart saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring with a silicone spatula or wooden spoon, until the mixture begins to simmer around the edges. Wash the sugar and syrup from the sides of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in water. Cover and cook for about 3 minutes. (Meanwhile, rinse the spatula or spoon before using it again later.) Uncover the pan and wash down the sides once more. Attach the candy thermometer to the pan, without letting it touch the bottom of the pan, and cook, uncovered (without stirring) until the mixture reaches 305°F. Meanwhile, combine the cream and ground vanilla beans (not the extract) in a small saucepan and heat until tiny bubbles form around the edges of the pan. Turn off the heat and cover the pan to keep the cream hot.

When the sugar mixture reaches 305°F, turn off the heat and stir in the butter chunks. Gradually stir in the hot cream; it will bubble up and steam dramatically, so be careful. Turn the burner back on and adjust it so that the mixture boils energetically but not violently. Stir until any thickened syrup at the bottom of the pan is dissolved and the mixture is smooth. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, to about 245°F. Then cook, stirring constantly, to 260°f for soft, chewy caramels or 265°F; for firmer chewy caramels.

Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract, if using it. Pour the caramel into the lined pan. Let set for 4 to 5 hours, or overnight until firm.

Lift the pan liner from the pan and invert the sheet of caramel onto a sheet of parchment paper. Peel off the liner. Cut the caramels with an oiled knife.  Wrap each caramel individually in wax paper or cellophane.

Variations

Fleur de Sel Caramels: Extra salt, in the form of fleur de sel or another coarse flaked salt, brings out the flavor of the caramel and offers a little ying to the yang. Add an extra scant 1/4 teaspoon of coarse sea salt to the recipe. Or, to keep the salt crunchy, let the caramel cool and firm. Then sprinkle with two pinches of flaky salt and press it in. Invert, remove the pan liner, sprinkle with more salt. Then cut and wrap the caramels in wax paper or cellophane.  (I didn't care for this taste.  I don't know if the Earth Balance provides more salt than the original recipe, or if my caramels were too hard, or if I simply don't care for that taste... -- Jane)

Nutmeg and Vanilla Bean Caramels: Add 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg to the cream before you heat it.

Cardamom Caramels: Omit the vanilla. Add 1/2 teaspoon slightly crushed cardamom seeds (from about 15 cardamom pods) to the cream before heating it. Strain the cream when you add it to the caramel; discard the seeds.

Caramel Sauce: Stop cooking any caramel recipe or variation when it reaches 225°F or, for a sauce that thickens like hot fudge over ice cream, 228°F. Pour it into a sauceboat to serve or into a heatproof jar for storage. The sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for ages and reheated gently in the microwave or a saucepan just until hot and flowing before use. You can stir in rum or brandy to taste. If the sauce is too thick or stiff to serve over ice cream, it can always be thinned with a little water or cream. Or, if you like a sauce that thickens more over ice cream, simmer it for a few minutes longer.
(recipe from Alice Medrich's Pure Dessert)

Okay, I'd like a little clarification here.  First let me say that this is NOT an attack on anyone; I am looking to understand other peoples' thought processes around the issue of the turkey...

Jane and I have read a number of things recently in which people proclaim that they will not sit down at a table on which a turkey will take center stage.  As vegans, the pride of place at our table will be shared by a Tofurky and a Celebration Roast.  However, if we were heading to a non-vegan household, we wouldn't have a problem with a turkey at the table, we'd just make sure to bring something we could eat, and enough to share with anyone curious enough to try an alternative.  (If you haven't tried it already, you might be surprized at how effective this tactic can be.)

Now before you start criticizing me, let me explain my thinking...  If 5% of the U.S. population (and I'm being generous here) is vegetarian, then 95% of the population eats meat. Even if they are "wrong" in eating turkey, it is pretty much the norm.  To expect people to stop practicing "normal" behaviors because you want them to (or even because these practices are wrong) is a bit unrealistic.  I'm not saying advocacy doesn't have it's place.  I'm simply stating that people who are engaging in behavior that is deemed normal are not necessarily going to be aware that their behavior could/should be modified.

But here is where Jane and I become confused.  What's so special about the turkey?  Would you make the same distinction for a pot roast?  Or a rack of lamb?  Or a pork chop?  Or a hamburger?  Or a whole fish?  Okay, you don't "see" the dead animal in a hamburger, but you do in a rack of lamb... or a roasted chicken...or the whole fish (they often come entirely intact... face included).

Yes, 45 million turkeys are killed and sold for Thanksgiving here in the US (according to the USDA).  That accounts for 1/6 of all the turkeys sold in the US.  However, those turkeys represent multiple meals, for multiple people, so it's not as bad as it sounds.  But how many heads of cattle are slaughtered for consumption annually?  How many pigs?  How many chickens?  Is a turkey more important than any other animal?

I guess I don't understand why the Thanksgiving turkey is where the line is often drawn.  Yes, turkeys are intelligent and have personalities.  But pigs exhibit the intelligence equivalent to a 3 year old human.  (Wow!)  And pigs raised for foodstock don't live pleasant lives either; and they certainly don't have humane deaths!

So my questions are these:

• If you can't sit at a table with a Thanksgiving turkey, can you eat at any non-vegan restaurant?  Because animal product is being prepared there, and consumed in proximity to your seat as well?
• If you can't stand the sight of the turkey carcass at your table, what about that rack of lamb?  Or any other animal-based meal presented with pride?
• If you can't stand the sight of the turkey carcass at your table, how do you handle the grocery store with lots of animal parts lined up, some of them readily identifiable as animals?
• If you can't stand the sight of the turkey carcass, what do you do at the sight of a lobster tank?

(Remember, I'm not attacking anyone...  I'm pointing out what I see as inconsistencies and looking for clarification.)

So if I don't understand this reasoning, and I'm a vegan too... is it not reasonable to expect that your non-vegan loved ones will also miss the point?  And, if that's the case, perhaps a bit of tolerance will go further in helping to promote the cause than a flat out refusal to be even the slightest bit tolerant, which is my point in writing this post...  Tolerance will probably get you more opportunities for dialogue.  And with dialogue can come change.

Regardless of how you are planning on spending your day... We wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!  Or simply, a happy Thursday.  (We'll be back with a post-meal post on Friday.)

I've been going to the farmers market to get my produce ever since I moved to California.  Over the years I've noticed a change in the "seasonality" of certain produce, notably strawberries and asparagus.  They used to be available only in the spring.  But not anymore.  The local growers have figured out how to make these items available year round.  Shockingly, the strawberries taste like strawberries, not fake looking strawberries with ae pale white interior that I used to get when I lived in New York.

This week, we picked up asparagus.  We knew it would be a warm week, and Jane had it in mind to make us asparagus soup.  She used the recipe from the Real Food Daily Cookbook, instead of her usual vegan cream of asparagus soup recipe.  I can't honestly say which I prefer.  This soup is more complex than Jane's recipe, with many more spices, while hers is more true to the flavor of asparagus.  I can say however, that the asparagus we had was very fibrous.  In any event, the soup was wonderful.  We rounded off our meal with the end of a loaf of potato bread and a gigantic salad.

If you're tired of Tofurky and don't feel like trying something new like the Holiday Nut Loaf or Tofurky Take 2, Whole Foods has an option that looks like a lot of fun... a vegan turkey.  At $50, it's not that steep if it truly feeds the 10-16 people it claims it will feed.  However, it's only 4 pounds so we're skeptical.

Thought you all might find it interesting.  (Sorry about the poor quality photo, we don't usually have our camera when we're at the grocery store.)

* Note: If you were planning on making the Vegetarian Plus Whole Turkey, make sure you got/get the package that reads Vegetarian Plus VEGAN Whole Turkey.  The photo above is of the vegetarian, not vegan, product.

We've gotten a few emails and tweets asking if we're okay (since we live in the Southern California area).  Despite what the news is saying, all of SoCal is not up in flames.  We're fine, aside from the  bad air quality, which you can get a good idea of by looking at the photos at the top of this post (taken from one of our windows).  But we do know people whose homes are in jeopardy, and our thoughts are with them.

It's shocking how unprepared most of us are for this kind of thing.  FEMA has a great guide called Are You Ready, which provides information on what to do in the event of all sorts of emergencies from earthquakes, to fires, to floods, to nuclear and chemical threats.

Here's hoping you're all safe!  And take a moment to figure out what you'd do in the event of an emergency.