Where did all the rum go?!

As I'm sure many are this year, I've had to be very creative in the gift giving arena. With that being said, I decided to make Cinnamon Rum Caramel Sauce. Mind you, I don't cook. I'm learning my way around the kitchen, so when I told C what I was attempting his exact words were, "good luck. I hear caramel is tricky." Crap.

As I looked at the recipe, I told myself that I could do it. You never know til you try, right? If it is a complete disaster, fine. At least I tried.

The recipe is as follows:

source

Bananas Foster Cinnamon Rum Caramel Sundae


Ingredients
■1 cup of sugar
■1/4 cup water

■6 Tbsp butter

■1/2 cup half and half (many recipes for caramel sauce call for heavy cream; I’ve had great success with half and half but if you want an even richer end result, by all means substitute an equal amount of heavy cream) (I used the half & half and was happy with the results!)

■1 tsp cinnamon

■3 Tbsp rum (I used Bacardi Gold)

■1/4 cup coarsely chopped and toasted California walnuts (follow @CaWalnuts on Twitter!)

Preparation

1.Whisk cinnamon and rum into half and half and set aside.


2.Combine 1 cup sugar and 1/4 cup water in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking constantly.


3.Once mixture starts to boil, turn heat to medium-low and stop whisking.

4.Continue to boil until the mixture turns amber, about 10 to 15 minutes.

5.Remove pan from the stove and add butter; whisk in butter as it melts. (I had to modify this step and leave on heat. Immediately when I took off stove it hardened and clumped.)

6.When butter has melted, whisk in half and half mixture; it will bubble vigorously; just continue whisking til smooth.

7.Cool; will keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks (that theory has never been tested; it disappears too fast!).

Serving Suggestions


Pour 2-3 Tbsps of sauce per serving into a small non stick skillet. Add sliced bananas and heat til warmed.


Top vanilla ice cream with bananas and sauce and sprinkle with toasted walnuts or put two scoops of ice cream on a crepe, roll it up and cover with the bananas and sauce mixture and toasted walnuts.

Amazing, right?!

I emailed Barbara, the blog author, to ask her about serving. I wanted to put the sauce in cute little mason jars and give as gifts that way. She was so unbelievably easy to talk to and offered fabulous advice. Just what a cooking novice like myself needs. Thanks Barb!

Barb mentioned that she double the recipe and it was enough for 3 6oz mason jars. Mine were 8 oz so that could actually work! However, here is where I went stupid....

I followed the directions and doubled everything as I should. Once I got to the step to make simple syrup, I forgot to double the cooking time. So rather than having caramel sauce, I had caramel soup. This is where I needed C's help. I somehow managed to convince him that what I was doing was way more important than football and he listened (he rocks!). He realized my error right away. Since I had done the last steps already, adding butter, etc. we didn't want to chance it and mess anything up. He had a plan.

I decided I'm not skilled enough to double batches or recipes without supervision, so I just followed the directions like I should have in the first place. This is where my husband's culinary geniusness came into play. In the step where you add the rum/half&half mixture, we added my effed up batch. It had a real nice creaminess to it and we were able to salvage the ingrediants, as I had only bought enough for my 8 jars.

This time, it was magic. I freakin' made caramel! Woohoo! I made four jars just of caramel, then the next 4 I added toasted walnuts to the top. Hubby says it's delish and I didn't even have to bribe him to say that. Score!

Oh, and I only burnt one batch, which was before I drank some of the rum....

Bon Appetit!