Teacher Valentines 2014

I usually don’t like to make the same gift twice. I tend to get bored with making the same things. For last year’s Christmas gifts, I made the teachers salted caramel sauce packaged with an apple. This year, they were still talking about how delicious the sauce was. So I took the “hint” and decided to make the sauce again, but this time with different packaging. Since I went with a sewn-paper route with the kids’ valentines this year, I decided to continue the theme. I was looking back on a few of my recent designs and I seem to be really into black and white right now 🙂 Here’s the salted caramel recipe I used from Meals Full of Color. It’s serious deliciousness. I had to exercise some major self-control to keep myself from downing a whole jar. Salted Caramel Sauce (adapted from Meals Full of Color) 1 cup sugar 1/4 cup water 3/4 cup heavy cream 3 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 teaspoon fleur de sel (if you do not have this use good quality sea salt) In a heavy-bottomed pot, combine the sugar and water over medium-low heat until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil, without stirring the sugar mixture. If necessary, use a wet pastry brush to push down any sugar crystals that are on the side of the pot. Boil until the syrup is a deep amber color, about 5 to 6 minutes. Remove the sugar from the heat and carefully whisk in the heavy cream (it is going to bubble up). And when I say carefully I REALLY mean carefully. I’ve burned myself a few times with this step. Stir in the unsalted butter, and salt. Transfer the caramel to a jar and allow to cool on the counter. This sauce will keep for about 2 weeks in the refrigerator. You can just heat it up when you want to use it and place it back in the refrigerator when you are done.