Welcome to How To Cook That I'm Ann Reardon in our shops' supplies are
running low due to panic buying and covid-19 restrictions are getting
tighter by the day so I thought we'd have some fun experimenting with limited
ingredients and making some sugar decorations so that you can relax and
de-stress and forget about the worries of the world even if it's just for a
moment 😇 All you need to make this first one is some sugar and enough water to
make it damp and if you've got it, then a little bit of glucose syrup. You can make
it without this but it does help stop the sugar from crystallizing. Stir that
together over high heat until the sugar is dissolved and then wash down the
sides of the pan you can use a pastry brush or a clean paintbrush just dipped
in water and this washes away any sugar crystals that are on the edge of the pan
if you don't do that they can cause the caramel to crystallize out and go a bit
like fudge. Then you want to leave that to boil don't stir it just let it bubble
away until it starts to go golden. Do keep an eye on it because from this
point it can turn to burnt very quickly. Turn off the heat and then you're ready
to make decorations ... if you let the mixture cool it starts to thicken and if
you just get a little bit on a spoon you can pull it and wrap it around the
handle of a wooden spoon. Now do be careful not to get this on your skin as
it is very hot 🔥 once you've pulled a thin bit it cools down very quickly but if
you get a big clump on your skin it's still gonna burn you even though we've
let it cool down. Now I've put some cooking oil onto the handle so that it
doesn't stick and we can slide it off.
and then you can very carefully place that onto your dessert isn't that just
beautiful 💕 next I have an easy one for you ... stick a
skewer into a hazelnut or any nut you want really, dip it into the caramel so
that it's covered all over and then you just want to hang it up so the caramel
can drop down and you end up with these long spikes. I've just clamped my skewers to overhead
cupboards you can tape them there or use Bluetack or whatever you have handy. Now
you can keep these spikes as long as you want them or you can snap them off
shorter and add them to your dessert for a striking but easy decoration or just
eat them. With hot caramel you can use any silicon molds that you may have in
the house because silicon is heat proof this one is a lace mold. now you can just
pour some on quite thick and once it's set it's easy to peel off and it is
pretty but it's a bit chunky for a dessert decoration you'd be just
crunching through that because it's quite thick. In my opinion it's better to
try and make it super thin and you can do that by pouring it on and then
scraping off the top layer while it's still liquid and once that is set you'll
need to flip it over and carefully pull the mold back and you can use that as
one piece like that or break it into smaller parts and put
it on top of your dessert. now you may have noticed this decoration is quite a
golden caramel color, if you're after something that's more white or clear
colored you can use isomalt which is very easy to work with mainly because it
doesn't crystallize as easily as the sugar does. You basically just put it
into the pan and heat it over high heat until it melts and then dip a round
cookie cutter into the isomalt so that you get a thin coating on one side a bit
like you can a blow bubbles and then I'm just gonna pour some chocolate sauce in
onto the isomalt and you end up with these unique little containers of sauce
that you can serve with your dessert. They are very very fragile so be careful
not to just drop them only silly people would do that 🤡 you can make these into a bowl
of oil so they have a softer landing and then just drain that on some paper towel
before you use it but as I said before they are very fragile so you don't want
to just let them ... drop 🙀These little containers of chocolate sauce are yummy
served with strawberries because you then have that crispy isomalt outer
layer and your chocolate sauce and your strawberries so it takes something very
simple and makes it quite fancy and really delicious!
once you've nailed that you can move on to edible cellophane ... again using the
cookie cutter in the same way as we did before and then blowing using a
hairdryer from a distance you get this really thin isomalt that looks like
cellophane. Now this stuff is pretty cool but you do need to use it immediately or
it'll absorb moisture from the air and go soft and it's best when it's nice and
crunchy and gives that addition of that crunchy texture to a soft dessert.
I've only ever seen this done with isomalt and I wanted to know if you
could do it with normal caramel too and if you just actually let the end cool
and then pull it it will make like the cellophane it just has a slightly browny
tinge to it but it's pretty cool. This next one I really like if you use a
slightly larger cookie cutter and get the base covered in caramel
then quickly place it over a desert touch the plate and then pull back up
and you get the whole dessert wrapped in a thin crunchy layer of caramel that
looks like it's wrapped in plastic but it's edible caramel. Coming up next is
something I have never done before but before I get to that quick shout out to
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thanks to Honey for sponsoring today's video. Okay back to the caramel as I said
I've never done this before you'll need silicon gloves to give your hands a bit
of protection from the heat. it is still hot but it's just a little bit less hot 🔥
let the caramel cool enough that you can make a ball and then put the metal part
into the caramel and try and make a seal around the pipe. Then pump it up ... wow look
at that!! This is going to be really uneven
because I'm not turning it but let's just pump it up and see how big it gets
before it pops. It's still going and going ...
it popped it's over
but because the top has already cooled down and it's already set it's kind of
holding its shape so we could still use some of that. This is fun I'm gonna try
that again but with a smaller amount of caramel ... if it gets thin on one side you
can just put your hand there to support that area and it kind of forces it to
stretch in a different spot so it stops it from popping. To get it off the pipe
the easiest way is to heat up the pipe apparently using a blowtorch but mine is
out of gas so I'm going to try just using a hot knife but again these are
pretty fragile. We've still got a piece of it there you could put a dessert
inside that or put that on top of a dessert add some cream
and now smash it that's pretty good you've got to admit 😁with thanks to my
patrons for your ongoing support you guys are legends. I 🙏 for all of you
my subscribers and everyone around the world for safety at this time and hope
that you are all good, let me know in the comments what's going on in your world.
Subscribe to how to cook that for more crazy sweet creations, click here to
watch chocolate decorations and other interesting stuff so that you can de-stress 😌
Make it a great week and I'll see you on Friday.