Firecracker Floats

In the same issue of Taste of Home that revealed the layer cake, The Girl found a page covered in different variations of sundaes, floats and other ice cream delights. While they all look delicious and will eventually all be tried in due course, the Firecracker Float just pulled us in. We were going to serve these with the cake when my nephew was here for his birthday. That was the plan, anyway.

The big obstacle was finding Pop Rocks. I went to every store and gas station in town that might possibly have supplied them to no avail. Not a single Pop Rock to be found. We were so excited to try this one and were going to have to give up the dream until we could get to a metropolis large enough to carry such a delicacy.

So, so sad.

I happened to be in the dollar store yesterday and at the end of the aisle was a great big display of Pop Rocks. I KNOW that those were not there when I looked earlier this week, and sure enough, when questioned, the lady said she had put it up the day after I came looking. 

So I stocked up and rushed home to try these out.

Add a scoop of ice cream (any flavor) into a tall glass. Sprinkle with Pop Rocks. The instructions called for a third a package, but I think it needs a little bit more. Be careful. They are called Pop Rocks for a reason. They pop. Everywhere. They are even activated by ice cream. The Boy is forever scarred.

 Repeat these layers until the glass is most of the way full.

 Fill in the spaces with lemon lime soda. The first thing Jeff said was "won't my stomach explode and kill me?" No. It won't. What it will do is cause the Rocks to start Popping. This is good.

 Add a straw and mix it up.

You cannot enjoy this float with out giggling at least once. I'm not sure how these little tiny candies can cause so much joy. And they are tasty.

Click here for Printable Recipe

Firecracker Float
3-4 Scoops Ice Cream
1 Package Pop Rocks
1-2 Cups Lemon Lime Soda
Scoop ice cream into a tall glass. Top with Pop Rocks. Repeat to you heart's content. Top with soda.

Caramel Sauce

I came across this sauce recipe the other day when I was looking for hot drinks. (I found it, word for word, in several places, so I'm not sure where the credit goes.) I really like caramel on my ice cream, but for some reason never seem to buy the topping. This looked simple to make, although I have never had good luck making caramel candy at Christmas time. I have come close to catching my kitchen on fire, but not getting edible results.

We are going into our second snow storm system for this week, so I figured there was no better time to risk it.

Add 1/4 cup water to a cup of sugar. Stir this well and cook until the sugar dissolves. I know. This ratio doesn't seem to have a prayer, but heat it over medium heat, stirring constantly.

Once it starts to boil, stop stirring. Start to boil time for me was about 10 minutes.
And just let it boil. Do not stir. You can swirl the pan a little bit if you get antsy, but DO NOT STIR!

About five minutes later, you will see the mixture start to turn a little bit brown. This is good. Remember, caramel is brown. See all that sugar crystallizing at the top? Leave it there. This is such a strain on my OCD tendencies, but if you bring all that back in, your caramel will have more of a grainy texture. This is actually true for any soft candy you make at home.
Watch this very carefully and swirl some more if you get nervous. You will probably start to get kind of a chemical smell here. That's okay as long as it's not burning. When you get a nice caramel brown color, remove the pan from the heat.
Pour in a half a cup of heavy cream and a little bit of vanilla to your burnt sugar.

Whisk. And whisk. And whisk some more. You will get a big clump of caramel forming on your whisk. Just ignore it and keep whisking. Move your pan back to low heat to help that solid chunk melt back in. Whisk until you get a nice smooth mixture.

This will make about 1 cup.
Pour it into a nice pretty container.
If you have one. Otherwise, just pour it into a clear one. Clear is a must. You HAVE to be able to see this. Isn't it gorgeous?
Then drink it. Just kidding. Sort of. But at least let it cool. Bad things happen when you try to drink hot caramel. Just trust me on this one.
The recipe as it is written, although not horribly so, is a little bit sweet for me. I think next time I will add in a pinch of salt.

It is still really, really yummy. I had some on yogurt for breakfast (weird, I know, but we are out of ice cream). And I had some on a spoon.

Click here for Printable Recipe

Caramel Sauce

1/4 c water

1 c sugar

1/2 c heavy cream

dash of vanilla extract

Combine water and sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook until sugar dissolves. Once dissolved, do not stir! Allow the mixture to boil until the sugar turns a caramel brown (about 350 degrees F on a candy thermometer). This should take about 5 minutes, swirling the pan periodically to keep the mixture from burning, especially at the end of the 5 minutes.

ake the sugar mixture off of the heat. Carefully whisk in the cream and vanilla.

Place the pot over low heat and continue whisking until the sauce returns to a smooth texture. Allow the caramel to cool at room temperature before refrigerating.

Butterscotch Sauce

I don't know about you, but I am fairly certain I gained some weight during our two Snow Days last week. I don't know what it is, but I always want to cook, cook, cook on those days. So that's what I did. I went on the hot drinks kick, and this is kind of an extension of that.

I made the caramel sauce. It was so easy that I also made butterscotch sauce (you will see why in a few) to go along with it.

The process is essentially the same, just with a slight change in ingredients.

Melt butter in a saucepan and add in brown sugar. This is essentially the only different step :)

Mix this all well and heat on medium heat.
Until it starts to boil. Heat this for about 5 minutes.
Add in your cream.
Notice how the cream does not really go down into the sauce mixture.
At all.
Start whisking. Heat and whisk until you can't whisk any more. It takes awhile.
I never did get all the sugar to mix smoothly in with the cream.
But I'm okay with that.

While I prefer caramel, this is really good. When I ran out of the caramel, I started using it in Caramel Steamed Milk with great success.

Click here for Printable Recipe

Butterscotch Sauce

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 cup of tightly packed dark brown sugar

¾ cup heavy whipping cream (not ultra-pasteurized)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon kosher salt

Before you begin, make sure you have everything ready to go.

In a heavy bottomed stainless steel 2 quart saucepan, melt butter over low to medium heat. Just before butter is melted, add all dark brown sugar at once and stir with wooden spoon until sugar is uniformly wet.

Stir infrequently until mixture goes from looking grainy to molten lava. Make sure to get into the corners of your pot, and watch closely to notice how the mixture changes. It will take about 3 to 5 minutes before it starts to look like a liquid.

Add all the cream at once and lower heat a little and whisk cream into mixture. When liquid is uniform, turn heat back to medium and whisk every few minutes for a total of 10 minutes.

After liquid has been boiling on the stove for its 10 minutes, turn heat off and let rest for a minute or two before transferring into a heatproof storage vessel. Cool to room temperature.

Whisk in half the salt and vanilla extract. Taste again. Add more salt and vanilla extract until the marvelous taste of real butterscotch is achieved.

Butterscotch makes a fantastic topping for ice cream.

Chill butterscotch sauce in a non-reactive container with a tightly fitting lid only after sauce has chilled completely. It will keep for one month refrigerated, that is if you can keep from eating it all the moment it has cooled down and been seasoned to your liking.