Roasted Hamster

How to Win Friends and Impress Your Enemies

Hopefully you don't have any of the latter but, if you do, these two recipes will win them over or, at the least, make them green with envy for your mad skills in the kitchen.

First, a little bit of background… For years my mother has had the Bon Appétit Christmas cookbook. We have explored many of its recipes together, including the two you're reading about here. This book is currently out of print, though you can purchase it used on Amazon and I highly recommend it. I have always loved cheesecake and the Eggnog Cheesecake from this book is by far my favorite, but I digress. Last Christmas my mother gifted me the prized book. I had an insane final semester so it wasn't until this summer that I finally had time to dip into it and make something (not really the time to use a Christmas recipe book, but stick with me here). I was craving ice cream, which is a problem because Michael loves vanilla and I consider vanilla ice cream as only useful as a vehicle for sauces, so I made these two ice cream toppings and we compromised with the ice cream. He loves the butterscotch sauce so much now though that, since I made it (and because of the speed with which we eat it, have made it twice since), he will only eat vanilla ice cream with it as a topping. I like the butterscotch sauce but I crave the chocolate sauce. He tells me that it is too thick (as if that were possible!), which works out well because there are no arguments over who ate all of a particular sauce.

Enough of the background though. What you really came here for was the recipes for the greatness that is “Black and Tan Sauces“.

The Black (Bittersweet Chocolate) Sauce

Stir the water and sugar in a heavy medium saucepan over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Bring it to a boil and boil 1 minute. Remove from the heat and mix in the instant coffee granules. Add the chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth. Stir in the cream, vanilla, and salt. Cool slightly. Transfer to a pint canning jar and seal tightly.

Note: I usually leave the coffee granules out. They mostly serve to cut the sweetness.

The Tan (Butterscotch-Pecan) Sauce
Preheat the oven to 375 F (180 C). Place the pecans on a cookie sheet. Toast them until they are fragrant and just beginning to brown, stirring occasionally. This should take around 12 minutes. Cool them completely. Read the notes below for instructions on toasting the almonds.

Stir the sugar and the Scotch whisky in a heavy medium saucepan over low heat until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat to medium-high and bring it to a boil. Boil without stirring until the mixture is deep amber in color, brushing down the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush and swirling the pan occasionally. This process should take about 4 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the cream (be careful because the mixture will bubble up). Return it to the heat and boil, whisking constantly. Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter, salt, and pecans or almonds. Cool the sauce slightly and transfer it to a pint jar and seal tightly.

Notes: First, while I love pecans, we have found that sliced almonds are even better in this sauce. The almonds will need a lower temperature (325 to 350 F or 165 to 175 C) and less time to toast (8 to 10 minutes). You want them to turn a golden brown without burning. Second, because you boil this mixture for so long, the alcohol burns out, making this safe for children.

Reheating instructions:

Because of the cream, these sauces need to be stored in the refrigerator once opened (if you sealed them in a water bath - I do when I make more than one jar) or in general (if you didn't seal them). This makes them too thick to put onto ice cream as a sauce. You can reheat them in the microwave - take any metal lids off. The amount of time needed will depend on how much is left in the jar but when full, I suggest you start at 2 minutes, stirring halfway through. We don't have a microwave (shocking, I know but food tastes better reheated on the stove or in the oven and it doesn't take much longer, especially not with gas) so we use the second option, which is to rewarm the sauces in a saucepan of water over low heat (leave the sauce in the container, don't pour it into the water, just sayin'). You need to heat it just through, stirring frequently.
br> These are best served with vanilla ice cream, though the butterscotch is also very good over chocolate and the chocolate sauce is very good over coffee or mocha flavored ice cream. Michael disagrees but then he doesn't like coffee or mocha flavored ice cream. If you want to be super decadent, you could serve this with whipped cream and a REAL maraschino cherry (not one of those horrifyingly artificially colored freaks of nature that pass as such in the USofA).

Enjoy!