[2] Candy corn (photo by Liz West | Wikipedia).

It doesn’t look like candy corn, but it tastes like it. If you have glass dessert dishes, this dessert or snack is food fun for the harvest season.

It doesn’t taste like candy corn, but looks like it—that’s the fun!

 
 
RECIPE: CANDY CORN PUDDING

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. PREPARE the white layer. Per package directions, pour water in a small saucepan and sprinkle with the gelatin. Allow to soak for a minute or two. Heat over low heat until the gelatin is dissolved, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the sweetened condensed milk. Add to the dish and allow to set for 1/2 hour or more in the fridge.

2. PREPARE the orange layer. Make the Jell-O according to package directions. Let stand 15 minutes; then add to the dishes and allow to set for 1/2 hour or more in the fridge.

3. PREPARE the yellow layer. Make the custard or Jell-O according to package directions. Let stand 15 minutes; then add to the dishes and allow to set for 4 hours or overnight in the fridge.

4. GARNISH as desired and serve.
 
 
MORE CANDY CORN RECIPES

October 14th is National Dessert Day.

Our word “dessert” emerged in mid-16th-century French, a combination of the past participle of desservir “to clear the table,” and servir, “to serve.”

The name reflects that dessert was served after the table had been cleared of other dishes.

A variety of desserts set on the table of the same time became known as service à la française. The practice of serving a meal in differentiated courses (as opposed to the buffet or groaning board) was called service à la russe, Russian-style.

Desserts can be sweet or savory, solid or liquid:

 
This western concept of dessert—a dish that concludes the meal—is found elsewhere in the world. But in some parts of Africa, and most parts of China, there is no such tradition.
 
 
THE HISTORY OF DESSERT

Sweets appear in the earliest civilizations. They were offered to the gods in Mesopotamia, India and other ancient civilizations [source].

Dried fruit and honey were probably the first desserts, and more elaborate preparations were made with honey.

But the spread of sugar cane around the world encouraged the development of more, and more elaborate, types of dessert.

Sugar cane, which originated in Southeast Asia (the history of sugar), was grown and refined into crystals in India before the fourth century B.C.E.

It was traded, to Macedonia by 300 B.C.E. and China by 600 C.E. In South Asia, the Middle East and China, sugar became a staple of both main meal cooking and desserts.

Sugar was little known in Europe. Crusaders returning to Europe in the 12th century brought sugar with them.

While Europeans began to manufacture beet sugar in the Middle Ages, it wasn’t until the 16th that sugar plantations were started in the Canary Islands and the West Indies, bringing more sugar to Europe.

It was a luxury product for the wealthy, and made wealthy people of the sugar planters and merchants.

Finally, by the 18th century, all levels of society could afford the former luxury product. And beyond sweetening tea and coffee, they made desserts: lots of them.

With the Industrial Revolution, desserts, along with other foods, began to be mass-produced. Frozen foods, including desserts, became very popular in the 1920s when frozen foods became widely available.

[2] As new techniques were created, desserts like the Pavlova emerged, nestling the fruit in meringue (photo courtesy Zoe Bakes).

[3] Different types of pastry were created to envelope fruit. Here’s the recipe for this strawberry cream cheese pie from Sugar Spun Run.

[2] Gala apples (photo courtesy Good Eggs).

Looking for a weekend baking project?

This easy dessert is as popular as apple pie, and easier to make. It is called a crisp because the topping, which contains oats (oatmeal), gets crispy when baked.

In the U.K., the same dish is called a crumble. Take a look at similar fruit dishes with different toppings: the betty, cobbler, grunt, pandowdy and others.
 
RECIPE: CLASSIC APPLE CRISP

For the apples, select Braeburn, Empire or Gala.

Prep time is 15 minutes, cook time is 35 minutes.

Ingredients

 
For a fancy topping, you can make meringue and brown it with a culinary/kitchen torch.

1. PREHEAT the oven to 375°F.

2. MAKE the topping. In a large bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, salt and 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar. Cut the butter into the flour, using a pastry blender or two knives, until mixture is the texture of coarse meal. Add the oats; use your hands to toss and squeeze the mixture until large, moist clumps form. Transfer to the freezer to chill.

3. TOSS the apples in a clean large bowl with the lemon juice, cinnamon and the remaining granulated sugar. Transfer to a shallow 2-quart baking dish, and sprinkle with topping mixture. Place baking dish on a rimmed baking sheet, and bake until golden and bubbling, 55 to 65 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes before serving.

What’s a soup napoleon? It’s a name we gave to this recipe concept from Vaucluse restaurant in New York City.

It sounds more appealing than “stack” or “cylinder” and more accurate than “tower.” A pastry napoleon is a stack of layered pastry, custard, and optionally, fruit.

The mechanics are simple: A stack of four or five layers of contrasting ingredients are set in a ring mold in the dish. The ring mold is removed, and the soup is poured (ideally from a pitcher) around the cylinder/stack/tower.

It’s a dramatic presentation when done at the table (photo #1). From the kitchen, bring the dishes of cylinders and place them in front of the diners; then pour the soup around the cylinder.

It’s a substantial first course; and can be made in a larger portion as a vegetarian main course.

While it may look complicated, it doesn’t take any great skill. Beyond preparing (or buying) the soup, the only time-consuming part is chopping, slicing, and forming the stacks.

You can also serve the napoleon without the soup (photo #2): on a plate with a drizzle or dots of sauce or balsamic glaze around it, or on a bed of greens.
 
 
WHAT’S IN THE NAPOLEON?

The stack can include whatever you like. But first, pick a direction:

 
In photo #1, the napoleon with five layers: lobster, sautéed squash cubes, cucumber julienne, croutons and salmon caviar. It’s topped off with a nasturtium leaf, but a basil leaf or no leaf is just fine.

After the napoleon is built, squash soup is added, almost to the top of the lobster layer, or whatever your first layer is.

You don’t need to serve a lot of soup: an inch of it is fine. Just make your bottom layer at least an inch deep. The other layers can be as deep or narrow as you like.

To choose your ingredients, use layers of different colors and textures. Examples:

 
Whatever you choose, it will be delicious, artistic and fun. Tamp down each layer as you build it, so they hold together. When you’ve added all the layers, tamp the stack lightly. Then twist the ring slightly to remove it.

The only special item you need is a ring mold (photo #3).

[2] You can serve the napoleon as an appetizer on its own, plain with a drizzle of sauce or on a bed of greens (here’s the recipe for this spicy shrimp and avocado stack from SkinnyTaste).

[3] Ring mold set from Ateco, available on Amazon and elsewhere.

There’s no right or wrong: It’s how you want to present the dish.

Ring molds are inexpensive, but if you want to experiment without buying one, just remove the top and bottom from shorter cans of food.
 
 
USES FOR RING MOLDS

Ring molds are cylinders with open ends that are used for food styling and presentations (photo #3). They are made in a variety of diameters and heights.

They are primarily used to form food(s) into towers/cylinders/stacks: forming appetizers and crab cakes, molding salads and steak tartare, vegetable timbales, and desserts.

You can also use them to cook food in a perfectly round shape: eggs and pancakes, for example. You can also use them to cut perfectly round burgers or sliders; biscuits, gelatin, pastry and polenta.

The rings are made from stainless steel. We prefer those that come with a tamping device, which helps to pack the food in tightly.
 
 
FOOD TRIVIA

The napoleon, known best as a layered custard pastry, was not named after Emperor Napoleon. It isn’t even French.

It was created in Naples, Italy, where it was known as a napolitano. The name translated to napoleon in French and English.

October 11th is World Dulce De Leche Day.

An overview of dulce de leche is followed by an impressive Bananas Foster Dulce de Leche Crêpe Cake recipe, by Sarah Fennel of Broma Bakery. Her recipe website is a compilation of everything sweet you’d like to eat.
 
 
DULCE DE LECHE & CARAMEL: THE DIFFERENCE

Dulce de leche and caramel are both made by boiling sugar with a milk product. In desserts, they can be used the same way; but the products do have differences.

Dulce de leche is a caramel spread and sauce* made by boiling heavy cream or milk with sugar, sometimes with a dash of cinnamon. Cajeta is a version of dulce de leche made with goat’s milk.

Caramel adds butter to the cream and sugar, and thus tastes buttery. It’s also lighter in color, while dulce de leche has a deeper flavor.

Here are more differences:

 
If you want a treatise on dulce de leche, we highly recommend this article from The Heart Of Food blog. We were wowed by the author’s experiments to develop eight different “strengths” of dulce de leche.
 
 
THE HISTORY OF DULCE DE LECHE

Dulce de leche originated in Argentina. The first historical reference is as a dessert served at a 1829 peace meeting between two military leaders, Juan Manuel de Rosas and his political rival, Juan Lavalle.

According to legend, dulce de leche was created by accident when Manuel de Rosa’s maid was cooking milk and sugar, and was unexpectedly called away from the stove. Upon her return, the mixture had transformed into a thick, brown consistency. And it was delicious!

From that point forward, the new dessert was referred to as dulce de leche: literally, sweet from milk (in actually, the recipe makes caramelized sweetened milk).

Simple to make, dulce de leche became a traditional Argentinian dessert that spread to other Latin American countries and to sweet tooths worldwide.

While it is called by other names depending on country, before the term became well-known in English it was called milk jam (confiture de lait in French) or milk candy.

When it first entered the American consciousness some 20 years ago, dulce de leche became the “it” flavor for cake and pastry fillings, dessert flavors (ice cream, cheesecake) and as spoon candy. (If you’re not familiar with the term, it’s what many of us do naturally: Eat something sweet straight from the jar.)

It’s used as a cake filling and topping, as well as a batter mix-in. It’s one of the three “leches” in a tres leches cake. You’ll find DDL bar cookies, banana bread, panna cotta, thumbprint cookies, churros, and on and on to DDL infinity.

People with a really sweet tooth spread dulce de leche on toast and other breads, not to mention pancakes and waffles.

For the latter, for ice cream or as a general dessert sauce, heat the dulce de leche to a syrup stage and drizzle it.
 

RECIPE #1: HOMEMADE DULCE DE LECHE

A small jar of dulce de leche is pricey. You can make your own at home simply with a can of sweetened condensed milk. The can acts as the top half of a double boiler.

 
See photo #7.

Here’s the oven technique for making dulce de leche:

1. PREHEAT the oven to 425°F with the rack in middle. Pour the sweetened condensed milk into a 9-inch, deep-dish pie plate and cover tightly with foil. Set the pie plate in a roasting pan and add enough hot water to reach halfway up the side.

2. BAKE for 45 minutes, then check the water level. Add additional water as necessary, and bake another 45 minutes, or until the milk is thickened and brown. Remove the plate from the water bath and cool, uncovered.

3. REFRIGERATE, tightly covered, until ready to use. It will keep for up to 2 weeks (then it may start to lose flavor).
 
 
RECIPE #2: BANANAS FOSTER DULCE DE LECHE CREPE CAKE

This recipe is not for beginners, but if you must have it (as we did), it’s worth inviting the best cake baker you know to make it with you. (Or actually, make it as you watch. Thank you, R.G.)

Otherwise, here’s an easy naked layer cake recipe with bananas and cream cheese dulce de leche frosting.

For The Salted Dulce De Leche

 
For The Crêpes

 
For The Topping

 
Preparation

1. MAKE the dulce de leche. Bring a pot of water to a boil and place the can of sweetened condensed milk, unopened, on its side. The water must cover the top of the can at all times, so be prepared to pour in more boiling water from time to time. Lower the heat and simmer for 3 hours. As the label floats off, remove it from the pot. After 3 hours, remove the can from the water, allow to cool slightly, then open and stir in the salt. Set aside.

2. MAKE the crêpes. Heat an 8-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat. Pulse all crêpe ingredients in a food processor until homogenous (do not overmix—it toughens the final product).

3. POUR the mixture ¼ cup at a time into the skillet. As soon as the batter hits the center of the pan, lift the pan from the stove entirely and roll in a circular motion so the batter moves evenly around the skillet and forms a circle. Cook for about 30 seconds, or until the crêpe begins to bubble all around and goes from a glossy batter to a matte surface.

4. FLIP the crêpe over with a spatula. Cook the second side for about 30 seconds more. Set aside on a large work surface to cool. Repeat the with remaining batter. You should have 25-30 crêpes.

5. ASSEMBLE the cake. Lay two crêpes on top of each other in the middle of a cake stand, making a sturdy base. Scoop a rounded tablespoon of dulce de leche onto the top crêpe and spread to the edges of the crêpe using a cake spatula or butter knife. It will be thin but there are many layers to go!

Continue stacking layer after layer of crêpe, dulce de leche, crêpe, dulce de leche. About every 5 layers, stack 2 crepes together in order to keep your cake sturdy. Soon you will have a crepe cake!

[1] A can of homemade dulce de leche. The recipe is below (photo © The Tough Cookie).

[2] The recipe for this amazing dulce de leche cake from Broma Bakery is below (photo © Broma Bakery).

[3] Want a dessert sauce? These blondies are served with dulce de leche sauce (photo © Valrhona).

[4] Or, layer the dulce de leche inside the brownie, blondie, cake, etc. (photo © Brown Eyed Baker).

[5] Dulce de leche as a cheese condiment, here with Bonne Bouche goat cheese from Vermont Creamery (photo © Vermont Creamery).

[6] Dulce de leche layer cake. Here’s the recipe from Winnish (photo © Winnish).

[7] Homemade dulce de leche, boiling sweetened condensed milk on the stove top (photo © The Heart Of Food).

[8] Are you inspired? Here’s the result when you make the recipe (photo © Broma Bakery).

[9] How about a dulce de leche molten lava cake? Here’s the recipe from Honest Cooking (photo © Honest Cooking).

7. WHIP the cream in a standing mixer until stiff peaks form. Scoop the whipped cream on top of cake, then scoop the Bananas Foster on top. Finish with a sprinkle of powdered sugar. If you’re not going to serve the cake in the short term, make stabilized whipped cream, which won’t deflate.
 
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*Depending on recipe proportions and cooking time, you can have caramel sauce or caramel candy. The sauce is firm at room temperature but liquifies when heated. The candy, cut into bite-size pieces, is chewy. Some people call it soft caramel or chewy caramel.