Monthly Archives: November 2012

Nov10

Homemade Salted Caramels and a Safety Lesson (GAPS, dairy free, gluten free)

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Tonight I had a great idea…homemade ice cream and caramel topping!!!

I got the ice cream going in our Cuisinart, and then made the caramel (I got my inspiration for the caramel from this post at The Nourished Kitchen, and tweaked it to be dairy free):

1 c. coconut milk or cream

roughly 1 c. raw honey

Celtic sea salt

Combine in a saucepan and bring to a rolling boil.  I boiled for about 20 minutes or so, and I stirred periodically.  I did not go by temp this time, so I don’t have a temp for you.  It will cook way down and get thicker and…well…caramel colored.

I put it in a bowl to cool in the freezer so it would be ready when the ice cream was done.  And that, folks, is where it all went South.  I pushed the bowl in too hard to cram it into my very full freezer and some sloshed over the side.  On my fingers.  Yeah, ouch.  And then some.  Note to self – caramel on skin tends to solidify quickly.  Especially when you run cold water over it.  At least I can laugh about it now, although that might be the pain killer talking…

So…after coming home from the ER with my 3rd-degree-burned finger, the caramel was all ready to eat.  The ice cream was a wash…put away in the fridge to try again another night.   But man, was that caramel good.  I ended up just scraping it out of the bowl in chunks.  In a perfect world where one does NOT end up at the ER after a freak caramel accident, I would butter a pan and spread it out to cool in the fridge.  But hey, this worked too.  I sprinkled Celtic sea salt on the top as well.  Not the prettiest pic I’ve ever taken, but you get the point.  Everyone loved it around here…

And my safety lesson for the night is BE CAREFUL when making caramel.  Put it to cool somewhere level and secure, keep your fingers and all other body parts out of it, and make sure your kids won’t get into it until it’s cooled off.  And enjoy!!! 🙂

This post was shared at Butter Believer’s Sunday School; The Healthy Home Economist’s Monday Mania; The Prairie Homestead’s Homestead Barn Hop; Real Food Forager’s Fat Tuesdays; Simply Sugar and Gluten Free’s Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays; Cooking Traditional Foods Traditional Tuesdays; Kelly the Kitchen Kop’s Real Food Wednesdays; Frugally Sustainable’s Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways; The Nourishing Gourmet’s Pennywise Platter; GNOWFGLINS Simple Lives Thursday; Real Food Freaks Freaky Friday; Food Renegade Fight Back Friday; The Liberated Kitchen’s Grateful GAPS Holiday Foods; 21st Century Housewife’s Gallery of Favorites; Cultured Palate’s Tasty Traditions;

Nov9

Why I Love Real Salt…

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My Real Salt showed up today in the mail.  I was getting a little stressed out.  🙂  I had a little bit left and we wouldn’t have made it through the weekend.  I didn’t have a trip planned anywhere that we could get it so I would have been out of luck.

We love Real Salt.  Alot.  The taste is fantastic.  The color took my kids a little bit to get used to – it looks almost like light sand – but they got over it fast.  Now I don’t think they’d know what white salt even was if they saw it.

We used to use plain old table salt.  However – it contains anti-caking agents such as potassium chloride, calcium phosphates and fumeric acid.  Some salts also contain sugar in the form of dextrose.  I did a little looking after we started the GAPS Diet and found that fumeric acid is actually a derivative of corn.  A big “no no” if you are a) allergic to corn (like me) or b) on a grain free diet (again, like me!).  Chemically altered salt of any kind is nothing like the real deal anyhow.  They have been generally heat processed and have lost much of their natural trace minerals.

So…taking a bit of info right off the back of my Real Salt bag:

“Real Salt’s pinkish appearance and flecks of color come from more than 60 naturally occurring trace minerals.  The result is a “sweet salt” flavor that you may not have experienced before.”

According to the “Nutrition Facts”, 1/4 tsp contains the following daily average percentages:

Sodium Chloride 98.32%

Calcium .40%

Potassium .12%

Sulphur  .11%

Magnesium .10%

Iron  .06%

Phosphorus  .05%

Iodine .002%

Manganese .0015%

Copper .001%

Zinc  .0006%

Pretty good for salt, huh?

I should add one more thing in my non-medical opinion.  I work with elderly folks and/or people with various medical issues, including high blood pressure.  I frequently hear “I can’t eat salt”, “I’m not supposed to eat salt.”  Emphasizing my “non-medical opinion” again  🙂 – I’m going to add a well-written link regarding this topic right from the Real Salt website.   Regarding medical issues, good quality sea salt intake is also very important for people dealing with adrenal fatigue (one last time, like me!)…I find myself going through alot of it quickly.  Keeping in mind that on the GAPS Diet, we eat no processed foods, so there is no “built in sodium” (think:  frozen pizzas, stuffing mix and canned soup – YIKES!).  Anyhow, if you have blood pressure issues, please do your own research and/or talk with your doctor – I am simply providing this info as a “better option” that is worth exploring.

I got my Real Salt this time from Vitacost, although I generally buy it in bulk through our local food co-op.  I am not an affiliate of Vitacost, nor am I getting “kickbacks” from Real Salt. 🙂  Signing off to go and make some chicken stir fry…happily using my Real Salt.  Good night!

This post was shared at Butter Believer’s Sunday School; The Healthy Home Economist’s Monday Mania; The Prairie Homestead’s Homestead Barn Hop; Real Food Forager’s  Fat Tuesday; Cooking Traditional Foods’ Traditional Tuesdays; Kelly the Kitchen Kop’s Real Food Wednesdays; Frugally Sustainable’s Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways; The Nourishing Gourmet’s Pennywise Platter; GNOWFGLINS Simple Lives Thursday; Real Food Freaks Freaky Friday; Food Renegade Fight Back Friday; 21st Century Housewife’s Gallery of Favorites; Cultured Palate’s Tasty Traditions;