Cookaholics Bulletin Board

I catch this show on PBS once in awhile. Markus Farbinger was the guest chef last night and he made a Viennese pastry with a sugar basket to hold a fruit garnish. It was very interesting when he was caramelizing the sugar. He only put a couple of tablespoons in the pan at first and then once that was melted, he would add a couple of more tablespoons and he did this a few times until he could add larger amounts of sugar. He mentioned that chefs like to see how light they can make the sugar for decorations which I thought was very interesting as I have never seen sugar caramelized this way. After he used some of the sugar for his baskets, he put it back on the stove and cooked it to a deep brown color and then added a cup of espresso to it to make a syrup. This syrup can then be used to flavor all sorts of things.

That is cool. I love to make caramel. I guess it's a Cuban thing since all my family made flan every week.

He was my instructor at the CIA! A very talented guy. I've used that method for sugar, when I wanted a caramel that set up hard. Not that I'm any good at most sugarwork, mind you.