Our family likes to watch the TV show Chopped on the Food Network. For each episode, contestants are given a basket of indgredients to make appetizers, entrees, or desserts. Most of the time, the ingredient combinations are quite challenging because no one in their right mind would think of pairing such strange ingredients.
One night, I was having a craving to use a jar of Stonewall Kitchen's Dark Chocolate Caramel Sauce with Sea Salt in a dessert. I had been putting it on ice cream, but we were out of ice cream. So I decided to give myself my own Chopped Challenge. So my "mystery ingredients" were the chocolate caramel sauce, strawberries, and Keebler's sesame crackers. Ok, I concede that this combination is not nearly as strange as the something on the show. They would probably throw in something like leeks or jalapenos. I also didn't bother setting a timer, but I wanted something that could be prepared in less than 15 minutes.
My first task was to figure out what else I had in the fridge that would go with these three ingredients. I pulled out a tub of Cool whip, some butter, sugar, cinnamon, and balsamic vinegar. I was making a single portion since I had no idea if this creation was going to taste good or not.
First, I took the strawberries and diced them up into a pretty small bites. I used about 5 strawberries. Next, I topped them with about a teaspon of balsamic vinegar. I took about 1/2 cup of the cool whip and folded in the strawberries, and put the ingredients into the small serving bowl.
The next step was to prepare the topping. I melted butter in the pan and crumbled the sesame crackers into the butter. I sauted the crackers until slightly browned. Be very careful not to burn them like I did the first time. I had to throw that out and go on to a second attempt. While cooking the crackers, add in about 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and a teaspoon of sugar.
Heat the dark chocolate caramel sauce. Put the cracker crumble topping on to of the strawberry cream and finally add the chocolate sauce. You are done!
Unfortnately, I didn't make a picture of this creation. It was quite surprising how good it turned out to be. In retrospect, it would be even better if I had whipped up some heavy whipping cream in the Kitchen Aid mixer instead of using the Cool Whip.
It was a fun little challenge. I think this idea would be fun for party them. You could have a couple of cooks square off with ingredients picked by others at the party. Then everyone could sample and vote for their favorite. Might have to try this sometime.
