“That’s really interesting, but who cares?”
Out of everything I heard at Kathleen Flinn’s food writing workshop, that statement resonated with me the most. What compels us to read food blogs? Are you willing to stop and read everything an author has to say regardless of the topic? I can’t say I know many people who would do that readily. I’m not going to lie here; I’m a notorious skimmer. I mostly visit blogs for the recipes and to support my friends and community. But when I’m trying to catch up on 20-40 blogs a day I just don’t have the time to read every story. If I skim your post it doesn’t mean I don’t love you. I’d rather peek in and give a hollar of encouragement than do nothing. But truthfully, if I’m going to slow down and read everything there needs a be a hook. Something to catch my attention and draw me in. A strong opening line. Why should I care that you went to the grocery store and stumbled in the cereal isle? That’s really interesting, but who cares? Make me care. Perhaps I should re-frame that so it doesn’t sound so demanding. I want to make YOU care that I went to the grocery store and stumbled in the cereal isle. I want compel you to read my story.
I read Kathleen’s memoir The Sharper The Knife, The Less You Cry just before making the decision to attend culinary school. Her story was a huge inspiration to me, right up there with My Life in France by Julia Child. When I heard she was teaching a two hour food writing boot camp in DC it was a no brainer. I signed up immediately. And I was astounded by how much I learned in my brief time with her. She had me thinking about writing in a whole new way. Did you know I have a bachelors degree in English with a focus on Creative Writing? I don’t see why you would because I never mention it. After so many years in IT and the kitchen I feel incredibly disconnected from my college days as a writer. But the exercises from our workshop brought it all back. I felt excited about writing again.
“Every food blogger writes about the farmer’s market. Go to the grocery store instead.”
Kathleen shared a lot with us including a story from when she was a speaker at IFBC last year. In preparation for the event she had her assistant look at the attendee blogs. The conclusion? 45 out of 50 blogs were exactly the same. I was kind of stunned to hear this but it also made complete sense and fascinated me. I mean we are all kind of doing the same thing here. There’s nothing wrong with being similar to other blogs but it got me thinking about how to set myself apart in an over-saturated market. For the past three years I’ve been constantly working to improve my photography but have given little thought to the quality of my writing. Perhaps this is the next step? It’s certainly something worth exploring.
The recipe I’m sharing with you today is adapted from Baking Bites. It’s almost her exact recipe with the exception of the salt. She used regular Maldon Sea Salt and I used Maldon Smoked Sea Salt. It sounds weird, right? Smoked sea salt caramels. They are indeed weird. Weird and good.
Smoked Sea Salt Caramels
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup water
- 1/4 cup corn syrup
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
- 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 – 2 tablespoons smoked sea salt (I used Maldon)
Instructions
- Lightly grease an 8x8 or 9x9 baking dish (I used baking spray with flour).
- In a saucepan, combine the sugar, water and corn syrup. Cover the pan and bring to a boil over high heat. Once some steam has developed in the pan, remove the lid (steam will help prevent crystallization). Continue to boil until the caramel turns a deep honey color, approximately 10-15 minutes.
- While the sugar is cooking, combine the butter and cream in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds at a time until the butter is melted.
- When the caramel begins to darken, carefully but swiftly add the cream and butter. The mixture will steam and bubble up so pull your hand away. Use a heat resistant spatula to stir the mixture and add the salt once the bubbling has calmed down a bit.
- Place a candy thermometer in the saucepan and stir frequently until the mixture reached 260 degrees.
- Pour the caramel into the prepared baking dish and allow it to cool completely. Sprinkle smoked salt on top.
- Use a warm knife to cut caramels into small squares or rectangles. I used a ruler to draw guides first. Caramels will keep at room temperature for a few weeks.
Notes
Please read my full post for additional recipe notes, tips, and serving suggestions!
Nutrition
Recipe Troubleshooting
For immediate help troubleshooting a recipe, please email me using the form on my contact page. I’ll try to respond to urgent questions as quickly as possible! For all general questions, please leave a comment here :)
I actually have a jar of smoked sea salt! The recipe sounds wonderful -I like remembering that writing is fun;-)
I love this post. I think about this everyday. . how to set myself a part from the thousands and thousands of other food blogs. . Thanks for the encouragement to get my creative juices flowing again with my writing! I love this recipe by the way! What’s so weird about caramels with smoked sea salt? I think these are fabulous!!! :)
Thanks Jen for the inspiring post. I think many of us can relate to this. My reader is filled with blogs I want to read but at the end of the day I just can’t get through them all and focus on my blog as well not to mention chasing my kids around in the midst. I have recently changed to limiting the amount I comment on and really focus people I feel connected with (like you :) ). I love your style, your writing, your wisdom. I was putting so much pressure on myself to comment on so many and before I knew it hours past and all I accomplished was commenting on other blogs, not to productive. For the ones I read, I read and comment. Then I have a ton I just skim through because I want to see whats going on but its just not possible to be everywhere. For the ones that can do it, post on everyones plus stay on top of social media and produce content for their own blogs, I applaud them. Sorry for the long comment here, just happy to read this post and btw I love these caramels too! :)
A friend just gave me some smoked sea salt, great timing!
P.S. I think we are all skimmers! I just read your entire post and enjoyed it.
I pretty much have zero writing skills. I love blogging, so I hope that somehow it’ll get easier over time for me to be more descriptive and draw the reader in. I do read every single post I come across… not sure how much longer I’ll be able to keep that up! :) Your posts always interest me, btw! I’m happy to have found you fosho! :)
I’m with you completely. I’ve had the same feeling so may times. Just sitting there with the post open, photos uploaded, recipe written down and then I had to write an intro. The entire time I’m thinking, “why does anyone care about what I did today? How can I say something that matters 5 days a week? I’m not that interesting!” ANd I’ve had The Sharper The Knife The Less You Cry on my to-read list for about a year. I’m going to bump it up rightnow.
I love caramels and have memories of my mom making them as a child and I make caramel sauce often, but need to make actual caramels. They are perfect!
And being guilty of skimming, of not writing to the quality I know I could or can, yes, been there. We all have! Thanks for being honest about it. I realized that photography was important and recently realized that I’d rather talk about the FOOD on my food blog than everything else. So have been trying to improve my writing and find a balance of talking about it without obsessing about it but not getting too boring. I love this post, Jen. And also your culinary school post from a few week(s) ago…has REALLY really stuck with me. I think about it all the time!
Thanks for this post, it’s always comes back to balance for me. I do agree about being different.
And you had me at smoked sea salt with these caramels – love!
Kathleen is amazing. I’m so glad you got something out of her workshop!
i love love love the smoked sea salt in these! they are gorgeous!
Well I’m thinking now about more creative,engaging writing AND if honey would work in these caramels?… Hmmm… Thanks for your inspiration Jen. Now I’m going to noodle the honey in this recipe idea! Any thoughts?
I have no idea! I’ve never tried to make caramel with honey. Do you mean in addition to the sugar or as a replacement?
Probably along with the sugar… Possibly in place of corn syrup? Not sure if that would work but ill be working on this idea!
The purpose of the corn syrup is really to prevent crystallization of the sugar. I’m not sure if honey will have the same effect but it will probably taste lovely :)
We are all works in progress. I spend my whole week in academia, writing in an academic voice! :-) Then there’s the freedom of the blog. Sometimes we have it, sometimes we’re too tired to care! :-) And for the record, I read every word!
I love sea salt caramels…never considered making them myself. Now I will! :-)
Great article (lucky duck for the class!) and I did read it all the way through … just to get to the caramels :)
This is such a great post. And I will be making these caramels as gifts come the holidays – they’re GORGEOUS!