The Resurfacing of Dessert...

Spring of 2016 is a sweet one...

The idea of making dessert sauce didn't start in 2016, and by all means it didn't start in 2015 with a trend in caramel.  In fact, we had a Rum Toddy Dessert Syrup back in 2010 in Australia, we sold it in a dressing bottle with our fantastically lime green home grown first edition labels as you can see below.  Ha!

The recipe was inspired by Wozz's decade long career working at sea.  A hot toddy is a classic sailor's drink, traditionally drunk before retiring for the night after a wet and cold day on the deck. It's traditionally made with honey, lemon, rum or whiskey and butter and was a doc's prescription back in the day for cold and flu.  Probably still not a bad choice when feeling ill...:)

In crafting the recipe for our Rum Toddy Sauce we looked to one of our favorite desserts in Australia: Sticky Date Pudding, which is why we use dates to add "the meat to the bones" of this sauce and then finish it with creamy butter and a big shot of rum.  In Australia, we used Dandelion tea in our recipe to add an interesting twist of flavor but opted to switch that out this time for a home made Chai Tea which adds a nice depth of spice to the recipe.  We thickened up the consistency to make it nice and spoonable and rich like toffee.  So there you have it...now get some vanilla ice cream and a spoon this decadence over top or drop a few tablespoons into some hot boiling water with rum and turn on some celctic folk rock or whatever makes you feel like a sailor inside...

Jumping over to our White Chocolate Banana Bread Dessert Spread.  Wozz made me this crazy out of your mind dessert back when we were working on a yacht called "taTii" in 2011.  He actually made it for the owners but slipped me and the rest of the crew a piece.  It was a crepe pastry with a white chocolate banana fudge topped with ice cream and berries and it was the best dessert I think I have ever had.  It was frozen but still creamy, like a banana ice cream cake but waaayyyyy better.  So fast forward to this year, Wozz tells me he has this idea for this banana white chocolate spread and at first (not realizing this was the banana chocolate sauce in his famous dessert) I was skeptical.  I said what are you supposed to do with it?  White chocolate banana spread? Then one day I came home from work and it was there in a jar, our first test batch.  I tasted it and immediately....mind blown...and went right back to the memory of that dessert..that dessert I had on taTii.   Right then and there with a spoon in hand I said, who cares how you eat it?  Just grab a spoon.  It literally tastes like banana bread in a jar. Since our release I have experimented with it and there are so many ways to use it...as a frosting for cupcakes, just slather it on cinnamon swirl toast or put it on crepes.  Yes those crepes were phenomenal.  Like banana bread crepes...need I say more?  

Now onto our last release of 2016...with the idea of dates and continuuing on the momemtum of sticky date pudding, we thought sticky date for cheese?  Yes. Yes. Yes! 

And can I just tell you how sticky this is?  It's sticky on the spoon...sticky in the jar...sticky when I am washing the pots after cooking it...sticky after chopping dates...sticky...sticky...sticky...so therefore, it is appropriately named.  Now let me talk about the candied oranges.  The candied oranges in this chutney are a labor of love but well worth it because they add such a bright pop of chewy citrus orange goodness to every bite.  I will admit after a day spent making candied oranges I thought this is going to be a killer. These take hours.  I thought, maybe we should just source already made candied oranges from a company just to see what they are like?  So we got a sample sent to us and they were okay but kind of sugary and the fresh citrus zing just wasn't there and to be honest...it's really hard for me and Wozz to not make almost everything from scratch...we want our products to be the best so getting us to take short cuts is like pulling teeth, so hours of making candied oranges is in our future for this one.  On that note, every time you spoon out this sticky deliciousness and see a little wedge of bright orange candied goodness, think of us in the kitchen slicing oranges, poaching oranges, drying oranges, then slicing oranges again....lol.   To finish off the recipe there is just a pinch of heat...just to leave a little itsy bitsy tingle in your mouth. Our sticky date candied orange chutney is a cheese pairing classic and absolutely delicious with pork, ham and duck. 

So 2016 brought us right back to where it all began...Australia travelling around the countryside in an old Mercedes sprinter van selling chutney out of the "boot" at farmers markets.  We dug up the ole' toddy recipe, scrambled to find an old label to remember all of our ingredients...we reminisced on our love for sticky date pudding and wonder why Americans haven't jumped on that bandwagon yet....and I had a complete flashback to the best dessert I ever had, while having the best adventure I have ever had which was living in Europe.  So my conclusion is that  

food = experiences = nostalgia = creativity

and so there you have it.  

Our food is not about the latest fad. It's not about sriracha in everything....that caramel is hot right now...that you better start putting turmeric in something because that's the trend..."trends are NAF.  Yes NAF...as in ugghhh, crap...old news.  boring...yawn...let me make a sriracha chocolate granola bar...not."    Our products are about us and we choose to develop new products and ideas based on our experiences, our adventures and on what we genuinely love.  

So on that note, take a trip down memory lane with us and check out the new products, I can tell you that the Rum Toddy Toffee will make you scream from the rooftops, the Banana Bread spread with make your jaw drop and the sticky date candied orange chutney will make you say "it's pretty sticky"...

haha...until next time guys...it's always a pleasure. xx