When The Professor and I received an invite to become a ‘Sabra Tastemaker’ I wasn’t quite sure what being a Tastemaker entailed. We were already buying Sabra hummus on a regular basis and in fact, The Professor takes a scoop with some fresh veggies to campus for lunch nearly every day of the week. We’ve also made our own hummus at home using canned chickpeas, tahini, a bit of garlic and a squeeze of lemon – but are The Professor and I ‘tastemaker’ material?
Turns out we are!! Being a ‘Tastemaker’ simply means that we love the product, we will have the opportunity to try new things throughout the year and we’re willing to share our recipes and experiences with you. You’ll notice a shiny new Sabra badge on the sidebar over there to your left – you can click on that badge any time and, ‘poof’ – it will aparate you, a la Harry Potter-like, to the Sabra homepage where you’ll find a complete list of their products, recipes and, if you’re feeling adventurous, well . . . you can also travel the world without leaving the comforts of home.
We visited the new state-of-the-art, eco-friendly Sabra plant in Virginia (thank you Sabra for providing the above photo) with several other food professionals and learned a bit about the history of Sabra; we also had the opportunity to meet Sabra’s Executive Chef, MaryDawn Wright who shared how flavor profiles are created as well as how hummus and tahini work together – take a few minutes to see what she had to say – I think you might be surprised:
And of course we tasted new product! The new Asian Fusion Hummus (coming soon) has hints of ginger, garlic and soy – it was the clear winner of the entire group. It might surprise you to know that Sabra makes more than hummus: fresh salsa, dips (my personal favorite is Cucumber & Dill) and a guacamole that will knock your socks off – really. And the best part? Their products are now certified gluten-free!
We’ll be doing more posts like this one to share with all of you but in the meantime, these chocolate tarts were the most requested recipe of the day – any guesses on the secret ingredient? If you said hummus, you’d be correct – enjoy!
CHOCOLATE, COCONUT AND CARAMEL HUMMUS PASTRIES
by Sabra Executive Chef MaryDawn Wright
Makes 20 individual servings
CHEF’S NOTE: Caramel can be prepared up to 2 days in advance. Purchased caramel can be used if you do not have the time or temperament to make caramel on the stove top. Filling is best made the day it is served. Do not fill cups more than an hour before serving.
INGREDIENTS:
- 20 pre-baked phyllo pastry cups* (see below for gluten-free)
- 1/4 cup toasted coconut, for garnish
FOR THE CARAMEL:
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
FOR THE FILLING:
- 1 cup Sabra® Classic Hummus
- ¾ cup toasted coconut
- 1 cup finely grated premium chocolate (60% cocoa butter or more)
TO MAKE CARAMEL:
- Place sugar and caramel in a heavy bottomed sauce pan
- Cook over medium heat until sugar begins to brown
- Watch very closely, stirring infrequently
- When sugar is a deep brown (but not burned looking!), remove from heat
- Immediately and carefully add cream; stir well
- Add butter and vanilla; stir until well blended
- Pour into a storage container and refrigerate until ready to use
TO MAKE FILLING:
- Mix all filling ingredients together
- Refrigerate until ready to use
TO ASSEMBLE:
- Spoon a rounded teaspoon of filling into phyllo pastry cup
- Top with a rounded teaspoon of caramel
- Sprinkle with toasted coconut
- Place on serving platter
- Drizzle pastries and platter with more caramel
- Serve immediately
*To make these gluten-free, substitute gluten-free pie or puff pastry for the phyllo cups
See what some of the other Sabra Tastemakers are saying:
Cooking With Books
Hungry, Hungry Hippie
The Six O’clock Scramble
The whole truth and nothin’ but the truth: The folks at Sabra picked up the tab for our trip to Virginia (including airfare and hotel accommodations) and we are being paid for our posts. However, our position has always been that we don’t enter into partnerships for products we don’t like and don’t use. The opinions expressed here are always ours and always honest.
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Hummus is definitely a surprise with the other ingredients; I always think of it as savory; guess some re-thinking is necessary.