Salted Caramel Puff Pastry

This recipe is a lesson in failure. I had an idea in my head of a dessert I wanted to make with puff pastry cups. I had already made the cups but my filling failed. My company was already here and I had no dessert. So in a last ditch effort to save what I had already made this is what I came up with. The cook time actually includes the assembly time. I over estimated the time because I don' t know how long it took to make since I had started making a different recipe. But I'm sure it's around an hour. You can refrigerate all left over caramel sauce in a glass jar such as a jelly/jam jar for up to 30 days. It's the perfect consistency to pour over ice cream. It's not really thick like the mass market stuff.

• Ready In: 1 hr 10 mins
• Serves: 6
• Yields: 6 4 puff cup servings

Ingredients

• 1 (9 1/2ounce) box frozen puff pastry shells (Pepperidge Farms)
• 1⁄4 cup  ghiardelli  milk chocolate chips
• 2  tablespoons half-and-half
• 1  cup vanilla ice cream (good quality)
• 1  teaspoon sea salt (divided)

• CARAMEL SAUCE

• 1  cup sugar
• 1⁄3 cup water
• 1⁄2 cup heavy cream
• 1⁄8 teaspoon sea salt
• 2  tablespoons salted butter

Directions

1. Prepare cups to package directions. While baking the cups you can make your caramel sauce.
2. Using a medium sized sauce pan pour in the water and sugar. Over medium low heat continually stir using a rubber (not wood) spatula until sugar is completely dissolved. Approximately 4 minutes.
3. Turn heat to medium high. STOP stirring and let mixture boil until it starts to turn a golden brown Approximately 6-7 minutes.(SEE PHOTOS).
4. Lift pan directly above the heat and swirl the pan around until the sugar turns a dark brown Approximately 1-2 minutes.(SEE PHOTOS).
5. Add butter, cream and 1/8 teaspoon salt and continue swirling until everything is mixed together. Using a spatula continue stirring until completely mixed. Let cool. (SEE PHOTOS) Here's a hint when it comes to cleaning the pan of stuck on candy -- rinse out the pan with hot water first. Then add 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup white vinegar and bring to a boil. Let boil for 2-3 minutes. Empty water/vinegar mix and wash normally. The pan will be completely clean.
6. Once the cups are cooled and the caramel is cooled take ice cream out of the freezer and let stand at room temp for 1 minute until slightly soft. Spoon ice cream into each cup. Place filled cups on plate and stick back in the freezer for 5-10 minutes or until ready to serve. While the cups are in the freezer you can make the chocolate sauce.
7. Place the milk chocolate chips in a glass mixing bowl and add half & half. Microwave for 15 seconds. Take out and stir (even though the chips are still hard stir them around). Place back in microwave for another 15 seconds. Take out and stir until all the morsels are completely melted.
8. Take your ice cream filled cups and drizzle caramel sauce then chocolate sauce then caramel sauce over each cup. Sprinkle a pinch of salt on each cup then serve.
9. If you have left overs you can put back in the freezer covered and when ready to serve let sit out for 1 minute so the ice cream can soften slightly.