Homemade caramels

Does anyone have a foolproof recipe for making caramel candies? I have made 2 batches of this recipe from Gourmet, but have not had much success. The first time, I didn't let it brown enough, so it was quite pale in color. Per the recipe, I cooked it to 250. It tasted good, but after the second day, the remaining caramel that I had not cut yet was very soft and lost its sharp edges. Batch number 2, I followed the tutorials from David Lebovitz and Dan Lepard. I didn't let it get as dark as their pictures, but pretty close. I felt like the caramel tasted kind of burnt. Again, I cooked it to 250, but it's still not as firm as I would like it to be. I want it to be chewy, but this is just too chewy. So I'm willing to give a 3rd try, but I don't know if I really want to try this recipe again. Has anyone tried Alice Medrich's recipe?

I haven't made them but am tempted Ina Garten has a salt caramel she does on the back to basic show.

Pucca,

I made that precise recipe for the caramel used for topping the Cookie Exchange Doom Bars a la Joel F. I skipped the Fleur de Sel, but added vanilla. I spread it thin over the already somewhat cool brownies, which meant to hardened too quickly.

I pulled it at approximately 248 (or an estimate between 245 and 250), because each degree higher tends toward a harder candy. I was thinking of making a second batch as-is just for fun. If I do, I'll let you know.

Regards,

I make caramels for teacher and family gifts every year, following this recipe:

http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/hone ... c=ts&ra=fp

They are really good. I make tangerine-almond or fleur de sel caramels. Make sure your thermometer is well-calibrated. (At least check it in boiling water).

Jen

Hi,

I find all my digital thermometers are a little off. I have a mercury thermometer for candy, which I love and hope does not break.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote: I find all my digital thermometers are a little off. I have a mercury thermometer for candy, which I love and hope does not break.

Definitely a common problem that can make or break your candy success, making the difference between tender, chewy caramels and hard filling-killers. Luckily I have a probe thermometer and a Thermapen that are close enough-- at least they are consistent with each other and give good results.

Happy candy-making-- I would love to hear what you make, as I am thinking of branching out from caramels.

Cheers, Jen

Does anyone have recommendations on making flavored caramels? I recently made apple cider caramels recipe from smitten kitchen. They turned out really well and I would like to branch out.

I was thinking of reducing mango juice and working from there with other flavors. Would coconut milk work in place of cream? I've googled a bit and haven't really seen recipes with good reviews, but it may be inexperience with standard caramel, I can't tell.

veghound wrote:Does anyone have recommendations on making flavored caramels? I recently made apple cider caramels recipe from smitten kitchen. They turned out really well and I would like to branch out.

Just saw these yesterday, they sound great.
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012 ... ecipe.html

I'm glad you tried the cider caramels-- I was intrigued by those, but haven't gotten around to them.
The Fine Cooking recipe posted above has a tangerine variant (flavored with grated zest) that is wonderful, especially with pecans.
The latest issue of Martha has suggestions for sesame-ginger and coffee-orange caramels (http://www.marthastewart.com/948381/ses ... el-candies). I have been meaning to add the sesame-ginger to my rotation this year, but I only managed tangerine-pecan and honey-vanilla. Last year I made salted caramels, but I am so over salted caramel (see food cliches thread).

Here is this year's batch of tangerine-pecan getting wrapped:


Also, if you are making caramels, I highly recommend the twisting papers from Candyland Crafts-- they look beautiful and work wonderfully.
http://www.candylandcrafts.com/twistingwaxpaper.htm


Cheers, Jen

Pucca wrote:Does anyone have a foolproof recipe for making caramel candies?

I like this one from eGullet http://forums.egullet.org/topic/92495-confectionery-101/, it works well and it's tasty.

veghound wrote:Does anyone have recommendations on making flavored caramels? ...

If money were no object I'd love to try flavoring caramels with some of the bitters from http://bittercube.com/ instead of vanilla, but that stuff's expensive. If I a.) knew of a place with "testers" of all the flavors, b.) was ambitious, and c.) could afford to buy the stuff for candymaking, it would be an interesting experiment to take some plain caramels and try them with a drop or two of each flavor to see which worked. At best, it might be something amazing that no one's tasted before...

JenM wrote:

Cathy2 wrote: I find all my digital thermometers are a little off. I have a mercury thermometer for candy, which I love and hope does not break.

Definitely a common problem that can make or break your candy success, making the difference between tender, chewy caramels and hard filling-killers.

There's always the cold water test. Regardless of any thermometer's reading, you'll know exactly how sticky your batch is at any point.

...and since we're all talking about caramels, can someone please tell me exactly WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH F'n SEA SALT?? I can't believe anyone has taste buds so refined that they can tell the difference between otherwise identical batches of caramel when one's made with sea salt and the other's made with plain ol' table salt. Is this just another one of those goofy affectations foodies have??

uh ... no offense, guys

Thanks everyone! I really recommend the apple cider recipe. It was a big hit at my office. I'm going to try to make a mango/coconut milk version. I'll report back if it works (or spectacularly fails).

...and since we're all talking about caramels, can someone please tell me exactly WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH F'n SEA SALT?? I can't believe anyone has taste buds so refined that they can tell the difference between otherwise identical batches of caramel when one's made with sea salt and the other's made with plain ol' table salt. Is this just another one of those goofy affectations foodies have??

uh ... no offense, guys

Too funny - and I agree. I was in the kitchen this morning, with one of the PBS stations on in the other room. Some pedantic blowhard chef from that well-known Mexican food hotbed, Boston, was making corn tortillas (badly, IMO), and noted, "and add some salt - sea salt, of course. . ." "Of course"? Gaaah! I'll stick with my coarse Diamond kosher for most things, and a fine-grind kosher for baking. Great, uniform results, at a small fraction of the price. I think I may have sworn at him.

Bah, Humbug!

phaseolus wrote:...and since we're all talking about caramels, can someone please tell me exactly WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH F'n SEA SALT?? I can't believe anyone has taste buds so refined that they can tell the difference between otherwise identical batches of caramel when one's made with sea salt and the other's made with plain ol' table salt. Is this just another one of those goofy affectations foodies have??

uh ... no offense, guys

IMHO, the purpose of the salt is not to make the total caramel salty, but to add delicate little bursts of salt which will contrast with the sweet caramel. Think pretzels for the effect of salt in bursts.