Fleur de Sel Caramels
How is everyone doing with their New Year’s resolutions?
I am a horrible person because I am posting a recipe that makes about 80 homemade caramels a mere 4 days after some of you have resolved to cut down on sugar and unnecessary sweets in 2011. But I just know that if you made these, you’d forgive me immediately because these are just simply divine.
The idea of making candy has always scared me just a little bit… all that boiling (for who-knows-how-long!), all that sugar, I just have no idea what I’m doing, oh and I don’t own a candy thermometer. But, as luck would have it, during a quick trip to the grocery store that afternoon I had reserved for baking cookies for Christmas, there was a huge display with candy thermometers in the deli/frozen meats section (why, I have no clue)… and they were on sale. SALE, people! So, of course, I bought one. And I immediately knew what I wanted to make with my shiny new $3 candy thermometer. Salted caramels.
I haven’t made caramels before, though I’ve come close (here and here), but it was time to take the training wheels off!! And it really wasn’t so bad… once I realized that all I had to do was figure out how to boil sugar and corn syrup to freakishly high 3-digit temperatures, add cream and not freak out too badly when the mixture bubbled and hissed, and then (patiently) wait till my new ever-so-handy candy thermometer read either 260ºF (a.k.a. hard ball, for softer chewy caramels) or 265ºF (for firmer caramels). Because I was a little bit wary of the bubbling sugar at boiling temperatures, I wasn’t quite sure how high to set my stove and started out conservatively at a low setting. After 30 min of smallish bubbles, my sugar and cream mixture was nowhere near 260º, and I realized I had to crank it up if I ever wanted to eat these caramels before the new year. Once the temperature started rising, it was pretty straightforward- I knew I wanted a consistency firmer than salt-water taffy, so I went for 265ºF and the firmer texture.
Once the caramel cools to room temperature, they are sprinkled with additional salt to contrast the lovely sweet buttery flavor of caramelized sugar, and can be cut and wrapped into individual servings. The recipe also includes variations for vanilla or other spiced caramels that I would love to try… except that these fleur de sel caramels are pretty much perfect and just like how I tend to order the same thing at favorite restaurants: I probably will just continue to make these forever.
