salted caramels

salted caramels are a really tricky thing to make, let me tell you. i first made them this past christmas as mini christmas gifts. had i known how much time and energy i was going to put in to making them,  i may have never started the process. but over time i got the job done and the results were outstanding. normal caramels, i can resist. but salted caramels? they make me want to roll on the ground smiling and thanking the world for creating such goodness. you think i'm kidding, but there's no way that i am.

for christmas i initially wanted to make salted caramel sauce and jar them up as presents. i found this recipe for the sauce and followed it exactly. it took foooooreeeeevvver for the sugar to caramelize and the "sauce" ended up being too solid, almost candy like. irritated, i threw it away. after about 10 minuntes of frustration, i decided that i was going to make caramels instead. i mean, i'd already done it....i just did it on accident! so using the same recipe, i tried to make caramels. except this time it came out too soft, like caramel sauce!! i nearly cried as either time i tried to make something it turned into the opposite!

so i decided to actually look up how to make proper salted caramels. i found this recipe and ran with it. if you search how to make caramels, many websites will tell you to cook your sugar until it's 310 degrees F, add the cream and butter and then cook it until it reaches 240 degrees F. at these temps, you should have perfect caramels. well when i made them that was certainly not the case. at 310 degrees, my sugar wasn't even close to being the pretty amber color it's supposed to be, so i cooked it longer. and at 240 degrees, the caramel was too wet to become chewy caramels. it would have become something in between sauce and candy. soo many many (like 4 times. i'm telling you, that's a lot of sugar swirling) attempts later, i made a good batch. it was perfect and i was ecstatic!

sugar at the right amber color

sugar and cream mixture bubbling violently!!

fast forward to last week. i made salted caramels for the bake sale. of course i thought i'd already figured out how to make them and wouldn't have a problem this time. but no way, Jose! every batch i made didn't come out right. i made six batches. after putting them in the fridge to cool them quickly, they were obviously either too soft or too hard. one of the batches turned out so hard that it was nearly toffee-like. i even broke the tip of my best big knife in it!! don't worry, i threw that batch away. as you can imagine, it's incredibly frustrating trying to make something a bunch of times.

the easy fix for the batches that were too soft is to cut the caramel in to squares and reheat them until it's boiling again to get rid of excess moisture. easy enough. although sometimes i still didn't get enough of the moisture out and had to repeat the process again. then i researched the internet trying to figure out whether caramel that is too hard is salvagable. most people said "no" or to melt the candies and take out even more moisture to turn it into toffee and use broken pieces on top of ice creams and things. no thanks. that's too much toffee and who wants to buy little flakes of toffee at a bake sale? but i decided that it wouldn't hurt to try to salvage the caramels, and thank god i did!

if you ever try to make caramels and it comes out too hard, you can break or cut the caramels in to 1-2 inch blocks and put them in a saucepan with a little bit of heavy cream. melt the caramels on low heat, stirring often so that  it melts evenly. once the caramels are completely melted, turn up the heat to boil the mixture. then comes the guessing game. like i said, that whole 240 degrees F thing doesn't work for me. the caramels come out too soft. i like my caramels to have a little more of a chew to them. so as the mixture bubbles, figure out what the right consistency is and you will have salvaged your caramels!!

salted caramels:

ingredients:
5 tbs unsalted butter
1 c heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla (or 1 vanilla pod)
2 tsp fleur de sel
1 1/2 c sugar
1/4 c light corn syrup
1/4 c water

directions:
1. line a 9x9 baking pan with foil and spray with cooking spray
2. melt the butter in a saucepan.
3. add the heavy cream, vanilla and sea salt. (if you have a vanilla pod, scrape out the vanilla beans and mix in to mixture). bring the mixture to a boil, stirring frequently. once boiling, take off heat and set aside.
4. in a large saucepan, mix together sugar, corn syrup and water. boil on the stove over medium high heat swirling the saucepan so that there are no burn spots or uneven cooking. do NOT stir the sugar (i think this makes it easier for the sugar to crystallize, which you absolutely do not want)
5. continue to boil and swirl every so often until the sugar turns a golden amber color (websites will tell you this is at 310degrees but eff that, they're wrong!!)
6. once at desired color, add the cream mixture. BE CAREFUL!! the combination will bubble and splatter. this is normal but extremely dangerous if you're not prepared for it. sugar burns like a biatch. you don't want to experience that!!!! trust me!!
7. now you can stir the mixture. continue to stir until when you lift your spoon up the caramel isn't runny but isn't falling off in clumps (i know this is vague, but again the 240 degree thing didn't work for me. so eff this one also!!!)
8. pour caramel in to prepared pan and let cool (i put it in the fridge to cool faster. that way if it comes out too hard or too soft, i know sooner rather than later and i can potentially salvage it!! haha!!)
9. with a knife sprayed with cooking spray, cut in to little 1 inch squares of whatever you desired size is and twist between squares of parchment paper.

okay maybe my directions may not work for everybody and you all would like to make the perfect batch on the first try. if it works for you on the first shot the way it works for other people on the internet who post caramel recipes, then let me bow down to you. it has never worked for me on the first try. good luck! if you successfully make these, those who you give them to will remember you!! =)