12.16.06

I done made cement!

Posted in Food at 10:21 pm by kate

salted caramel

Adam and I have started to make Christmas cookies. We’re adding two new recipes this year and decided that we would do a test run to make sure they’re worthy to give to friends and neighbors. I decided that I wanted to make salted chocolate caramels from this month’s Gourmet, because really – who doesn’t love chocolate caramels with fine sprinkles of Maldon salt on them?

I got all of my ingredients ready and began following the directions to the letter. We don’t have an actual candy thermometer, so I used a digital thermometer that I clipped to the side of the pan. Once the boiling sugar was a golden amber color, I added the chocolate and heavy cream mixture and began to stir… and stir. This goo was supposed to get to 255 degrees. It was taking a while, but I continued to stir continuously. After 12 minutes or so, I began to smell a faint burning odor. I continued to stir anyway because the mixture wasn’t up to temp yet. After a few more minutes, Adam asked if I should take it off the heat. The burning smell continued and the goo was still separated. It only got to 230 degrees, but we took it off, added in the butter and poured it into the pan. After resting for ten minutes, I sprinkled the caramel with salt. It was then to rest in the pan for 2 hours before cutting into 1 inch pieces. After 20 minutes of trying to clean the pan with burnt chocolate and congealed caramel, I noticed Adam tapping the caramel in the pan with a spoon. It was as hard as a rock. We quickly found a cutting board and I cut a strip off (the knife slipped as I was doing this and I nearly cut myself). Once I had two small pieces, I tried to eat it. Dear lord… the caramel was so hard I could barely get my teeth into it. When I finally did bite into it, a tiny piece shot off and Adam said, “Look it’s caramel – watch out for the shrapnel!”. Behold, my awful not-even-remotely-candy creation! And yes, the entire block of caramel has gone into the trash.

Another person who made the recipe commented on the website that she had the same problem I did. I’m going to try and compare this recipe to others online and see if I can make a more edible batch next time. Here’s hoping it comes out differently.

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