Homemade Caramels

All right. I'm sorry. You deserve an apology.

I've been putting off writing this particular post for...a freakishly long time. I know some of you have been waiting. It's been weeks. Months. We're scribbling a different year on our checkbooks. It's that bad.

It's that bad, because these are caramels, which are candies, which require boiling sugar with a thermometer, which means a lot of things can go bad, very fast, very out of control, at very high temperatures. It's not necessarily your safety that's jeopardized, provided you don't spill hot caramel on yourself. Rather, the safety and yumminess of your candies are at extreme risk, should things boil for the worse.

It makes mixing a batter and popping it into a nicely preheated oven look like (excuse the pun) a literal piece of cake.

As of today, I've made about ten batches of caramels. And out of those only one single batch has been completely satisfactory to my aching, sugar-craving heart. I've intentionally (but mostly unintentionally) made plain caramels, chocolate caramels, gingerbread caramels, hard caramels, soft caramels, dark caramels, light caramels...blah blah blabbady blah and someone cue some sad self-pitying music, please.

Caramels are not impossible to make. They're quite maneuverable, given that you know what you're doing.

It's just I had an ideal caramel in mind. And once the idea hit, it wouldn't budge. I had to make. Period.

The perfect caramel, to me, was like this: reddish-brown with a brilliant sheen, firm and solid at room temperature (no drooping or molding to the wrapper), soft and chewy with an easy bite (absolutely no pulling teeth), and most importantly, full of that rich, deep, complex flavor from the perfect balance of butter, sugar, and cream.

I'm sure fewer bakers expect this much out of their caramel creations. But I'm hard to please. 

After many failed tries and too many caramel sets tossed whole into the trash, I got it right on my sixth try. The caramels were exactly how I wanted them to be. Honestly, I'm still not completely sure what went right. I still can't tell you with certainty what conditions, tricks, know-hows produce the most perfect, decadent caramels.

But what I can tell you is that homemade caramels, when done right, are so worth it. They're worth the time, the failed experiences, and even the heartache. There's really nothing like it. Store-bought caramels just do not compare.

So what I'm doing today is sharing with you...everything about my caramel-making experience. I'm going to tell you what I did right, what I did wrong, some of my thoughts on candymaking, and advice that has helped me some in the past. Hopefully you can take away something helpful from my goof-ups. Hopefully you can make the perfect caramels on your first or second try, and call it an excellent day.

What exactly are caramels?

A caramel, in its basic identity, is heated sugar. The caramels candies we are making are a combination of cream, butter, and sugar. Depending on the final temperature of the boiling mixture, you can end up with caramel sauce, soft caramels, or hard, toffee-like caramels.

(There are indeed temperature stages in candymaking, but I'll describe them more in detail some other time.)

Of course there's no one "right" caramel. The criterion I listed above reflect my personal preferences only. For example, my mom loves the hard candy caramels and dislikes the softer, chewy caramels. So she'll tell me to make firmer caramels, while I tell her I want the softer kinds. It all depends on what you like. The ideal caramel for you is how you would like to cook it to your desired consistency, color, etc.

Method

Most of the caramel candy recipes on the Web utilize two methods: 1. boiling the sugars to a certain degree, then adding the cream+butter, and 2. boiling everything at once to a certain candy stage. I used the recipe from The Kitchn, and they use the two-step method, and so that's what I'm sharing with you here.

The Kitchn editor does a superb job of describing the caramel-making process. Her tutorial has helped me understand caramels so much better, and so I highly recommend that you read through her procedure before starting on your own. I also recommend you read my own post at least twice to get a sense of what to expect also.

We're making what I call the "plain" caramels. Although there's nothing plain about the flavor and complexity of these caramels, we're calling them plain, as to distinguish them from chocolate, spiced, what-have-you variations out there. We're learning the plain, basic caramels first.

What you will need...before making caramels

Hold up there, oh impatient one. Prep work is boss. Get your tools together.

- A reliable, accurate candy thermometer. It does not have to be expensive, but you do need one. A clip-on to the side of the pan is what I use for my caramels.
- An 8x8 or 9x9 inch baking pan, greased then lined with parchment paper. Grease the parchment paper, too, so that the caramels won't stick to the paper. No, it doesn't really matter what you grease the paper with. I just use plain old cooking spray. But you can use butter, if you'd like.
- A large, heavy-bottomed pan. A 4-5 quarts capacity would be a safe bet.
- A small pan for heating the butter and cream. Although I have found you can (carefully) microwave the mixture, to similar effects.
- Two whisks. One for stirring all the ingredients together, and one for adding the vanilla extract at the end.
- A good kitchen knife with a sharp, clean edge.

Homemade Caramels, from The Kitchn

(The written directions were taken in verbatim from The Kitchn website. However, the supplementary notes in purple are my own.)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups heavy cream
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cup white granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup corn syrup
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

 Directions:

1. Prepare the caramel mold. Line an 8x8 baking dish with parchment so that excess paper hangs over the edges. Spray the parchment and the sides of the pan with nonstick spray.

2. Melt the butter in the cream. Over medium heat, warm the cream, butter, and salt in the 2-quart saucepan (or microwave in a safe container) until the butter melts. Remove from heat, but keep the pan close by.

I've found that it was good to keep the butter+cream mixture still hot before adding it to the sugar mixture. Once I accidentally let it boil, but it didn't seem to have a negative effect on the final caramel.  

3. Combine the sugar, corn syrup, and water. In the larger 4-quart saucepan, combine the sugar, corn syrup, and water. Stir until the sugar is evenly moistened and you form a thick grainy paste. Wipe down the sides of the pan with a damp pastry brush so there are no sugar crystals above the surface of the sugar mixture. Clip the instant-read thermometer to the side of the pan so that the heat sensor is immersed in the sugar. Do not stir the sugar after this point.

Yes, a larger saucepan is necessary. When you're adding the cream+butter mixture, the whole caramel mixture will bubble up like crazy so you want your pan to have some height to it. Another reason is that, consequently, you don't want to burn yourself.

4. Cook the sugar syrup. Place the pot with the sugar mixture over medium to medium-high heat. Let the sugar syrup come to a boil without stirring. At first, you will see small bubbles around the edge of the pan, which will eventually move inward. Around 250°F, the sugar syrup will turn transparent and boil rapidly. Around 320°F, the syrup will darken slightly and smell caramel-like. You can proceed to the next step any time after the syrup reaches 250°F and before it reaches 325°F.

I've found a safe temperature "goal" to be around 300 F for the initial boiling stage. Usually in my pan I can see the caramel turning golden brown at this temperature, and that's when I proceed to the next step below. However, the closer you boil your sugar syrup to 325 F, the darker your caramels will be. 

5. Whisk in the cream and butter. Turn off the heat under the sugar syrup. Slowly pour the warm cream and butter mixture into the sugar syrup while whisking the sugar syrup gently. The sugar syrup will bubble up and triple in size. Stop whisking once all the milk and butter mixture has been added.

Be careful!!!

6. Heat the caramel to 245°F - 250°F. Return the pan to medium to medium-high heat. Let the caramel come to a boil without stirring. It will start off as a soft buttery yellow and eventually darken to reddish-brown caramel. Remove from heat when the caramel reaches 245°F to 250°F.

The firm at rest yet soft upon bitten texture I talked about comes mainly from how the final temperature is handled at this step. For my particular batches and kitchen settings, I've found even 245 F was too high of a temperature for my caramels. 250 F would practically guarantee some teeth-cracking caramels. 

But again, 250 F would be just right or not enough for different caramels, so test and experiment to get your ideal candies.

I watch my caramel carefully around 235 F and don't move until the mixture reaches 243-244 F. As soon as it reaches 244, that's it, I turn off the heat and move quickly with the next steps. You might think a degree or two won't make a difference, but it does. A degree's difference either made me cry or smile.
 

7. Whisk in the vanilla. Quickly whisk the vanilla into the caramel.

8. Pour the caramels into the mold. Immediately pour the caramels into the mold. Do not scrape the pan (there are sometimes hard burnt bits on the bottom). Knock the pan agains the counter a few times to help air bubbles work their way out.

This step is a breeze if you have another set of helping hands. On scraping the pan: don't be obsessed with scraping every bit of caramel into the pan. The reason why is because that last bit of caramel that's left is at a slightly different temperature than the rest of the caramel that's been poured in the pan. Sometimes this unequal heat distribution will cause your caramel surface to solidify and crack. It may also make the center of your caramel batch brittle, as was the case with my chocolate caramels.

However, you may scrape the pan AFTERWARDS to eat some yummy hot caramel!

9. Let the caramels set. Set the caramels somewhere out of the way to set, for at least two hours or (ideally) overnight. Once the caramels have cooled to room temperature, you can cover the pan.

My "perfect" caramels weren't difficult to cut once I left them to cool overnight. My other batches, however, were a different story. I either had to cut once the caramels were warm but set, or microwave the cooled batch before cutting.

10. Cut the caramels. When the caramels have set, lift them out of the pan by the parchment paper flaps and onto a cutting board. Cut the caramels into candies with a very sharp knife. If the caramels stick to your knife, spray your knife with nonstick cooking spray.

11. Wrap the caramels in wax paper. Cut squares of wax paper a little longer than your caramels. Wrap each caramel in wax paper and twist the ends closed. Caramels will keep at room temperature for about two weeks.

How cute are they?? I've given caramels out as I-love-you-gifts, Hey-you're-kinda-cool gifts, thank-you-treats, mini snacks for my church group. Only one person gave my caramel an evil eye, and I can tell you we never became friends.

One final tip, on cleaning up: Don't do this thing where you try to scrub the hard-encrusted caramel on your pan. Don't. It's such a waste of time and effort. Instead, let the pan soak in water overnight. By the next morning you'll have the easiest clean-up ever. Same for your whisks.

Have I convinced you to make caramels for yourself? I hope so.


Don't think too much. Just do it. Surprise yourself. It's just sugar.

Happy baking!