Music: Edan – Beautiful Food
We recently met baby Eloise, daughter of our friends Laura and Mike. In honor of this meeting, we made these wonderful caramels to share as an after dinner treat. No, my little sillies, not for the baby! For us!
A new blogger friend of mine, Rachel (yes! someone actually reads this!), suggested I make them and I am wholeheartedly grateful. They were very easy and so delicious…and I don’t generally like caramels. We’ve been eating them for a week – some have even found their way to Lincoln Center and have a few fans there (if you haven’t seen the new atrium, might I suggest a field trip? Free performances on Thursday!).
Next stop, bacon fat caramel station….Thank you, Greene Grape.
What you’ll need for the Caramels:
1 cup heavy cream 5 tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into pieces 1 tsp. fleur de sel
1 1/2 cups sugar 1/4 cup light corn syrup 1/4 cup water
- Line bottom and sides of an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper.
- Lightly oil parchment.
- Bring cream, butter, and fleur de sel to a boil in a small saucepan, then remove from heat and set aside.
- Boil sugar, corn syrup, and water in a 3- to 4-quart heavy saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved. (Make sure you actually use a 4 quart saucepan because I used a smaller one and man did things get hairy for a minute there).
- Boil, without stirring but gently swirling pan, until mixture is a light golden caramel. (This will take a while, around 20 minutes).
- Carefully stir in cream mixture (mixture will bubble up – be careful) and simmer, stirring frequently, until caramel registers 248°F on thermometer. This will take 15 minutes. (You’ll know its done when the mixture smooths out).
- Pour into baking pan and cool 2 hours.
- Cut into 1-inch pieces, then wrap each piece in a 4-inch square of wax paper, twisting 2 ends to close.
Jess,
This is beautiful! I love the presentation. You remind me of that character in the movie Chocolat. Why don’t you open a store and make all these little treats?! Your packaging is so arty (is that a word?) I don’t like caramels at all, but I would buy these because they look so nice! I can see you now in your red heels rolling out the fudge on a marble counter. Dink aboud it. (as my dad would say)
Thank you! I totally don’t mind being a wandering gypsy witch who makes confections…especially if James could play guitar like Django and serenade me all day (Johnny Depp not included). I will, indeed, dink about it.
I tasted one of these beautifully wrapped delicacies and can vouch that the inside is as delectable as the outside — a lingering and satisfying flavor.
Thank you, Jennifer. I’m glad they found a home there because I couldn’t eat them anymore!
Are they chewy? They look amazing. We can set up a caramel assembly line for my favors!!!
That would be so fun! They start off hard and turn chewy.
Can I have one please?
But of course, friend, here you are…
These look, and I am sure, also taste amazing! Salt caramels are my all time fave! Thanks for the great pics Jessica, I might actually try this recipe, Does the salt stay a little crunchy? Or does it all dissolve?
Hi there! Rachel told me today (while we were traipsing about Brooklyn looking for an apartment) that she shared her caramel recipe with you and you blogged about it! How fun! I have my own caramel recipe that I love (and have blogged about) but *do* love a salted caramel. I’ve often thought of trying Ina Garten’s recipe, although yours look tempting – I just might have to try yours first! And I love how you put them in a mason jar and added a little bit of loveliness to the rim. I hold the firm belief that most things are cuter in a mason jar.
Thanks for stopping by…I plan on doing many more caramels because this one came out so nicely (thanks to Rachel). Good luck apartment hunting!
Never had salted caramels. Do you really need Fleur de sel salt or would any sea salt work? How about sending me a few next time you make them. Uncle John.
Hi Jess and James, It was nice seeing you both at Easter Dinner. Thanks very much for the jar of Caramels, they are awesome. Your next mission, should you choose to accept it . . . is . . . Chocolate Caramels. Chocolate goes great with salt, perhaps like Reesins without the chocolate covering. Opening and enjoying another caramel now, thanks again, keep up the good work on the blog.
Uncle John.
Thank you! Glad you are enjoying them…I swear, they were the best batch. And, mission accepted!
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