SALTED CARAMELSfeatured

I would like to personally shake the hand of whoever first paired sea salt with caramel. And then I would give them a high five and a good game because they have made my life infinitely better. And they deserve all my love. Forever.

A handful of years ago I was on, what I liked to call, financial lock down during the holidays. Things were reeaaaaally tight. It was either figure out something I could make and give people inexpensively, or work really hard writing the world’s best Christmas card in lieu of a gift. I went with option 1. Enter Salted Caramels. By the end of that holiday, I had this recipe down to a science. One batch filled two standard sized mason jars and took  me about 20-30 minutes to make. Bam. Over and over. I was a Salted Caramel making machine that year. Ironically the next year when I gave everyone their purchased gifts, they all asked if they were getting the salted caramels too. Greedy little buggers. I even had one friend buy a bunch of Kraft caramels so I would make them into salted caramels (sorry buddy, that’s not how it’s done).

Point being? These make a great, pretty simple, inexpensive gift. Christmas gift, hostess gift or even it’s Friday night and you made it through the week so you are going to treat yo’self gift.

A few notes:
1. This recipe isn’t complicated, but it does require patience and a careful eye.
2. Read the recipe all the way through so you can anticipate what’s coming. Everything happens quickly so you’ll need to know what is happening next.
3. Prep everything before you start.
4. You really do need a candy thermometer for this recipe.  No need for a fancy one; I use the thermometer I bought at Albertsons for $5 dollars in college and it works just fine.
5. DO NOT substitute wax paper for parchment paper. When you pour the hot caramel into the pan, if you use wax paper it will melt into the caramels and ruin the batch. Parchment paper is the only way to go.
6. You might mess up your first batch. No biggie, you’ll easily know what you need to adjust and will nail it on the next time.

Recipe: Salted Caramels Adapted from Ina Garten’s Recipe  |  Soundtrack: Sam Cooke

• Vegetable oil
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 5 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 tsp fleur de sel, plus extra for finishing (I prefer Maldon brand)
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla

Directions:
Line an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper, allowing it to come up with sides of the pan. Using a pastry brush, cover the parchment paper lightly with oil.

In a small pot, bring the cream, butter and fleur de sel to a simmer over medium heat. Once it starts to simmer, turn off the heat and set it aside.

In a saucepan, combine the water, the sugar and the corn syrup. Stir very gently to begin to combine the ingredients. Be careful not to splash up the sides. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. Boil until the mixture is a warm golden brown. Do not stir, just gently swirl the pan every so often. Once it starts to turn yellow it will go golden very quickly, keep your eye on the pot. It will go from being clear, to a light/faint yellow and then it will go golden. It can burn quickly so, like I said, keep a close eye on this.

When the sugar mixture is nice and golden, turn off the heat and slowly add the cream mixture. Be careful, it will bubble up aggressively. Stir in the vanilla with a wooden spoon, attach your candy thermometer and cook over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes until the mixture reaches 248º. Watch this like a hawk. Removing the caramel before it reaches 248º will make the caramels too soft and over 248º will make them too hard. So yeah, just stay put and watch the thermometer during this step.

Carefully pour the caramel into the prepared pan and refrigerate for a few hours until the caramel is firm.

Once the caramels are cold, remove them from the pan onto a cutting board and discard the parchment paper. Sprinkle the top of the caramel with the extra fleur de sel. Cut the caramel into strips and then into bite size pieces. Cut parchment paper into squares. Place a piece of caramel in the corner of one of the parchment paper squares and roll up. Twist the ends to seal the caramel shut.

Store in an airtight container in your refrigerator. Assuming these last long enough to even be put into a container…

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