{"id":3979,"date":"2010-12-15T12:18:56","date_gmt":"2010-12-15T19:18:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/?p=3979"},"modified":"2010-12-18T14:51:41","modified_gmt":"2010-12-18T21:51:41","slug":"caramels-recipe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/caramels-recipe\/","title":{"rendered":"Last-minute gift from the kitchen"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Candy has never been my strong suit.\u00a0 With the exception of my family’s easy fudge, I tend to stay away from vats of boiling sugar.<\/p>\n

So when I say these caramels from Jacques Pepin are amazingly simple to make and almost foolproof, you should take note. Just the thing for a last-minute gift from the kitchen, they require\u00a0 less than half an hour of active work. Plus you’re likely to have all the ingredients sitting in your pantry and fridge.<\/p>\n

They’re so good that you’re liable to find yourself whipping up a batch solely to indulge your sweet tooth.\u00a0 The recipe does use a small amount of corn syrup to hold together all that glorious butter and sugar, but it’s not the high fructose variety that you find in processed foods.\u00a0 Besides, no one would ever call this health food.<\/p>\n

I found this recipe in “Chez Jacques,”<\/a> by Jacques Pepin (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2007), the famous TV chef’s memoir with recipes and fabulous photographs.\u00a0 It’s one of my favorite books and the caramels\u00a0 are winners.<\/p>\n

All I’ve really changed is the temperature recommended for the first boiling of water sugar and corn syrup.\u00a0 Pepin call for cooking the syrup to 320 degrees, which must be a typo.\u00a0 My sugar burned long before that.\u00a0\u00a0 Instead, I recommend you start watching the syrup carefully at 270 degrees, remembering that it will darken even more after you add the butter and cream and cook it longer.<\/p>\n

The only equipment you’ll need is a heavy saucepan with lid, a candy thermometer and a small loaf pan to form the caramels.<\/p>\n

One note of caution:\u00a0 Be sure your candy thermometer is accurate before you begin. Everything hinges on cooking the caramel syrup to precisely the right temperature.\u00a0 Five degrees one way or another and your candy will either be too hard or too soft.\u00a0 That isn’t really a disaster \u2013 I’ll share some fixes \u2013 but it is annoying and discouraging.<\/p>\n

Some people can make candy by just eyeballing the syrup as it turns from crystal clear to a shimmering gold and testing for the soft or hard ball stages by dropping some of the boiling syrup into cold water.\u00a0 But I’d rather rely on the word of a trusted thermometer.<\/p>\n

To check yours for accuracy, insert the thermometer in a pan of boiling water.\u00a0 It should register 212 degrees.\u00a0 If not, note the difference and adjust the recipe temperatures accordingly.<\/p>\n

I made two batches of overcooked caramel this week before I realized my thermometer was off by 10 degrees.\u00a0 It tasted great but was too hard to cut, much less eat.\u00a0 So I melted each batch of caramel back down over low heat, stirring minimally with a chopstick to avoid splashing against the sides of the pan and poured the boiling syrup out over a cookies sheet lined with silicon mat to make toffee.\u00a0 After it cooled a little, I sprinkled a cup of chopped bittersweet chocolate over the top, spread the chocolate out as it melted and showered it with chopped nuts.\u00a0 It was delicious.<\/p>\n

Pepin likes his caramels soft and chewy.\u00a0 I do, too.\u00a0 If you miss the mark, though, your caramel will never harden and be too soft to cut.\u00a0 Put it back in the saucepan, slowly bring it back to a boil and cook it to the proper temperature.\u00a0 It will set nicely the second time.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The stages of making caramel, from combining butter and sugar to cutting and wrapping.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\n

CARAMELS<\/strong>
\nMakes about 24 pieces<\/em><\/p>\n

1 stick butter (8 tablespoons), cut into pieces, plus more for buttering pan
\n\u00bd cup heavy cream
\n3 tablespoons water
\n\u00bc cup light corn syrup
\n1 cup sugar<\/p>\n

Lightly butter a 7\u00bd-inch by 3\u00bd-inch loaf pan and line with a strip of buttered parchment paper long enough to extend over the ends of the pan.<\/p>\n

Place butter and cream in a 2 cup glass measure or small bowl and microwave for about 1\u00bd minutes, until hot. Set aside.<\/p>\n

Combine water, corn syrup and sugar, in that order, in a heavy 2-quart saucepan. Stir just enough to moisten the sugar without having the mixture splash onto the sides of the pan, where it may crystallize. Cook over medium-high heat without stirring until the mixture comes to a boil, and then cover with a lid for a minute or so.\u00a0 This will create moisture in the pan and melt any sugar clinging to the pan sides.<\/p>\n

Place the candy thermometer in the pan, and cook mixture for about 6 minutes, until the sugar begins to darken and turn gold around the edges.\u00a0 The temperature should be around 270 degrees, at which point it will begin to take on a light golden color.\u00a0 Cooking to a higher level will produce a deeper color.<\/p>\n

Pour the butter and cream mixture gradually into the pan, adding about a third of it at a time, and stir, using the base of your thermometer or a wooden chopstick to incorporate it. Continue cooking for another 5 or 6 minutes, until the mixture reaches a temperature of 240 degrees, the soft-ball stage. (This will create a relatively soft caramel; if you bring the temperature to about 245 degrees, the caramels will be hard. Adjust\u00ad to your own tastes.)<\/p>\n

As soon as the caramel reaches the desired temperature, pour into prepared pan. Cool, uncovered, at room temperature, for about 4 hours. Invert onto a sheet of parchment paper or waxed paper (pulling gently on the paper strips, if necessary). If the caramel is still too soft to work with, refrigerate for an hour or so to firm it up. Cut into strips about \u00bd inch wide, and then cut the strips into 1\u00bd -inch lengths to have about 24 caramels.
\nWrap in squares of plastic wrap or waxed paper and eat immediately, or refrigerate or freeze for later.<\/p>\n

Note:\u00a0 If you want salted caramels, sprinkle cooling candy with a generous pinch of sea salt.\u00a0 Fleur de sel is especially elegant.<\/p>\n

Adapted from \u201cChez Jacques,\u2019\u2019 By Jacques Pepin (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2007)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Candy has never been my strong suit.\u00a0 With the exception of my family’s easy fudge, I tend to stay away from vats of boiling sugar. So when I say these caramels from Jacques Pepin are amazingly simple to make and almost foolproof, you should take note. Just the thing for a last-minute gift from the … Continue reading Last-minute gift from the kitchen<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3979"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4003,"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3979\/revisions\/4003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}