Caramel bits

[lironp]

This is my first post in this forum (Thanks Ilana for recommending it!), over the past few moths I've been reading all 132(!) pages (mostly chocolate & confections related) and I've learned a lot! I've been making chocolates for about 2 years, I've bought every book that came my way, and experiment with new stuff every weekend.

The first question I'd like to ask is: This weekend I tried making caramel for decorating some chocolates- my intention was to make the caramel, spread it out thinly on parchment paper, then break it up into crumbs, put some in my filling, and sprinkle some on each dipped chocolate.

I tried 2 ways- first I caramelized 75 grams of sugar with 25 grams of butter, then I caramelized just 100 grams of sugar. In both cases, after the caramel hardened (which took a few minutes), it started what looked like sweating, until it turned to be completely liquid within a few hours. Is this what normally happens or am I missing something? Is there any way to make these hard pieces of caramel and keep them that way?

[Kerry Beal]

Welcome lironp. Nice to have another confection maker on board.

Caramel is very hygroscopic - ie it draws water to it. If you are in a very humid area it will soften and take on water very quickly.

Placing it into an airtight container as soon as it cools, perhaps with a couple of those little dessicant packages that come with some food will keep it from absorbing water.

Means you aren't going to be able to sprinkle them on top of your chocolates however. If you mix then in to a filling, they will also dissolve unless the filling has a very low water content such as a butter ganache.

[lironp]

Thank You!

The area I'm in isn't humid at all right now, is it supposed to happen so fast (a few hours)?

If I add glucose to the caramel can it impact this in any way? Or butter? Is there anything else I can add to prevent this? How about making butter crunch and then breaking it- Will the same thing happen? I've caramelized nuts the same way- stirred sugar with nuts until the sugar liquefies, added some butter and poured out on a sheet till it hardens. In this case nothing happened to the coating. Is the difference the temperature the sugar was cooked to? Or the presence of the nuts? Or just plain voodoo?

Sorry for all the questions, it's just driving me nuts- my whole batch of chocolates currently has orange smudges on top- not very attractive...

What I'm trying to do is create a creme brulee chocolate- make creme anglaise (based mostly on butter, not cream), add to white chocolate, add caramel pieces, dip in dark chocolate and decorate with caramel pieces. Is there any candy I can make that will stay crunchy while exposed to air?

[Lior]

Hi Liron and welcome. I also make such a bonbon. Think that the caramel MUST be inside couverture to stay crunchy!

[lironp]

Hi Ilana, thanks! And thanks for the recommendation!

I had no idea caramel was so hydroscopic, I guess I'll give up on this idea for now...