Variations on Caramels

[jrshaul]

I've been focusing on my confection skills, and have been making many variants. I'm not sure if I'm bodging the process, so I'm posting my results for your comment.

#1: Lebovitz's Salted Butter Carmels:

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2010/01/salted-butter-caramels/

I actually did a few variants on this, as the results I had were much lighter and color than his own results. I'm a bit perplexed by his recipe, as he shows a very dark carmelized sugar; however, his recipe (unless I misread it) features heating sugar to a clear 310F, adding cream, cooking to 260, and cooling.

The end result is very much on the hard side.

#2: Modified salted butter carmels

Salted butter carmel heated to 260 are brick-hard. Heated to 250, it's much better. Am I doing something wrong? Or is my thermometer borked?

#3: Salted butter carmels with carmelized sugar.

I heated a dry carmel (ignoring actual temperature,) then added the cream and continued as standard to 260F. This was pretty tasty, though quite hard; I ended up adding a little milk and corn syrup and recooking to 250, which produced a good texture and darkened it considerably.

#3: Cream-less caramels. The first batch came out burned and greasy. The second batch was made with a wet carmel (sugar syrup heated until it started to brown) of 1C sugar with 1T corn syrup, then 2T of butter, 1T corn syrup and some water was added to liquefy the caramel and it was recooked to 250 before a further 1T of butter was added. I actually think this one came out pretty well: I find that standard caramel, unless made with a lot of honey and other expensive ingredients, is somewhat tasteless, and this came out very nicely.

#4: Fruit caramels. Assuming my thermometer was reading low (foolish, given it's alcohol), I cooked 1/3 cup cherry juice concentrate, 1/2 cup water, and 1.5 cup sugar to 250F before adding 2T of salted butter. The end result is pretty tasty, but it's not setting very well. Next batch will have 1/2 cup cherry juice concentrate, but it overall came out well.

I'm not sure to what degree I'm reinventing a wheel, but I'm getting a lot of practice out of $2.50 in sugar. The only real catch is my inability to dry caramelize sugar: The combination of poor pans and an uneven electric stove results in dry carmels burning well before the majority of the sugar is melted unless 30+ minutes of careful heating is applied.

[Heartsurgeon]

12 x 12" 1/4" thickness steel plate for $15.00....use it to even out the heat from your electric cooktop!

[HungryC]

A cast iron skillet is a good and inexpensive tool for dry caramelizing sugar. I made a variation of those Leibovitz salted butter caramels, substituting Steens cane syrup for the syrup in the original recipe. Worked out well, though the caramels softened after a couple of days due to ambient humidity.

[jrshaul]

My favorite batch of caramels so far used nothing more than butter, sugar, and water. I'm not sure if this is actually caramel, though, as the sugar is initially caramelized and no cream is added. What am I making, exactly?

A cast iron skillet is a good and inexpensive tool for dry caramelizing sugar. I made a variation of those Leibovitz salted butter caramels, substituting Steens cane syrup for the syrup in the original recipe. Worked out well, though the caramels softened after a couple of days due to ambient humidity.

Did you caramelize the sugar at all before adding the other ingredients? I'm somewhat perplexed.

[HungryC]

I did not dry cook the sugar...I followed Lebovitz's recipe exactly, except I substituted cane syrup for the corn syrup. But I have used a cast iron skillet to caramelized sugar for Vietnamese caramel sauce (see Andrea Nguyens excellent illustrated recipe: http://www.vietworldkitchen.com/blog/2007/10/caramel-sauce.html )

[pastrygirl]

260F does seem rather high, unless you want your caramels very firm. During the summer when the kitchen was very warm, I was cooking mine to 254F. Now that room temp is much cooler, I aim for 250F, even 248 might be better, because I do want them soft and luscious. I'm sure the ingredient ratios also play a part. Butterfat is soft at room temp, so I think more butter should make a softer caramel if cooked to the same temp as one with less butter - someone please correct me if I'm wrong! The salted butter caramels from Alice Medrich's Pure Dessert are great, I once made a batch with Lyle's Golden Syrup and could not stop eating them.

How would you describe the Steen's syrup? Is it dark and molassesy, or light and golden? I actually have a big, unopened can at work that I should use up sometime, but i guess I don't want to deal with a big can of stickiness if I'm not sure what to do with it!

[jrshaul]

Hmm. It seems that the syrup is a large part of the flavor. I've been carmelizing the sugar, but I should perhaps look into getting some myself.

It mentions some can be produced by treating sugar with an acid. Any suggestions?

[jmacnaughtan]

I'm not sure to what degree I'm reinventing a wheel, but I'm getting a lot of practice out of $2.50 in sugar. The only real catch is my inability to dry caramelize sugar: The combination of poor pans and an uneven electric stove results in dry carmels burning well before the majority of the sugar is melted unless 30+ minutes of careful heating is applied.

What's your technique for dry caramelizing? If you're just dumping all your sugar in at once, you'll have a problem even with decent equipment. My pans and electric hob are the cheap second hand variety, but if you add a little sugar at a time and stir well over a medium heat, you should get a better result.

James

[HungryC]

How would you describe the Steen's syrup? Is it dark and molassesy, or light and golden? I actually have a big, unopened can at work that I should use up sometime, but i guess I don't want to deal with a big can of stickiness if I'm not sure what to do with it!

Steens is somewhere between Lyles and molasses...it isn't as bitter as molasses, but it does have the browned, vegetal notes similar to molasses, whereas I find Lyles is softer, less assertive. Steens is a local product for me, so I use it in all sorts of things from vinaigrette to turkey brine to pancake topping and on yogurt.

[keychris]

but if you add a little sugar at a time and stir well over a medium heat, you should get a better result.

that's exactly how I dry caramelise, too. 1/3 of the sugar at a time, heat until it's melted and honey coloured, add the next third, repeat.

Edited December 8, 2012 by keychris (log)

[jrshaul]

What's your technique for dry caramelizing? If you're just dumping all your sugar in at once, you'll have a problem even with decent equipment. My pans and electric hob are the cheap second hand variety, but if you add a little sugar at a time and stir well over a medium heat, you should get a better result.

I'm using only 3/4C, so I didn't think it important. Should I be using closer to 1/3?

[jmacnaughtan]

What's your technique for dry caramelizing? If you're just dumping all your sugar in at once, you'll have a problem even with decent equipment. My pans and electric hob are the cheap second hand variety, but if you add a little sugar at a time and stir well over a medium heat, you should get a better result.

I'm using only 3/4C, so I didn't think it important. Should I be using closer to 1/3?

It depends on the size of your pan. I stay on the conservative side, putting in enough to just cover the base with a very thin layer of sugar and stirring to break up the hot spots. The biggest problem is adding too much after, and it starts seizing up and burning...

[Creola]

I make a dry caramel by putting the sugar in a wide bottom pan and when it starts to melt I swirl the pan, gently at first then as it gets more liquid faster. I find once you start stirring with a spoon it starts clumping. I have no problems with this method.