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LMHmedchem

LMHmedchem

Last night I tried this by gently heating the caramel just until it was pour-able. I weighed out about the correct quantity for 30 molds and cut it into 1" cubes. I put the cubes in a metal bowl over a pan of simmering water. This is the same setup I use for tempering chocolate. The caramel was sufficiently melted at about 165F. I just poured it directly from the bowl into the molds. This was messy but worked fine. I find caramel to be quite forgiving because of all the butter.

 

The only issue I could see is that the butter started to liquefy and separate at around 150F. I had to give it a good stir before pouring it into the molds. The caramel set up just fine overnight. The only difference is that the squares have a very thin layer of solidified butter on the bottom. I guess I need to stir more as I will need to remove that before dipping them in chocolate.

 

At any rate, based on this it is not necessary to reheat the caramel back to the original temperature of 245F. It can be gently melted and will still retain the correct crystal structure and thus consistency when it sets. The separating butter could be an issue but I am not sure what to do about that other than to give it a good stir. The butter issue would get worse if you heated it to a higher temperature so I would keep it under 170F.

 

LMHmedchem

LMHmedchem

LMHmedchem

Last night I tried this by gently heating the caramel just until it was pour-able. I weighed out about the correct quantity for 3 molds and cut it into 1" cubes. I put the cubes in a metal bowl over a pan of simmering water. This is the same setup I use for tempering chocolate. The caramel was sufficiently melted at about 165F. I just poured it directly from the bowl into the molds. This was messy but worked fine. I find caramel to be quite forgiving because of all the butter.

 

The only issue I could see is that the butter started to liquefy and separate at around 150F. I had to give it a good stir before pouring it into the molds. The caramel set up just fine overnight. The only difference is that the squares have a very thin layer of solidified butter on the bottom. I guess I need to stir more as I will need to remove that before dipping them in chocolate.

 

At any rate, based on this it is not necessary to reheat the caramel back to the original temperature of 245F. It can be gently melted and will still retain the correct crystal structure and thus consistency when it sets. The separating butter could be an issue but I am not sure what to do about that other than to give it a good stir. The butter issue would get worse if you heated it to a higher temperature so I would keep it under 170F.

 

LMHmedchem

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