salt caramels

[alanamoana]

vanessa,

here at sea level, i just made a recipe and cooked it to about 246 degrees F...they seemed to set up pretty well. soft enough to be chewy, but firm enough to hold their shape for enrobing.

let me know if you need me to pm you a recipe.

[jbehmoaras]

post it on recipe gullet and let us know how we can find it

[Desiderio]

vanessa,

here at sea level, i just made a recipe and cooked it to about 246 degrees F...they seemed to set up pretty well.  soft enough to be chewy, but firm enough to hold their shape for enrobing.

let me know if you need me to pm you a recipe.

←

Thank you Alana, hehe getting frustrated with this darn thingy ,I will see when I go back home how they turned out , if they still too soft to be enrobed ( i wont throw the away no worry ),I will PM you for sure .

[Trishiad]

V,

I cook my soft caramel to 240. It is just firm enough to enrobe. I do leave it to set for at least 24 hours before I slice it.

T

[Desiderio]

V,

I cook my soft caramel to 240.  It is just firm enough to enrobe.  I do leave it to set for at least 24 hours before I slice it.

T

←

Thank you Trishiad,I will try to be more patient as well , and maybe check my termomether to see if it is precise.

[jbehmoaras]

Any tips on cutting the sticky stuff

[Desiderio]

Every type of caramels I made I use a serreted knife in a sawing motion, usually works pretty good ,as long as you never stop in the middle of the cutting , cause then will stick to the knife and its messy.

[patsikes]

Here are a few tips... I have not made these salted caramels but do a lot of plain ones.

- you can always test a bit of caramel in a bowl of cold water (you know, the standard test). I can get pretty close doing this.

- if they are a bit too soft, but you still want to enrobe then "paint" each side of the slab with untempered chocolate. This will help them hold together better

- I have used lots of different cutting tools. Our newest is a 8 or 9 blade rolling cutter (looks like a bunch of pizza cutters). They are spaced at 7/8" so they are just the right size for our box when cut. The technique is to work slowly with it, working down a little at a time across the whole sheet. Otherwise, I find a bench scraper a good option too.

Hope this helps... Patrick

[Desiderio]

Thank you Patrick, hehe yes your caramels are awesome , umm still have the box ( emptyyyy ) hehe.

[jbehmoaras]

Thanks for the tip, i'll try it out

[Desiderio]

Ok , after i re cooked the caramel at higher temperature and waited 24 h ( ) I finally was able to cut them very easy and the consistence is perfect still chewy but nice and firm.Definatlly I need to cook them higher than what the recepie call for ( for my taste ) and wait longer as Trishad suggested.

Still I doubled thr formula and I doubled the salt up to 2 teaspoons ( so for a total of 4 tsp), and they still not that salty , you can taste is but isnt strong enough to make you taste buds explode .next time I am going to try with 3 tsp on the original formula posted here earlier the one on epicurious.

thank you for the help everyone

Edited July 12, 2006 by Desiderio (log)

[alanamoana]

i agree vanessa...the recipe i have also doesn't seem very salty. seems you're doing fine...sometimes patience is all it takes (and i have so little of it ). considering caramel is just sugar, the proportion of salt needs to be pretty big for the flavor to come through.

[jbehmoaras]

I dont know if this would completrly defeat the purpose of using sea salt, but the amount of salt it would take using sea salt may become pretty expensive, what if you dissolving some kosher salt (even though tougher to dissolve, i think it would be better than using iodized) as you prepare the caramel just enough so that you can sense the saltiness in the background to creat a foundation for that flavor and then top with the sea salt. Maybe this way the salty flavor wont get lost and the sea salt remains the star without having to use too much sea salt

*** FYI - I'm not terribly experienced in candy making so take my suggestion with a grain of salt (no pun intended)

[alanamoana]

i actually think this is a good idea. particularly if you are using a high quality fleur de sel or maldon. if you're enrobing, a few grains on the top as someone posted a picture of will certainly give you enough kick.

[jbehmoaras]

perhaps you could sprinkle some somehow underneath and have that fleur de sel melt on your tongue that first second the caramel is in your mouth

[Kerry Beal]

I have some lovely smoked salt at home and when I get back I want to try the salted caramels with a sprinkling of this on top of the chocolate. I thinks it will taste amazing.

I have done some playing around making my own smoked salt using liquid smoke, which actually smells and tastes pretty close to the purchased stuff, only trouble is it's a bit to salty for my taste. I made it using kosher salt, and I'm wondering which salt I should try next which will be large flakes like the kosher salt but less salty. Anyone know which salt I should try?

I'm also going to try making some smoked salt the next time my dad smokes some salmon. I think I'll add a bit of oil to the salt, then just put it in a pan on the top rack of the smoker and see how it turns out.

[jbehmoaras]

I would recommend trying a coarser salt than kosher salt like a rock salt or very coarse sea salt

[Kerry Beal]

I would recommend trying a coarser salt than kosher salt like a rock salt or very coarse sea salt

←

Those are pretty salt too though aren't they?

[David J.]

i actually think this is a good idea.  particularly if you are using a high quality fleur de sel or maldon.  if you're enrobing, a few grains on the top as someone posted a picture of will certainly give you enough kick.

←

I used 4 tsp in the orginal recipie and most people liked it. I reduced it to 3tsp and recieved more positive responses. I only had one person out of 30 dislike the salty carmels.

This is one of my most popular items so far.

I found the number of crystals on top of the carmels after enrobing make a big difference in initial perception. I try to keep it down to a small pinch now.

[jbehmoaras]

I poured the hot caramel into a brownie tray lined with wax paper but now i dont think that will be enough for me to remove the caramel easily ... any tips on removing the caramel without destroying it

[Kerry Beal]

I poured the hot caramel into a brownie tray lined with wax paper but now i dont think that will be enough for me to remove the caramel easily ... any tips on removing the caramel without destroying it

←

Got a feeling that is going to stick pretty badly. Try prying the whole thing out see if you can peel it off the back, but I don't know how well that will work.

Next time parchment.

[jbehmoaras]

Well in my experience, parchment been worse than wax paper ... but i found a solution ... I put the caramel in the fridge for an hour after letting them sit for almost 24 hours and then I popped the caramel block out of the tray and onto a cutting board. I then cut the edge and made a straighter rectangle (this got rid of the wax paper lining the height of the caramel). Then I cut the block in half and put one half back in the fridge. In the meantime I cut strips lengthwise about the size i wanted my caramel to be. Then I turned each strip on its side and with a very sharp, long, and scalloped (granton-edged) Shun knife (which are incredibly sharp knives by the way) I made the thinnest possible slice I could on the side where the wax paper stuck to get it off. I though it would never work but then I said its worth a try rather than tossing it (after letting it set for a day) and you know what ... it worked really well. The cold caramel and the sharp knife were two key features though that necessary for the success of making these caramels.

[iguana]

Fine Cooking December 2005 had a really wonderful and easy honey caramel recipe with tangerine and nut variations. I made these as Xmas gifts last year and they were very well received-- next year I'm going for the chocolate dip!!

[Trishiad]

hmmm. melted wax on the caramel???

I use parchment and have never had a problem. Caramel is very easily made gooey by too much moisture. I try to avoid the fridge. Plus, then it's already room temp and ready to enrobe.

[miladyinsanity]

perhaps you could sprinkle some somehow underneath and have that fleur de sel melt on your tongue that first second the caramel is in your mouth

←

Actually, I saw on David Lebovitz's blog that the trick is to put them into your mouth upside down--or the salt-side on your tongue.