My sister-in-law introduced me to Starbuck’s Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate, and that was the beginning of my eternal craving for salted caramels. I finally gave in and made them this afternoon.
Oh. My. God. They are incredible. Many, many, many, many thanks to The District Domestic for the recipe.
Homemade Salted Caramels
1 cup heavy cream
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 teaspoon fleur de sel (I used Morton Sea Salt)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup water
Line an 8×8″ glass baking dish with parchment and grease really well with butter.
Bring cream, butter and salt to a boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat and set aside.
In a medium saucepan, bring sugar, corn syrup and water to a boil, stirring just until the sugar is dissolved. Then continue boiling without stirring until the mixture is a light golden color and a candy thermometer reaches 250 degrees. Don’t worry how long this takes – some recipes say it takes 10 minutes and others say up to 45 minutes. The important thing is that it reaches 250 degrees and is a light golden caramel color.
I’m not sure what I did wrong, but when my sugar mixture reached 250 degrees, it wasn’t all that dark. I certainly wouldn’t have called it a “light golden caramel” color. However, when I put the cream mixture in, the color came pretty close to what I expected by the time it reached 248 degrees.
When this happens, carefully stir in the butter/cream mixture. The caramel will bubble up, so be careful. Stir constantly and continue to cook until the mixture reaches 248 degrees.
Make sure to stir the cream mixture well before adding it to the pot – the cream “head” will end up sticking to the side of the small pot, and you don’t want to leave any of that behind. And oh boy, did it bubble up. And over the sides of my pot. Next time I’ll use a taller one.
Then pour into the prepared baking dish and let cool at least 2 hours. Sprinkle the top of the caramels with a generous amount of nice sea salt. When the mixture has set, cut into pieces and wrap in parchment paper.
I put the “topping” salt on as soon as I poured the caramel into the pan, and I think that was a mistake. Much of it dissolved, and formed a slight crust on top rather than a nice garnish. It still tasted divine, so that’s not a problem, but like I said, not what I was aiming for. Next time I think I’ll put the salt on after the first hour of cooling. At that point, the caramel was mostly solid, but a bit squishy, so I believe that’s a good point to get the salt to stick and not dissolve.
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