I was never one for sweets. My preference is for salty and spicy things. However, I love caramel. I remember when I was a kid we use to get bags of those Kraft caramels and I would eat them till my belly ached. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find them anywhere anymore. I had a hankering for caramel and I don’t like any of the commercial ones out there anymore, so I decided to make some.
These are definitely not your run-of-the-mill commercial caramels. I call them caramels for adults because I added my own twist to it by adding some vanilla and some rhum.
I never made candy before. I admit that I was worried at first. I had visions of me burning myself or setting the kitchen on fire. My sister-in-law made caramel once without a thermometer and it was a nightmare, so first on my agenda was to go purchase a thermometer.
With the correct equipement, these caramels were a breeze. I had to adjust the temperature I cooked the candy to because my first batch was too hard. While the recipe called for the candy to be cooked to 248F, I stopped it at 240F.
Once the cooking was done, I poured the candy into a parchment-lined pyrex dish and waited. Those must have been the longest two hours of my life. Ok, so I am exaggerating, but I was impatient to eat them.
Note: I suggest you use a pair of kitchen scissors to cut your caramel into pieces. I found the knife awkward to cut them up.
Fleur de Sel Caramels
1 cup heavy cream
5 tbsp salted butter, cut into pieces
1 tsp fleur de sel (you can substitute with sea salt if you can’t get it)
1 tsp vanilla
3 tbsp rhum
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup water
Method:
- Lightly oil bottom and sides of an 8-inch parchment lined baking pan.
- Put sugar, corn syrup, rhum and water in a heavy saucepan. Stir until sugar is dissolved.
- Boil the mixture until it is a light golden caramel color. Gently swirl the pan occasionally. Do not stir.
- Carefully stir in cream, butter, vanilla and fleur de sel.
- Simmer the caramel, stirring frequently, until the caramel registers 248F on the candy thermometer. (You may need to adjust depending on your altitude.
- Pour into baking pan and cool 2 hours. Cut into 1-inch pieces and wrap 4-inch square wax paper, twisting both ends closed.
