Caramel Chews

Wow it has been a while since I have updated this blog! I have been a little busy between school and a new internship that I just started. I am interning with a non-profit organization teaching low-income housing families how to cook nutritious meals and live healthy lifestyles. We will also start gardening in the spring, which I am very excited for! Hopefully I can write about some stories from my internship.

Anyway, in my apartment we have a candy jar.

 

And since we usually buy candy to fill the jar (or pumpkin) I decided it would be fun to make candy!

My favorite caramel candy recipe is from Martha Stewart and can be found here.

Warning: This recipe makes a LOT of caramels, at least 100.

This is the recipe (from Martha Stewart Living, December 2012, with a few modifications)

Vegetable oil, for baking sheet

2 cups heavy cream

2 1/4 cups sugar

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1 1/4 cups light corn syrup

1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

 

Instructions:

1. Brush the bottom and sides of a 9×13 baking sheet or dish. It is important that it has a rim. Line bottom and sides with parchment and brush the parchment paper with oil.

2. Boil cream, sugar, butter, and corn syrup in a large pot over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally ONLY until the sugar dissolves. Then- no more stirring. Reduce heat to medium and cook until the caramel reaches 248 degrees on a candy thermometer.

3. Immediately remove the caramel from the heat and quickly stir in salt and vanilla. Pour into the baking sheet and let stand for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until you can pick up the parchment out of the baking dish without the caramel bending and wrinkling.

4. Transfer into a cutting board and with a large heavy knife, cut into 3/4 by 1 1/4 inch pieces. Wrap individually with wax paper.

Some important tips for this recipe:

1. Make sure you don’t stir the caramel once the sugar is dissolved. As tempting as it is, it will cause crystallization of the caramel and you will not end up with a smooth caramel at the end.

2. Use a large pot. The cream mixture will bubble up a LOT in the beginning.

3. Watch the thermometer and make sure it does not go over 248 degrees. Work quickly once it does. Test your thermometer with boiling water to make sure it is accurate. Boiling water should be exactly 212 degrees.

4. Measure out your salt and vanilla BEFORE your caramel is boiling. This allows you to work quickly once your caramel reaches the correct temperature.

5. Be careful. The sugar will take a while to cool down and will definitely burn you if you touch it too soon.

6. If you read the original Martha Stewart recipe, you will notice that she recommends letting the caramel sit for at least eight hours before cutting it into pieces. I started cutting as soon as I could lift the caramel out of the baking dish without it bending and wrinkling and I found it to be very easy to cut. By the end of my cutting, the caramel had hardened and was very difficult to cut through. It turned out fine to start cutting early.

7. Cleaning up caramel is a pain. See my tip at the end of this post for how to clean it up easily.

Enjoy!