Caramels: Golden Goodness

I finally did something I've been wanting to do for some time. Make caramels. I'm going to take you into my confidence and tell you a secret: I have a minor love affair with this wonderful concoction, especially when it has sea salt included.  Please, please - don't let chocolate know about this, though!










Having never before made this treat, I found two promising recipes on-line.  But being a bit indecisive and entering into the unknown, I couldn't choose - so I made both!  I figured they could have a bit of a competition and my family could judge.

First thing I learned - have a working candy thermometer.  I have three different options but alas, only the cheapest one wanted to participate in this challenge.

Second - use bigger cooking pots than the recipe calls for.  This allows you to cook this gooey goodness over the required medium heat and not have it boil over onto the newly cleaned cooktop.  And it is a shame to waste even one drop of this stuff!

Third - stock up on celephane treat bags when they go on sale after a holiday.  I used ones I had left over, cutting them up into strips to use as wrappers for individual pieces.

Well, my family is certainly enjoying both of these recipes.  When asked to judge, they offered several great points about each recipe, but they ultimately were no help as they each liked a different one!

Each recipe did include heavy cream, white and brown sugars and vanilla.



One recipe has butter and corn syrup. This one has wonderful flavor much like butterscotch. It came out of the pan easier and holds it shape better. It doesn't call for salt in the recipe so I added it to the pan before pouring in the hot molten mix and again immediately after. I was going for a taste of sea salt but must admit that my husband noted the lessor taste of salt as one of his highlight points of this recipe.

The other recipe has no butter, no corn syrup but does have what seems to be an extreme amount of salt included.  Naturally, I used much less salt in the final process to offset this.  My daughter judged this recipe her favorite, in part because of the balanced taste of salt! The thing I noted about this recipe is that it makes about half as much as the other and if we are going to go through the process of messing up the kitchen, we might as well have more at the conclusion! So you might want to make this a double!

Since my husband's and daughter's votes ruled each other out, I have to make a decision. But I don't think I can.  Both have great taste and texture.  Both exceeded my tastebuds hopes.  Both have their pros and honestly, I can't think of any cons.  So the decision is that next time - and, yes, there will be a next time - I may try to combine the best of each of these recipes and come up with something distinctly Krone.