Making salted caramels at home: Tips, tricks, and hard-won lessons

by Katie

So! Those of you who know me from Twitter have already heard me whine about my weekend, wherein I made FOUR BATCHES of caramels that came out hard as rocks, and it wasn't until the fifth time that I finally got it right, and even then they were still a little firmer than I like, but WHATEVER, I AM CALLING IT GOOD.

(Four! Batches! In the trash!)

The weirdest thing is, I have used this same recipe for YEARS without incident (this one from Ina Garten: it's great, try it, skip the vanilla and don't bother rolling them). So while I had been planning to write an encouraging "Caramels! So easy! Don't be intimidated!" post, this has instead morphed into a "Caramels! I still recommend making them, but perhaps let me share a little bit of the wisdom of my experience" kind of thing.

If you have no intention of ever making caramels at home, or if you cannot believe I am wasting this many words on the topic, I will understand if you click away. No hard feelings. For those of you who ARE considering caramel-making, however, and find yourselves intimidated: read on.

TIPS AND TRICKS FOR CARAMEL-MAKING

TEMPERATURE IS EVERYTHING. It is from this truth that all other advice derives. A difference of only a few degrees can be the difference between caramel sauce that never sets up and “caramels” so hard that they’ll break your teeth. This is where I’m fairly certain all my problems were this weekend, and this is the topic about which I have notes. Many, many notes. Sorry.

First, the basics: there is a two-step process to most caramel recipes: in the first, you heat sugar with some corn syrup and maybe some water to a very high heat while the sugar takes on color; and in the second, you add scalded butter and cream to the cooked sugar and cook it again, this time to a very precise temperature. The temperature does not matter nearly so much in the first  step- you’re just building flavor. Let it go a nice long time until it gets deep amber.  Really the only thing you have to watch is not to burn it- just watch it closely, no thermometer needed.

The second step, when you add the butter and cream back into the cooked sugar, is where things get precise. The exact target temperature will vary by recipe (based, in my limited understanding, on the ratio of sugar to cream/fat) but will likely fall somewhere in the range of 240-250 degrees. You'll want a candy thermometer for this. My tips:

• LOW AND SLOW. Use a medium-low flame. Seriously. The biggest risk, and the thing that kept screwing me up this weekend, is that you blow right past your target temperature. At high heat, this is harder to avoid.

• Move your thermometer around. There are likely to be hot spots on your stove and your pot. Find them, and put the thermometer THERE. You want to remove the candy as soon as the hottest part of your pot hits your target temperature. 

• Fits and starts. In my experience, sugar does not heat on an even trajectory. It will stall out, then suddenly surge up, then cool back down. I am not a scientist, I cannot explain exactly what is happening here- something about evaporation? And chemistry? But it is normal. Do not be tempted to turn up the heat if you see the temperature going down- it will come back up eventually.

• Skip the water brushing. Virtually every caramel recipe I’ve ever read insists that you should brush down the sides of the pot with water to avoid crystallizing and gritty texture. SKIP THIS. Seriously, you’ve got enough to worry about, and I’ve never seen it happen (apparently the corn syrup in most recipes is designed to prevent all that chain crystallizing reaction business anyway.)

• Be ready to work quickly. Have your pan greased and ready before you start cooking. Watch that thermometer like a hawk. And when you hit your target temperature, pull the candy off the flame immediately. The residual heat from the pan will keep things heating up.

My best guess about my failures this weekend is that my hot stove and heavy pan created enough heat that I kept blowing the target temperature: the batch that finally worked was the one where I pulled it off the flame at 240, instead of 248. In my opinion, it’s far better to serve your friends slightly-squishy caramels than inadvertent Werthers-style hard candies. When in doubt, err on the side of too soon.

After all this, though, I still say: worth it. I made caramels for YEARS with no problems, and even after this year's debacle, they're still a great, tasty, impressive gift. Happy candy making!

Comments

[Jess M.]

Oooh! I have wanted to make these for a long time. I tried a caramel frosting once and totally burned the caramel and cursed at Martha Stewart's color descriptions. I think I'll try these these!

[Sarah Anne]

THANK YOU for this! We were planning on making caramels for a few gifts this year!