SMS: Honey Cream Caramels
Caramel... If there is one ingredient in a dessert that will immediately have me interested, caramel is it. Because I love caramel, there was no doubt that I would be in the mix with this next SMS recipe, honey cream caramels! This SMS was hosted by Carmen of Baking is my Zen, and it might be one of my favorite recipes yet.
Making the caramels was relatively simple. My husband's step father has an old family recipe that he always makes around Christmas that is really similar, and although his has fewer ingredients, I knew the basic idea of how this process would go. He has made his so long that he doesn't even need a candy thermometer anymore. We tried this one Christmas and ended up with more of a caramel syrup than caramel candies. Oops... =)
One thing I noticed was that 250 degrees F and the hard ball stage were not at the same point on my candy thermometer. I went ahead and took the sugar mixture off the stove at 250 degrees as directed, and my caramels ended up just a little bit chewy. In the end, this was fine because we like them better that way, but I definitely did not have the crumbly caramel that others indicated. Did anyone else notice this?
After halving the recipe, I ended up with about 30 caramels. My only change was that I wrapped the caramels in aluminum foil rather than in waxed paper as that has always worked well for the family's recipes. I "tested" one to make sure it would come off the foil, and so far, so good. Head over to the SMS page to check out the other bakers' posts and enjoy your caramels!
Tessa, I agree...this is one my favorite recipes from the book. I was so impressed at how nicely they turned out. I'm impressed your family can make them without using a thermometer! My mixture took 25 minutes to come up to firm ball stage. Nice job on your caramels!
ReplyDeleteYUM-E
ReplyDeleteAren't these lovely? Your caramels look fantastic.
ReplyDeleteI love the simplicity of just throwing everything in the pot and waiting for it to get to just the right temperature :) My caramels weren't crumbly, definitely soft and just a little chewy. Yours look great!
ReplyDeleteYour caramels look delicious! We were out of town this weekend, so I skipped this one. I am enjoying reading everyone's posts.
ReplyDeletemine were chewy - I didn't realize others had crumbly caramels? you mean like werther's? either way I prefer mine this way... I used a digital thermometer and just took them off at 250F, i don't have a specific candy thermometer that says the different stages on it :P
ReplyDeleteYou make it look so easy. I remember the first time I tried making caramels I was in teh kitchen all day because the weather outside was horrible and nothing was going right! This sounds and looks fantastic and so delicious!
ReplyDeleteThey look super yummy to me! My mom makes the best caramels at Christmas time! I always look fwd to them!
ReplyDeleteTess, thanks for stopping by my blog. This recipe is definitely a keeper! There are many versions of making caramels, but I like this one because it uses corn syrup which makes the issue of sugar crystalizing non existent.
ReplyDeleteCarmen
This is the second caramel recipe that I've seen recently and I just may have to try making some. It would be my first foray into candy making.
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