Caramels
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Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 100
 
Ingredients
  • 240ml (or 1 cup) whipping cream
  • 80g (or ⅓ of a cup + 1 teaspoon) unsalted butter, cubed
  • ½ teaspoon table salt
  • 1 vanilla bean
  • 340g (or 1⅔ cup + 1½ teaspoon) granulated sugar
  • 60ml (or ¼ cup) water
  • 80g (or ¼ cup) Golden Syrup
Instructions
  1. Line a square baking dish (22x12-cm or 8x5-inch) with baking parchment.
  2. Combine the cream, salt and butter in a small saucepan. Pop in the (unsplit and unscraped) vanilla bean. Place the pan over low heat and bring the mixture to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Take off the heat and set aside.
  3. Note: by heating the cream mixture, you're not only melting the butter, you're also infusing the flavor of the vanilla bean into the mixture. Instead of a vanilla bean, you can add 1 to 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract.
  4. To a large pan (with a capacity of at least 3 litres/quarts), add the water, the Golden Syrup and the sugar. Place over a low heat, stirring until the sugar is completely dissolved.
  5. Once the sugar has dissolved, turn the heat up to medium-high and clip on a sugar thermometer.
  6. Cook the sugar mixture, without stirring, to a golden caramel (with a temperature of approximately 160°C/320°F). Make sure the caramel doesn't get too dark, as it will continue to get darker after you add the cream mixture.
  7. Grab a whisk and carefully add the cream mixture to the caramel. Be careful as this will (WILL!) splatter and bubble up like crazy (I always wear oven mitts).
  8. Heat on medium-high heat until the sugar thermometer registers 130°C/266°F. Carefully remove the sugar thermometer and pour the caramel into the prepared baking dish. If you like a soft, chewy caramel, take the caramel off the heat as soon as the thermometer registers 120°C/248°F.
  9. Allow the caramel to cool and firm up before cutting it into dice size pieces. I always use a large chopping knife and prefer to cut the caramel after it has firmed up almost completely, as the knife will stick to warmer caramel.
  10. Wrap each individual caramel into greaseproof paper or aluminum foil to prevent the caramels from sticking together.
Recipe by The Tough Cookie at https://thetoughcookie.com/2013/03/26/homemade-caramels/