Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Homemade Caramels

One day while doing my weekly shopping in an Amish market near our town I gave in; I just had to try the homemade caramels I had seen every time at check-out.  I ate it in the car on the way home, and I knew it was a problem.  The caramel was rich, buttery, gooey, and perfect.  I dreamt about that caramel until the next week when I bought two more.  That's when I realized that I needed to learn to make caramels myself.  I looked up a recipe, and I found out that caramels really aren't difficult to make, they just take patience, a lot of stirring, and obscene amounts of butter and heavy cream, and they are so worth it.  Make sure to use a heavy bottom pan and keep stirring, so it doesn't burn on the bottom.  I use this recipe, but I double it because these freeze really well.  The recipe doesn't say to do this, but please, please, please, line your pan with parchment paper.  The first time I made these I didn't, and it took my husband and I about an hour and a half to pry the caramels out of the pan.  We then had to reshape them all before they were wrapped.  Last time I just lifted the caramels out in one big piece and cut them with a large pizza slicer (the kind that is u shaped and cuts the entire pizza at one time)

Everything melting together
After about 10 minutes of cooking it will bubble up quite a bit, so make sure you use a large pan.
It's starting to come to temp, stir, stir, stir
Almost ready!
Line the pan!

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