Salted vanilla caramels

A few weeks ago, while cleaning the apartment, I came across (translate: had misplaced earlier, but found) an Amazon gift card that I received as a gift.  I knew I had to spend it or risk misplacing it again, so I ended up shopping and spending more than the amount on the gift card...But I gained four candy and baking cookbooks.  Four!

The first night I got them I read one from cover to cover, and placed little ripped up pieces of paper to mark the recipes I wanted to try (spoiler: there were a lot!).  One book was late to arrive, and came the other day.  This one was called "Artisan Caramels" (I'll write a different post about this book another time), and it had tons of different caramels in it.  Ones with crusts, ones with toppings, and some interesting flavored ones, too.

With Halloween right around the corner, I had a bunch of candies and candy-related things I wanted to make now.  Some caramels, I figured, would be perfect for a Halloween get together that B and I might attend.  So I started with the salted vanilla caramels, the most basic of flavors in the cookbook.

These caramels were so tasty that I ended up eating the caramel off of the spoon while I was sitting at the computer doing work.  I would've gone back for more but I had already start soaking the pot (damn!).  Clearly, I have no shame.

And with B out of town this week, and Halloween right around the corner, my goal is to make one new flavor of caramels each day this week...wish me luck, since I'm on the schedule at work for 44.5 hours this week and making caramels is quite time intensive... 

Salted Vanilla Caramels

From "Artisan Caramels"

Ingredients:

4 cups heavy cream

4 cups sugar

3/4 cup unsalted butter

2 cups light corn syrup

1 Tbsp vanilla

1 Tbsp coarse sea salt 

Directions:

Spray a jelly roll pan (17.5" x 12.5") pan with a thin layer of cooking spray, making sure you get the sides as well as the bottom of the pan. 

Using a clean, dry paper towel, wipe off the excess. 

Trim a piece of parchment paper so that it covers the bottom of the pan, leaving a 2" overhand over either the handles or the sides.  

Spray the parchment paper again with a light layer of cooking spray and wipe the excess off. 

Set aside. 

Combine the cream, sugar, butter, and corn syrup in a 8-quart stock pot. 

Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Be careful -- it can bubble over very quickly if you aren't paying attention. 

Cook over medium-high heat, and continue to stir until a candy thermometer reaches 248 degrees.  This takes about 45 minutes.  

Remove from the heat and very quickly stir in the vanilla and sea salt. 

Pour the caramel into the prepared pan. 

Let it cool completely before cutting.  This takes about 8 hours. 

Remove caramel from the pan. 

Remove parchment paper.  

Cut into squares. 
Top with sea salt.

Wrap caramels in either cello wrappers or parchment squares.  Wrapped caramels have a shelf life of about 3 weeks; those wrapped in parchment tend to get stale faster.

Salted caramel sauce

I just made the most delicious salted caramel sauce.  Granted it was part of another recipe that I'm working on now, but it's just so tasty, and has so many uses, that I decided it needed it's own post (truth be told, so did the original blogger, so I'm not that far off).

Hell, this would probably go really well on ice cream, maybe even with some of that coffee syrup I made earlier today.  Oh man, I might be onto something!  A caramel macchiato ice cream sundae?  How awesome would that be?!

I didn't have fancy salt at home, so I used regular salt, but cut down on the amount.  It came out perfectly salty and sweet and gooey and awesome!  I keep going back into the kitchen to taste a spoonful, and I'm not a huge caramel fan.  Although B is, and when he gets home from work today, I think he might just love me a little bit more ;-)

I actually cut the recipe in half because I only needed it for a cupcake recipe, but I'm really regretting that now...

Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce
From Brown Eyed Baker

Ingredients:

2 cups granulated sugar
12 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into pieces
1 cup heavy cream, at room temperature (oops....mine was cold)
1 Tbsp fleur de sel (or any other flaky sea salt) -- I didn't have, so I used regular salt, but went down to 2 tsp

Directions:

Get all of your ingredients ready and set aside -- this who recipe comes together quickly and a few seconds can be the difference between heavenly salted caramel sauce and a burnt mess!!

Add the sugar in an even layer over the bottom of a heavy sauce pan (make sure it can hold at least 2-3 quarts).
Heat the sugar over medium-high heat, whisking it as it begins to melt.  You'll see that the sugar will begin to form clumps, but that's OK.  Keep whisking, and as it continues to cook, they will melt back down.
Stop whisking once all of the sugar has melted.
Swirl the pan occasionally while the sugar cooks.

Continue cooking until the sugar has reached a deep amber color -- this happened WAY quicker than I thought it would.  So watch.  it.  CLOSELY.  It should look almost reddish-brown, and have a slight toasted aroma.  This is the point where it can co from perfect caramel to burnt in a matter of seconds, so keep a close eye.  If you're using a instant-red thermometer, cook until the sugar reaches 350F (a good tip for beginners).

As soon as the caramel reaches 350F, add the butter all at once.  Be careful as the caramel will bubble up when the butter is added.
Whisk in the butter until it is completely melted.

Remove the pan from the heat and slowly pour in the cream.  Again, be careful because the mixture will once again bubble up ferociously.
Whisk until all of the cream has been incorporated and you have a smooth sauce.
Add the salt and whisk to incorporate.

Set the sauce aside and let cool for 10-15 minutes.
Pour into your favorite glass jar and let cool to room temperature.
You can refrigerate the sauce for up to 2 weeks.  You'll want to warm the sauce before using.

Chocolate dipped toasted coconut shortbread cookies with salt

Remember those Toasted Coconut Shortbread Cookies I made recently?  The ones that B chose as one of his favorites when I forced him to taste test different kinds of shortbread cookies for my online cookie swap?  I decided that as delicious as they are, chocolate could maybe possible likely make them even better.  And a sprinkling of sea salt might just take them over the top.

So I defrosted that second log in the freezer that was just waiting to fill the void when I needed some last minute cookies, baked them up, and then dipped them in some semisweet chocolate and sprinkled them with sea salt.  Because really, when don't chocolate and sea salt make everything better?!

Toasted Coconut Shortbread Cookies
Adapted from this original recipe, also found on the blog here

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

2 Tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 - 1 cup toasted coconut

1 bag of semisweet chocolate chips, or chocolate of your choice

Sea salt, for sprinkling

Directions:

Toast the coconut on a baking sheet in an oven that has been preheated to 350F.

Watch the coconut closely as it tends to burn quite easily.

Stir often.

Mine took about 8 minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow it to cool.

Set aside.

In a large bowl, using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar together on medium speech until fluffy.

Add milk and vanilla.

Beat to combine.

With the mixer on low, gradually add the flour and salt.

Continue beating until the dough forms.

Add the toasted coconut, crushing it slightly between your fingers as you add it.

Mix with a spatula to combine.

Divide the dough into 2 portions.

Shape each piece into a log.

Wrap logs in plastic wrap.

Place in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Then, move to the fridge for another 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Using a sharp knife, cut each log into thin slices, about 1/4 inch thick.

Place cookies onto a ungreased cookie sheet (I used a parchment lined cookie sheet).

Bake until edges are just starting to turn brown, about 12 minutes (mine took about 10 minutes).

Remove from the oven.

Place cookies on a wire rack to cool.

Once cookies are cool, melt half of the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl in 30 second increments until melted and smooth.

Place a sheet of wax paper on the counter or a baking sheet.

Dip cookies half way into chocolate.

Shake off excess chocolate.

Place cookie on wax paper.

Sprinkle a pinch of sea salt on the chocolate while it's still wet.

Repeat with remaining cookies.

Melt more chocolate as needed.

Once all cookies are done and the chocolate has hardened, place cookies in an airtight container.

Cookies will last at least 3 days in the container (if they'll even last that long!!).