These delicious homemade Salted Caramel Candies come together in under 40 minutes
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Tim Veith spends his days creating sweet treats such as coconut macaroons and orange cream tarts at Ibis Bakery in Lenexa, KS. But off-duty, you’re more likely to find him indulging in salty snacks.
“Although I’m a pastry chef by trade,” he says, “I have much more of a salty tooth than a sweet tooth.”
Salted caramel is a classic flavor mashup that the French mastered centuries ago, but its stateside popularity has bubbled over in recent years. Go to the grocery store and you’ll find salted caramel-flavored brownie mixes, ice cream, peanut butter — even vodka. Cold Stone Creamery serves a Salted Caramel Frappe, and Starbucks has its Salted Caramel Mocha.
Salted caramel could be on track to replace pumpkin spice as the “it” fall flavor. According to data gathered by the health-tracker app MyFitnessPal, pumpkin spice consumption dropped 7.3 percent from 2014 to 2015, while demand for salted caramel products increased by 7 percent.
Unlike pumpkin spice, the salty-sweet flavor is enjoyed year-round. And it might have more staying power.
Salt and caramel “is one of those classic combinations that will never go out of style,” says Christopher Elbow, the chef who founded Elbow Artisan Chocolates and Glacé Artisan Ice Cream.
The best-selling item at Elbow Artisan Chocolates is the Fleur de Sel caramel, a jewel-like orb of chocolate encasing liquid caramel flavored with sel gris, a coarse French sea salt. At Glacé, the top-selling scoop is Fleur de Sel ice cream.
Caramel is delicious on its own, Elbow says, but something magic happens when you introduce salt.
“Every time I make caramel, I put a little bit of salt in it,” he says. “It really makes that caramel flavor pop.”
The type of salt matters. Elbow likes the subtle mineral flavors of sel gris, but other salted caramel recipes call for English Maldon sea salt, which is less bitter than table salt and has pyramid-shaped crystals.
The salted caramel combination is a no-brainer. But making caramel from scratch? That can be tricky.
“Caramel can be temperamental if you don’t follow some key rules,” Elbow says.
The tricky part is heating the sugar just until it develops its deep caramel flavor — and pulling it from the heat before it turns bitter, crystallizes or burns. Elbow recommends swirling the pan as the caramel cooks.
“You never want to stir it, because that promotes crystallization,” Elbow says.
But be careful when swirling, because molten sugar is extremely hot.
Veith, who perfected his caramel skills working at Elbow Artisan Chocolates for three years, is also a fan of the swirl method. He also recommends cooking sugar with water (the “wet method” as opposed to the “dry method”) and a lid that traps steam and washes sugar granules down the sides of the pot before they can form crystals.
“Those one or two crystals can cause the whole batch to turn to a solid mass,” Veith says.
Jonathan Pitcher, of Bizz & Weezy Confections, is all about the low and slow method. He cooks caramel at 275 degrees on an induction range. It takes longer, he says, but the caramel is harder to burn at that heat.
Many batches get ruined when the sugar is scorched by the bottom or sides of the pan. If that happens, Pitcher says it’s important to not scrape the sides of the pan.
“If you think you’ve ruined it, add more cream” or butter, he says. You might find that it tastes just fine — and even better with a healthy pinch of salt.
Equipment to make Salted Caramel Candies
Source: Epicurious
A version of this story originally published in the Kansas City Star.
