Rețetă
*for approx. 50 candies
Ingredients:
100g butter
180ml sweetened condensed milk
200g brown sugar
100ml honey
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 vanilla pod
Additional for topping:
sea salt flakes
FYI:
*the lemon juice has the role of preventing sugar crystallisation in caramels
*for an even more perfect result, you can use sugar syrup or corn syrup instead of honey, substituted 1:1. I tested the recipe with honey as it is much easier and more accessible to purchase in some cases (at least in Romania). In this case we can exclude the lemon juice.
Steps to follow
(1) Melt the butter over low heat.
(2) Then add sugar, honey and condensed milk.
(3) Cook over high heat, stirring continuously. We cook the caramel until we get a glossy and consistent mix and the temperature reaches 116-118C. At this temperature, the caramels will have a hard consistency when they cool, but gummy and chewy, without being too sticky to the teeth.
FYI:
*depending on the temperature of the caramel, we can juggle the consistency of the caramels at the end - making them more soft (cooking below 116C) or more consistent/harder (cooking above 118C)
*if you don't have a thermometer, you can test the consistency of the caramels by taking and putting 1/2 teaspoon of hot caramel in a glass of cold (icy) water. Take the caramel out of the water and if it forms easily into a consistent ball, it means that the caramel is ready.
(4) Add the seeds from the vanilla pod and turn off the heat. Mix the vanilla and pour the mixture into a tray lined with baking paper of maximum 15x20cm.
FYI:
*If you want a saltier caramel, you can add 1/2 teaspoon of salt at the same time with the vanilla seeds.
*In this step when we pour the caramel into the tray, we can also sprinkle salt flakes over the caramels.
(5) Let the caramel cool at room temperature and then put a plastic wrap on top. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
(6) Remove the tray from the refrigerator and cut the caramels into rectangles of the desired size. Cut pieces of wax paper and wrap the caramels individually.
Store in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks. If they seem too hard, leave them at room temperature for 5 minutes before serving!
Happy baking!
With love,
G.
