A Foodie Gift Suggestion: Soft Maple Salted Caramels
Who doesn’t love a food gift, especially one as gorgeous as these creamy, soft, lightly maple flavoured, salted caramels? Or a gift that costs under $2 to make?
These caramels can be made ahead, they'll keep for two weeks in an air-tight container in the fridge, so there's no need to rush to get them made on Christmas Eve. Do them the week before Christmas and hide them (you'll need to hide them, they're too tempting otherwise).
Soft Maple Salted Caramels
Ingredients:
1tsp vanilla extract
180ml cream
50g butter
1tsp sea salt
250g caster sugar
75g golden syrup
75g maple syrup
Method:
Line a 15cm square cake tin with baking paper.
Put the vanilla extract, cream, half the butter and a pinch of salt in a medium saucepan and bring to the boil, then take it straight off the heat and put aside.
Put the sugar and syrups in another saucepan over a low heat, to melt the sugar – don’t stir, but keep shaking the saucepan to keep the sugar distributed. When the sugar has dissolved, heat it to 155C on a sugar thermometer (this is known as hard crack stage: when syrup is dropped into cold water, it separates into hard brittle threads that cannot be bent without breaking).
Remove from the heat; add the vanilla cream mixture. Heat to 126C (this is hard ball stage: when dripped from a spoon, the syrup forms thick threads that after being dropped in cold water can be moulded into a ball that will hold its shape).
Add the remaining butter, stir, then pour into the tin.
Leave it to get slightly firm and sticky, then sprinkle over the remaining salt. Leave it to cool. When you want to cut it into squares, use a hot-bladed knife.
Will keep for two weeks in an air-tight container (they don't need to be refrigerated).
These caramels can be made ahead, they'll keep for two weeks in an air-tight container in the fridge, so there's no need to rush to get them made on Christmas Eve. Do them the week before Christmas and hide them (you'll need to hide them, they're too tempting otherwise).
Soft Maple Salted Caramels
Ingredients:
1tsp vanilla extract
180ml cream
50g butter
1tsp sea salt
250g caster sugar
75g golden syrup
75g maple syrup
Method:
Line a 15cm square cake tin with baking paper.
Put the vanilla extract, cream, half the butter and a pinch of salt in a medium saucepan and bring to the boil, then take it straight off the heat and put aside.
Put the sugar and syrups in another saucepan over a low heat, to melt the sugar – don’t stir, but keep shaking the saucepan to keep the sugar distributed. When the sugar has dissolved, heat it to 155C on a sugar thermometer (this is known as hard crack stage: when syrup is dropped into cold water, it separates into hard brittle threads that cannot be bent without breaking).
Remove from the heat; add the vanilla cream mixture. Heat to 126C (this is hard ball stage: when dripped from a spoon, the syrup forms thick threads that after being dropped in cold water can be moulded into a ball that will hold its shape).
Add the remaining butter, stir, then pour into the tin.
Leave it to get slightly firm and sticky, then sprinkle over the remaining salt. Leave it to cool. When you want to cut it into squares, use a hot-bladed knife.
Will keep for two weeks in an air-tight container (they don't need to be refrigerated).