Monday, April 13, 2015

Microwave Caramels


I made these quite a while ago but have not had a chance to put them up.  Before that, I had bookmarked this for quite some time as a fun project to try.  It worked very well, although there is a bit of babysitting.  But not as much as making caramels on the stove top, and they're done much, much faster!  They taste great, too.  I thought I had corn syrup on hand for these, but I didn't, so I used honey and it worked perfectly.

Microwave Caramels
adapted from Cooking Classy

1/2 cup unsalted butter (don't use salted; it will splatter)
1/2 cup light corn syrup or honey
1/2 cup granulated (white) sugar
1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/8 tsp salt
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
fancy sea salt or fleur de sel (optional; I used grey salt from Brittany, France)

1.  Butter an 8 by 8-inch baking dish. Place butter in a large microwave safe bowl (do not use plastic, use glass or ceramic), heat in microwave until melted. (Keep in mind mixture will boil up; use a bowl big enough for this.)

2.  To bowl with butter, add corn syrup or honey, granulated sugar, brown sugar, sweetened condensed milk and salt and whisk very well. Return to microwave and cook mixture on HIGH power for 6 to 7 minutes. (Original author recommends taking it out around 6 and testing either with a candy thermometer which should register between 238 - 242 degrees, or placing a small spoon of the caramel in a bowl of ice water then remove it from the water and it should have formed a small pliable ball - nothing too soft or too hard. If it needs a little more time return to microwave and heat in 20 second increments. Mine took a little bit past 7 minutes.)

3.  Using hot pads, carefully remove bowl from microwave. Add in vanilla extract and mix well. Pour mixture into prepared baking dish. Sprinkle top lightly with fancy sea salt or fleur de sel. Place in refrigerator until set, about 20 - 30 minutes. Cut into rectangular pieces and wrap in cut rectangles of wax paper.

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