I am sure I am not alone on this, but I will go through
craving trends where I am obsessed with a particular type of food until I am
sick of it. Sometimes the craving is seasonal (naturally), and sometimes it
becomes everlasting, like chocolate chip muffins, spinach pizza, or a Negroni.
One particular item that is increasingly becoming a part of
the year-round obsession list are caramels. Chocolate covered caramels, that
is. I enjoy Trader Joe’s version of them, and I probably buy out their entire
stock from time to time because they run out of them more often than other
candies. Therefore, I became determined to make my own so that I can have my
own personal inventory.
I am no expert when it comes to confections other than being
around my Mom, who is an ultimate master. She made a batch of her own caramels
a few years ago, and I have never forgotten them so I am pretty curious to see
how this attempt is going to go.
Super simple and cheap, these morsels can be creative gift
for friends or as an immediate go to whenever you are craving sugar, which for
me is almost all day.
Result? Overall, I think I cooked the caramel a little too
long for my liking, probably because I was almost more interested in taking
pictures than I was concentrating on the stove at the time. Everything took
much faster to cool and harden than what the recipe stated, partly because
there is literally no heat in my kitchen and we have marble everywhere. The
chocolate ended up being a little sloppy since I did not temper it as well as I
should have but overall looked pretty reminiscent of my Trader Joe’s favorite. They
surprisingly tasted like See’s Candies caramels so I think I did pretty well
for a first try.
Interested in taking a shot at creating these morsels? Find
the recipe here: Chocolate
Covered Sea Salt Caramels