When it comes to candy, if it’s not chocolate, I’m usually not interested. As a child, I’d dump out the goodies in my Halloween bag and sort them into two piles: chocolate and non-chocolate. Skittles, Starburst, Jelly Bellies, Jolly Ranchers, Gummy Bears, Lemon Heads, peppermint, butterscotch: Out. Hersheys, Nestle Crunch, Kit Kat, Twix, Rolos, Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, M&Ms, Milky Way: In.
An exception to that, however, was—and still is—caramel. Those cellophane-wrapped cubes of Kraft caramels…I could pop dozens of those into my mouth without thinking twice. I love the creamy, milky taste and the chewy, sticky consistency.
Last month, Jessica of Bliss: Towards a Delicious Life sent me some homemade fleur de sel caramels. They were so incredible, I couldn’t believe she made them herself. She was kind enough to send me her recipe, and I was thrilled to have the chance to make my own. I thought these caramels would be complicated to make, but they’re really not. As long as you have a candy thermometer to gauge the temperature of the caramel mixture, you’ll be fine. In fact, the recipe called for removing the caramel mixture at 248 degrees, but mine got up to 255 degrees (hard ball stage), and it was still fine.
Now, these caramels don’t even compare to storebought. They have a very deep, intense caramel flavor, with wonderful honey undertones. And just when you think they’re too sweet for your tastebuds, the fleur de sel kicks in, with just enough saltiness to counter the sugary rush.
These carmels not only taste delicious, they’re beautiful too. They’d be so pretty in a small candy dish at a party. Or, you could individually wrap them in waxed or parchment paper (Jessica sent them to me this way).
Recipe: Honey Vanilla Fleur de Sel Caramels
Adapted from a recipe by Jessica of Bliss: Towards a Delicious Life
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 5 Tbsp. unsalted butter
- 1 tsp. Fleur de sel, or other sea salt
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1/4 cup raw honey
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- extra Fleur de sel for sprinkling
Line an 8-inch square pan with buttered parchment or quick release foil.
Boil cream, butter and salt, then remove from the heat.
Boil sugar, honey and water, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Keep boiling, but do not stir, until the mixture reaches a “light golden caramel” color.
Stir in cream mixture slowly—be careful, because the entire mixture will bubble up. Add the vanilla. Continue stirring occasionally until the temperature reaches 248 degrees.
Pour the mixture into the pan. After about 30 minutes, when the caramel has cooled somewhat but is still rather soft, sprinkle with Fleur de sel. Continue to cool, for another hour and a half, until the salt has set into the caramel and the caramel has firmed up. Remove caramel from the pan, peel off parchment or foil and cut into squares.
Thank Yous, All Around…and Happy New Year!
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14 responses so far ↓
1 dharmagirl // Feb 1, 2009 at 5:01 pm
yay! thanks for the props on the caramels:) i’m so glad you made them and took such amazing photographs.
now i’m thinking how good they would be coated in DARK CHOCOLATE and then sprinkled with the salt…sounds like another experiment!
2 caroline // Feb 2, 2009 at 5:50 am
beautiful! there’s def something about sweet and salty together that makes food so interesting…yum.
3 pinkstripes // Feb 2, 2009 at 6:11 pm
Gorgeous caramels. Honey +fleur de sel = heaven!
4 carolina // Feb 2, 2009 at 8:01 pm
Homemade caramels? WOW! I need to get a candy thermometer. I would so like to try these, one day. Is it messy? Hard to clean up?
5 Carolyn // Feb 3, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Oh gosh, those look dangerously good!
6 Savor the thyme // Feb 3, 2009 at 7:08 pm
Hi Happy tummy. I have never made caramels or any candy in fact, but gosh, caramel AND fleur de sel may be just to push I need to get started.
7 HappyTummy // Feb 3, 2009 at 9:30 pm
Hi Carolina! These caramels aren’t messy to make at all. The pot definitely gets its fair share of splattering during the boiling process, but all of that stays contained in the pot. And cleanup’s a breeze–just soak the pot in water and everything just dissolves off. The baking pan shouldn’t get messy if you line it with parchment or foil. Everything is pretty easy–hope you get a chance to try them!
8 Lisa! // Feb 8, 2009 at 10:55 am
I made two batches of these yesterday and they were stunning. They were so easy and tasty. The honey was such a great undertone…
Thank you for sharing this recipe.
9 jd // Feb 18, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Those caramels are gorgeous!
10 Winker // Mar 8, 2009 at 11:45 am
I was browsing through my favorites on food gawker and your caramels were there and I was making peanut brittle today – so I had the equipment and a new candy thermometer to try out. It’s also a very rare occasion that I have heavy cream in the house, but crap, I used all my sugar on the brittle. Made these with brown sugar and they turned out perfect! I let them go to a little over 250 because I like my caramel chewy! Thanks for posting!
11 HappyTummy // Mar 9, 2009 at 5:25 am
Hi Lisa and Winker! So glad you tried the caramels and enjoyed them. Weren’t they so easy to make? This is one of my favorite sweets recipes :)
12 Michele // Sep 15, 2009 at 8:57 am
They are delicious, no doubt! I was concerned about my final product. I couldn’t bite into it. I had to soften in my mouth, first. Did I make them correctly? Even when cutting them I had to be careful. Sometimes, they would crack.
Thanks!
13 DP // Dec 11, 2009 at 11:02 pm
I just made these, so easy to make. I boiled mine on a low temperature for about 30min after combining butter & light gold sugar mixture. Next time I will try to add some hazelnuts or walnuts. Thanks for sharing this.
14 Claire // Dec 16, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Really wonderful! I bookmarked this a while ago and finally got around to making them. I was a little scared about the temperature thing, but I used a thermometer and it really wasn’t so hard!
A suggestion for the chocolate lovers out there: form the caramels as directed, then try melting some semisweet chocolate chips and dipping the caramels just half-way in your bowl of melted chocolate. Then lay out on wax paper and allow the chocolate to set. Tasty, and adds another level of beauty to the caramels to have them half-dipped!
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