The basic ingredients for making caramel are just as simple as the required equipment. Take a look in your pantry and refrigerator; you might already be fully stocked! When you move beyond making the basic chewy caramel, be sure to read the recipe carefully to see what other ingredients you might need, such as nuts and chocolate.
Granulated sugar, also called refined sugar, is the main ingredient in caramels. This is the white table sugar that’s commonly used in baking. When subjected to high, steady heat, this white, granular sugar transforms into the browned goo that serves as the foundation of caramels.
Corn syrup helps bring body and sweetness to baking and cooking. Corn syrup is an invert sugar, a combination of fructose and glucose. What this means for making caramels is that corn syrup can also help prevent granulated sugar from crystallizing during the various stages of heating. (Crystallizing almost always leads to the sugar seizing, which leads to you having to start your caramels all over again.) Note that corn syrup is not the same as high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), and it has not been associated with the many health problems linked with HFCS.
There are two types of corn syrup: light and dark. The main difference is that dark corn syrup also contains a type of molasses, which gives it its color and a slightly sharper flavor. While I prefer light corn syrup, both syrups are considered to be interchangeable for almost all recipes, including candy making.
Brown sugar is a combination of granulated sugar and molasses. Dark brown sugar has more molasses than light brown sugar. I prefer using dark brown sugar for the recipes in this book, but light brown sugar works well too.
Molasses is the syrupy liquid that is left over from the refinement of sugar, when the juice of sugarcane or sugar beets is boiled and the sugar crystals are extracted. Two types of molasses are available in most supermarkets. The most popular kind has been boiled twice; this is what is used in most baking and cooking, including the recipes in this book. Bitter blackstrap molasses has been boiled three times.
Other sweeteners, such as honey, agave, maple syrup, and stevia, are not as commonly used in caramels as the other sugars we’ve just named. You might experiment with using them for a variety of reasons, including flavor and healthfulness, or even try them as a sugar substitute if you find that you’ve run out of your intended sugar after you’ve begun cooking. There are enough variables in flavor, texture, and chemical makeup in each of these alternative sugars to assure one thing: each will bring about a different result if you simply replace one sugar for another in a recipe. For example, corn syrup and maple syrup have similar textures and are both very sweet. However, if you were to use maple syrup in place of corn syrup in your caramel recipe, the flavor and texture of the finished product would be very different. You would probably end up with a maple-flavored caramel — and who knows, it might be a new favorite!
Butter and cream are the two key ingredients that give flavor and texture to your caramel. I prefer unsalted butter in all of my cooking, and especially so when making caramel. The main reason is that salted butter can contain a varying amount of salt, and this might make it difficult to get the right amount of saltiness in your food. With caramel, you can’t test its saltiness as it finishes cooking because it will have a temperature of around 300°F. (If you think a grilled cheese sandwich can burn your tongue, then you haven’t made the absentminded mistake of sampling molten caramel.) That’s one reason why you want to be able to control the amount of salt: because the flavor can’t be adjusted once the caramel cooks and then cools. Do not try to be clever and take a spoonful of cooked caramel to cool for sampling; while you’re attempting to cool it enough that you dare taste it, you run the risk of burning the rest of the caramel that’s still in the pot. Cooking caramel needs to be watched very carefully — timing is everything.
Most of the recipes in this book call for heavy cream (which can be used interchangeably with whipping cream). Unlike milk — which can easily scorch and burn, resulting in bad taste and/or undesirable texture — heavy cream can stand up to high cooking temperatures.
For the recipes in this book that call for vanilla extract, use good-quality pure vanilla extract rather than imitation extract. Pure vanilla extract is made by infusing vanilla beans in a solution of alcohol and water. It is expensive because it’s labor intensive to harvest the beans and prepare the extract, but it’s an ingredient that you don’t want to select based on lowest price. Look on the product label for regional names like Bourbon, Madagascar, Tahitian, and Indonesian. Vanilla extracts made with beans sourced from these areas are usually good quality, which will make a big difference in the flavor of your caramel.
Imitation vanilla extract is also readily available, and for a lower price. But its milder flavor will result in an inferior-tasting confection. This is because a key ingredient is synthetic vanillin, which is not as flavorful as natural vanillin. Yes, pure vanilla extract costs noticeably more than imitation extract, but its flavor is vastly better. And because you will use it in such small quantities, you will hardly notice the price difference over time.
Always add vanilla extract at the end of the cooking process. If you add it earlier, the alcohol will cook off, resulting in no vanilla flavor at all — that would make it very expensive indeed.
The basic function of salt in cooking is to elevate or enhance the flavors of the other ingredients, helping them stand out a bit more. But in recent years, salt has emerged as a revolutionary flavor in its own right. Many candies, including caramel, are enhanced by the addition of salt, and I encourage you to experiment with it. Add a pinch of salt at the end of the cooking process, or use a flaky salt as a flavorful decoration on the candies, such as the Molded Chocolate Caramel Truffles with Sea Salt. But when you add it, add a bit at a time. It’s better to add too little the first time than too much. Gradually increase the amount you use until you find the perfect balance.
When making caramels, sea salt will provide the best results because it’s the most flavorful. Kosher salt won’t be as flavorful, but it’s a fine second choice if you don’t have any sea salt. Avoid using iodized table salt in caramels. Although it’s the most popular salt in the world, it’s also the least flavorful. It’s worth making that extra trip to the store for sea salt.