Friday, December 24, 2010

Macadamia Nut Butter Caramels

Posted by Tina / 2 comments » / *Recipes, Candies, Desserts, Vegetarian

YUM! Homemade caramels are where it’s at!! A few weeks ago, we tasted our first macadamia nut caramel’s that our family friend Jill had made, and we all LOVED them! Heather and I HAD to find a recipe and make some for ourselves!! This caramel recipe is David Lebovitz’s recipe, and we simply folded in some chopped macadamia nuts at the end!  The flavor on these are DELICIOUS!!! Enjoy!

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Macadamia Nut Butter Caramels

Adapted from: David Lebovitz

Ingredients:

3/4 Cup (180 ml) Heavy Cream
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
Rounded 1/2 tsp + 1/4 tsp flaky sea salt, preferably fleur de sel
1/2 Cup (160 g) Light Corn Syrup, golden syrup (such as Lyle’s) or rice syrup*
1 Cup (200 g) Sugar
4 TBS (60 g), Salted Butter, cubed, at room temperature
1-1 1/2 Cups macadamia Nuts (chopped slightly)

Directions:

1. Line a 9-inch (23 cm) loaf pan with foil and spray the inside with cooking spray.

2. Heat the cream with only 2 tablespoons of the butter in a small saucepan with the vanilla and 1/2 teaspoon sea salt until the mixture begins to boil. Remove from heat, cover, and keep warm while you cook the syrup.

3. In a medium, heavy duty saucepan (4 quarts, 4l), fitted with a candy thermometer, heat the corn syrup, golden, or rice syrup with the sugar, and cook, stirring gently, to make sure the sugar melts smoothly. Once the mixture is melted together and the sugar is evenly moistened, only stir is as necessary to keep it from getting any hot spots.

4. Cook until the syrup reaches 310ºF (155ºC).

To get an accurate reading while the syrup is cooking, tilt the saucepan to make sure the bulb of the thermometer is fully submerged in the syrup, tilting the pan if necessary.

4. Turn off the heat and stir in the warm cream mixture, until smooth.

5. Turn the heat back on and cook the mixture to 260F (127C).

6. Remove the pan from the heat, lift out the thermometer, and stir in the cubes of butter, until it’s melted and the mixture smooth.

7. Gently fold in the Macadamia Nuts.

8. Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf pan and wait ten minutes, then sprinkle 1/4 teaspoon of the sea salt over the top. Set on a cool rack and let cool completely. Once cool, lift out the foil with the caramel, peel away the foil, and slice the bar of caramel with a long, sharp knife into squares or rectangles.

Storage: These caramels can be individually-wrapped in cellophane or waxed paper. Once cut, they may stick together if not wrapped. Store in an air-tight container, and they’ll keep for about one month.

NOTE: Be careful not to let the caramel cook past the temperatures listed in the recipe - the caramels will get hard and super chewy (ours were a TOUCH on the tough side, but we know what to do next time!) 🙂

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