Boiling

Homemade Sea Salt Caramels

July 17, 2011 by Charles 170 Comments

These are amazing caramels!

When Caitlin and I were in San Francisco last month, we stopped in the Ferry Building along the Embarcadero. It was around 11:00 a.m. and, even though had lunch plans in an hour, we thought it would be fun to wander through the marketplace. We shared a sorbet from the Ciao Bella stand and then went across the hall to a small food store to find (something else) to hold me over until lunch.

At the checkout stand, there was a tin bin, filled with several varieties of caramels. I can’t remember the different kinds, but I do know that we grabbed two or three to have “later.”…

Low-Fat Vanilla-Pistachio Caramels

July 16, 2011 by Charles 12 Comments

After making my cream caramels, I decided it would be fun to experiment. In particular, I was curious to know if the recipe would work with low-fat milk instead of cream. Unfortunately, my adherence to the scientific method was somewhat lackluster. Instead of introducing a single variable, I introduced two: pistachios and low-fat milk.

These caramels were not as soft as the plain ones, but they were not altogether hard. I suspect, though, that it was the chopped pistachios and not the absence of cream that made these caramels a little harder. On the topic of taste, I’m happy to report …