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Deep Dark Chocolate Caramels

Confectionary - Soft sugar - Make this your favorite recipe - Upload a new picture for this recipe


INGREDIENTS
    • 4 cups heavy cream (Rich Whip Nondairy Whipped Topping - comes in little blue "cream" cartons in the freezer section. I think that nondairy coffee whitener might work, too)
    • 2 1/2 cups light corn syrup (21 oz / 600 ml jar of Lundberg Brown Rice Syrup)
    • 4 1/2 cups sugar
    • 1/2 t salt
    • 18 oz / 500 g bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces (Scharfen Berger - I used mostly semi-sweet, with about 4-6 oz / 110-170 g of bittersweet)
    • 2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces (Fleishmann's Unsalted Margarine)
    • Vegetable oil cooking spray

METHOD
1. Spray an 11 3/4 x 16 1/2 inch (29 x 42 cm) baking pan with cooking spray. Set aside in a spot where it will not be moved (ie. level - this recipe fills the pan almost to the brim, so unless you want caramel all over the floor, be careful here).

2. In a heavy 4-5 quart (4-5 L) saucepan, combine 2 cups "cream", corn syrup, sugar, and salt. Clip on candy thermometer. Turn on a radio or something, because you are going to be here a while. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon (this will take something like 15 minutes).

3. Cook, stirring constantly, until temperature reaches 220F/105C. Watch so mixture doesn't boil over.

4. Continue stirring and add chocolate and "butter"; keep mixture boiling and slowly add remaining 2 cups "cream".

5. Cook, still stirring, until temperature reaches 240F/115C (soft ball stage), keeping mixture at a low boil. This step took what seemed like forever. Martha says something about 60 minutes, and while Ii don't think it was quite that long, it might have been a half hour.

6. Without scraping pot, pour mixture into prepared pan. Let stand uncovered at room temperature for 24 hours without moving. I recommend scraping the stuff from the bottom of the pan into a seperate dish and eating that about 10 minutes later so as to keep out of the pan while things set up. :)

7. To cut, spray a cutting board with cooking spray. Unmold caramel onto sprayed surface. Using a sharp knife, cut into 1 x 1.25 inch (2.5 x 3.25 cm) pieces. Wrap each in waxed paper or something similar.

Makes about 150.


NOTES
These may need to go into the refrigerator for a while before cutting, as they stay pretty soft, even after the 24 hours. Also, if some is melted in the microwave, it makes a very yummy topping for soy ice cream. Gets pretty chewy, though, but I rather like it that way.

posted by Karen Nagel



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