Caramels by Flash Gordon Ramsay
Recipe by Flash Gordon Ramsay (formerly known as Demagogue) Wikified by Drimble Wedge
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter
- 1 16-ounce package (2-1/4 cups packed) brown sugar
- 1 14-ounce can (1-1/4 cups) sweetened condensed milk
- 1 cup light-colored corn syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Directions
1. Line a 9x9x2-inch baking pan with foil, extending foil over edges of pan. Butter the foil; set pan aside.
2. In a heavy 3-quart saucepan melt the 1 cup butter over low heat. Add brown sugar, sweetened condensed milk, and light corn syrup; mix well. Carefully clip candy thermometer to side of pan.
3. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until thermometer registers 248 degree F, firm-ball state. Mixture should boil at a moderate, steady rate over the entire surface. Reaching firm-ball stage should take 15 to 20 minutes.
4. Remove saucepan from heat; remove candy thermometer from saucepan. Immediately stir in vanilla. Quickly pour the caramel mixture into prepared baking pan. When caramel is firm, use foil to lift it out of pan. Use a buttered knife to cut candy into 1-inch squares. Wrap each piece in clear plastic wrap. Makes 81 pieces or about 2-3/4 pounds.
I have taken to pouring it into a parchment lined pan. Cut a piece of parchment bigger than your pan, then make cuts at all the corners toward the center, so when you put the paper in the pan the side fold up (and overlap each other in the corners). If you want to get real fancy (and do it the easy way) get some dipping chocolate/chocolate bark and melt it and dip your cut caramels in it, then top with a few crystals of nice sea salt.
Additional notes:
Once it comes to a boil, your stirring should be pretty much constant. Smashing little bits of brown sugar so it can dissolve more easily and scraping the bottom of the pan to make sure the mixture is heating evenly. Because of the large amount of corn syrup in the recipe, there is no risk of the sugar crystalizing. It will probably take 20 minutes or so of babysitting once it comes to a boil to get up to temp. If you have a really heavy pan you don't have to stir full time, but it won't hurt either. BUt plan on spending that time in front of the pan regardless. This means you also need to prep the pan you're pouring it into before starting on the caramels themselves. Once you pull it from the heat, you need to stir the vanilla in immediately and pour it right away.
These will last a week to ten days sealed up. Refrigerating and freezing them does weird things to the sugar, so just plan on eating it all/gifting it right away. If you dip it in chocolate it may last a little longer. But this stuff is good enough that you really don't have to worry about it expiring.
I've always just used a thermometer on it, never bothered with the firm ball check. Don't be tempted to pull it early, either. A little too chewy is better than caramels that flatten out after you cut them.
Once it is fully cooled and set, the best way I have found to cut them is to spray a large pizza cutter with nonstick spray and cut quickly. So once I pull it from the pan (and have a big square of caramel) I cut off an inch wide strip and set aside, and keep doing that until it is all in strips, then a cut each individual strip into squares. It's tedious but if you leave the strips touching each other they will stick together.
