| Level: | Intermediate |
| Total: | 5 hr 4 min |
| Prep: | 40 min |
| Inactive: | 4 hr |
| Cook: | 24 min |
| Yield: | 64 (1-inch) caramels |
Ingredients
- 14 1/2 ounces sugar
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup light corn syrup
- 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1 cup heavy cream, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
Instructions
- Line the bottom and sides of an 8-inch square pan with parchment paper.
- Combine the sugar, water, corn syrup, and cream of tartar in a heavy 4-quart saucepan and put over high heat. Stir occasionally until the sugar has dissolved. Cover and continue to cook for 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, combine the heavy cream and soy sauce in a liquid measuring cup. Have this and the butter standing by.
- Remove the lid from the sugar mixture, and attach a candy thermometer to the side of the pan. When the sugar mixture reaches 230 degrees F, reduce the heat to medium and cook, without stirring, until the syrup is a golden color and is approaching 300 degrees F, about 6 to 7 minutes. At this point, there is less likelihood of any crystallization, so gently swirl the pan to break up any hot pockets.
- When the temperature approaches 350 degrees F, it will turn deep amber. Remove the pan from the heat, and gently swirl again to break up all of the hot pockets. Cool for 2 minutes.
- Carefully incorporate the cream and soy mixture and the butter into the pan. Stir to combine. Return the caramel to medium heat, stir until the butter is completely melted, and continue cooking until it reaches 255 degrees F. Remove from the heat and pour into the parchment-lined pan, tap gently to release air bubbles.
- Cool on a cooling rack for 30 minutes, and then sprinkle evenly with the salt. Continue cooling on the rack for an additional 3 1/2 hours. Cut into 1-inch pieces and wrap individually in parchment. Store in an airtight container for up to a week.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 64 servings |
| Calories | 58 |
| Total Fat | 3 g |
| Saturated Fat | 2 g |
| Carbohydrates | 9 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 0 g |
| Sugar | 9 g |
| Protein | 0 g |
| Cholesterol | 9 mg |
| Sodium | 39 mg |
Reviews
I found it to be a good candy, the first time I made it. it was great. I tried two more times, the same way, but the caramel would not set. After waiting 4 hours, I tried to cut it into squares, it was so soft it just flowed together into a big caramel pancake.lol great show, love the recipes and the information on the shows.
These were, no lie, the best ever. In just 3 hours, the five people I work with ate every one of the caramels. I knew these would be good – Alton is consistently tops in recipes – but I didn’t know these would be so damed great. People are clamoring for me to make more. Seriously. These are cracktastic.
Excellent recipe. I just made these last night and they turned out absolutely delicious (roommates could not stop eating them). I’m excited to try it again with some different finishing salts. I’ve noticed a number of people on here complaining about bad smells or the caramel tasting bitter. If that happened to you, the sugar became too hot and burned! Sugar will burn just above 350F so if you had that trouble I’d recommend removing the solution around 345F-347F to be safe. Remember this is a DARK caramel recipe so you’re dancing with the burn point but the key is to stay just below it which can be a bit tricky.
I followed the directions but noticed that the video Alton was cooking on medium-high heat to incorporate the sugar and water, but the directions say to “cook over high heat”. My mixture seemed to go above temperature rather quickly and they didn’t set as they should have. I’m going to put them in the fridge to see if that helps at all. Worse comes to worse, I’ll use the gooey mixture to flavor hot cocoa. I’m going to give it another whirl but need to invest in a better candy thermometer. In addition, my first attempt at making this was on a gas stove, and I seemed to have trouble regulating the heat! I’ll give it 3 stars based on the the discrepancy with the temperature in the directions. I’m sure it’ll be a 5-star rating once I get the cooking time and candy temperature under control!
SHAME ON YOU ALTON BROWN. I love your show and this recipe is severely flawed. Took me two attempts to get it right because the instructions in the video and the instructions in words are not exactly the same. This recipe has you make the caramel until it is VERY DARK. It completely stunk up my apartment with a burnt rubber smell, it tastes extremely bitter, and does not remind me of caramel squares at all. And this was with following the recipe. I just tried Ina Garten’s version of the recipe and it came out 1000 times better. I would never, ever do this recipe for anyone let alone yourself. I love you Alton, but this recipe let me down big time.
I was very careful with the recipe, watching temps and following the directions, along with taking note of some of the reviews that others have made. I must say these are delicious. Caramels are a very delicate matter, and I had good success with this recipe. They are definitely “different” a more adult flavor for sure. Brought them to work to my “guinea pigs” and the response was a collective— YUM!
I tend to like candy that has unique flavors as well as mixing salty and sweet, so when I saw the video, I got really excited and looked for the recipe right away. Terrible! I make a LOT of candy, including caramel, and not only does my kitchen smell disgusting now, the caramels taste awful. Someone in the comments said to use high-quality soy sauce, which is what I did, and yeah, it was still nasty.
It was okay. It was nothing special but it wasn’t bad either. Just fine.
OMG these are good. I need to get a candy thermometer though because I think mine were too tackysoft. But oh were they yummy. Thanks Alton Brown!! I put some Habanero salt on mine to add a kick. It is interesting to have the sweet, the salty and the hot!
Follow the instructions, look at the color of sugar…pay attention. I cooked this today at 7800 ft (altitude Best textured caramels I’ve ever made, tasted fantastic. Will make these again… All of you foodies, stop trying so hard, these are easy and yummy.