Salted Caramel Recipe With Winemaker's Salt
By Nicola Lando
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150 minutes prep time
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30 minutes cook time
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Intermediate
Utter the words salted caramel and everyone's mouths start watering. These salted caramels are made using winemaker's salt, a stunning deep purple salt with luxurious hints of Merlot and Cabernet.
For an extra kick we've added a touch of habanero chilli powder - just a pinch gives the caramels a subtle chilli warmth. For an extra touch of decadence, decorate with a sprinkling of edible gold leaf dust. The salted caramels make a delightful after dinner treat over the festive period and they can also be packaged up to make pretty home-made Christmas gifts.
The key to getting the right texture with caramels is to use a reliable cooking thermometer. Superfast thermapens are miles ahead of all other cooking thermometers we've looked at, and they are the only thermometers we've come across with consistent rave reviews. For a soft set caramel which can still be easily cut into squares we recommend cooking the sugar to 118°C.
Ingredients Serves: 20
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil (for greasing)
- 115g unsalted butter, in cubes
- 120ml double cream
- 45g water
- 60ml light corn syrup
- 200g caster sugar
- 1/4 tsp habanero chilli powder
To decorate
- A sprinkle of winemaker's salt
- Edible gold leaf flakes
Equipment
- Loaf tin
- Superfast thermapen thermometer
- Baking paper
Method
- Oil a 9" x 5" loaf pan with vegetable oil. Cut a piece of baking paper large enough to line the bottom of the pan and come up the sides by at least an inch. Oil the baking paper and place inside the loaf pan.
- Heat the butter and cream in a bowl over a pan of simmering water until the butter has all melted. Set aside.
- Heat the water and corn syrup and sugar in a medium sized pan. When it comes to the boil cover the pan with a lid for 1 minute (the steam helps prevent the sugar from crystallising on the sides of the pan.)
- Cook the sugar syrup until it starts to turn a light golden colour (165°C) using the superfast thermometer to monitor the temperature.
- Slowly pour in the cream/butter mixture whilst stirring constantly with a wooden spoon.
- Stirring constantly, heat the mixture to 118°C - this will produce a soft caramel which holds its shape enough to be cut into squares.
- Pour the caramel into your prepared loaf tin.
- Leave to cool for 15 minutes. Then evenly sprinkle over the winemaker's salt.
- Leave the caramel to set for 2 hours.
- Remove the block of caramel from the mould and cut into 1 inch squares. To cut the caramels, use a knife which has been warmed in hot water and then dried .
- Decorate the caramels with a sprinkling of edible gold leaf dust.
About the author
Nicola is co-founder and CEO at Sous Chef. She has worked in food for over ten years.
Nicola first explored cooking as a career when training at Leiths, before spending the next decade in Finance. However... after a stage as a chef at a London Michelin-starred restaurant, Nicola saw the incredible ingredients available only to chefs. And wanted access to them herself. So Sous Chef was born.
Today, Nicola is ingredients buyer and a recipe writer at Sous Chef. She frequently travels internationally to food fairs, and to meet producers. Her cookbook library is vast, and her knowledge of the storecupboard is unrivalled. She tastes thousands of ingredients every year, to select only the best to stock at Sous Chef.
Nicola shares her knowledge of ingredients and writes recipes to showcase those products. Learning from Sous Chef's suppliers and her travels, Nicola writes many of the recipes on the Sous Chef website. Nicola's recipes are big on flavour, where the ingredients truly shine (although that's from someone who cooks for hours each day - so they're rarely tray-bakes!).
