Go to the Recipe: Use Your Microwave to Make Buttery Bourbon Caramels — Right Now
is alcohol required? what can I use to substitute it?
I believe the alcohol is used as an additional flavoring, they note: "You’ve just made caramels." (separately)
"Since making caramels this way is so easy, you can start growing fancier every time you make them. We flavored the caramels here with bourbon, but you could try rum or cognac."
The difference between the soft and firm caramels is only six degrees, but the microwave cooking time is 12 minutes... it seems like it might be really easy to overshoot; do we need to stop regularly to check the temperature?
I would say try using some vanilla bean/paste/extract instead of the alcohol if that's not your thing. Or maybe some orange extract... apples... I imagine anything that you normally enjoy with caramel would work for a flavour addition.
Any ingredients or techniques for keeping a soft swirl when frozen?
Indeed, I believe I did overshoot on today's first try (to 128). Will see how they set overnight.
Thanks for the idea. I often make caramels, on the stove, and my biggest fear is that the caramel mass suddenly starts to separate.
One question: is it possible to use frozen cream for this recipe ? I typically fill up the freezer with cheap cream after christmas, and it would be nice to be able to make caramel using this directly.
I know I should just test this out, and probably will .. but let me hear your experiences. My recipe calls for 500ml cream, 250g sugar, 125g glycose syrup, cooked to 125C makes a very delicious chewy caramel. Either flavored with liquirice/salt or cocoa/salt.
2-liter container... why you ask?
This is why I have a microwave with no carousel. All turned out well the remaining caramel is cooling now.
I did the same, around noon yesterday, cooking for about 10 minutes (I was stopping at 2 - 3 minute intervals to check). Mine are still too soft to cut, and may be spooned into a jar soon to be used as a sauce...How did yours do?
yeah I know....but what is the carb count
@Daniel Schaible There's approximately 385 g of carbohydrates in this entire recipe. How much per piece depends on the size of the pieces they're cut into.
When I told people I was going to try making some caramels, they scoffed. I was a fool, they said. I'll spend days cleaning up, they said. My candy will be bad, and I should feel bad, they said. Since I never listen to good advice, I did it, anyway.
The results?
Fantastic.
The setup was a breeze. The run-time was just about spot-on for my microwave. Cleanup was a cinch. The hardest part was wrapping them. Partly because I ate about one in every four, and partly because my wrapping technique is seriously sub par.
One thing I found is that the character of the honey really comes through in the recipe. Make sure you use a honey that you actually like the taste of. Also, I went to about 156 degrees, and the caramels are still plenty soft. I suspect a bit of overshoot in temperature will still yield a nice product. The mixture heats fairly slowly, anyway.
Or some passion fruit juice/seedless purée
Anyone have a good recipe for caramels without honey? I like these, but have folks who don’t care much for the honey flavor.
Try replacing the honey with corn syrup. It ought to work just fine. The caramels I normally make use corn syrup. Other liquid sugars might work also. Maple syrup, agave nectar, brown rice syrup, glucose syrup. You might need to play with the recipe and see what you like and if you need to adjust the amount either up or down.
Even more traditional stove top caramels are easy to make. Be bold and adventurous! I'm constantly looking for the next thing that I haven't made or technique I haven't tried.
Check out https://www.thespruceeats.com/how-to-freeze-heavy-cream-1388376 . They have good tips on using frozen cream. According to the article you can still whip cream after it's been frozen and thawed so I dont see why you couldn't use it in caramels. I've never done it myself, but It's a neat idea.
The alcohol is really just for flavor. The water in it will evaporate off as will most of the alcohol. You could add a number of varying extracts or flavoring agents in it's place. You probably wouldn't need as much of some flavoring agents. The amount of bourbon he is between 3-4 Tbsp. If for instance you chose a food grade essential oil you'd only need a few drops. If you picked say frozen concentrated apple juice 3-4 Tbsp might be fine, though that's going to add more sugar to it also. Play with it and have some fun.
Have tried this three times, with only one success. First time it did not set up and was pourable caramel sauce. That time, I microwaved about 9 minutes and it read 253 on my Thermapen 5 so I stopped. I tried a second time, went for a full 12 minutes and it read 259 on the same Thermapen 5, and they set up fine. Both those times were using 60 proof brown sugar bourbon instead of normal bourbon, but otherwise, followed the recipe exactly. Third time I went 10 minutes and checked it for the first time and it read 270, so I stopped. That time I used 70 proof rum but followed the recipe otherwise. It made pourable caramel sauce again.
Do I need to microwave it 12 minutes regardless of what temp it shows and only cook longer if it has not reached 253 for soft caramels or 259 for slightly firmer ones?
I checked my Thermapen 5 and a glass of ice water read 29 F and a pot of boiling water (at 520 ft above sea level) read 209 F. I think the temp readings are fairly good.
I made this without a microwave OR candy thermometer and they turned out so great! I replaced the honey with a simple syrup I made by macerating leftover quince peels in sugar. I used a touch of panela cane sugar, a heaping spoonful of quince jam, and cut out the bourbon entirely (I used 1 tsp vanilla). Also a touch of malic acid (everything needs a little acidity!) I heated all ingredients except the butter on the stove without mixing too much. I let it turn amber and start to bubble. I tried testing the caramels doneness using the cold water test but I think the cream made this difficult. I ended up scooping out little spoonfuls of caramel and tasting it - once it was nice and chewy (maybe just slightly softer than I'd like in the final, cooled product), i poured it onto parchment paper. They came out really perfect with a subtle touch of fruity quince.
12min on 1000W was spot on! The only labour intensive part was individually wrapping the caramel. I'll definitely make these again with baked almonds and sea salt. I tried replacing the bourbon with "apple pie moonshine", but can't really taste it. They really do change texture for the better after resting so hands off
Could one use Control Freak and set the temperatur to 259 F/126 C degress instead of microwave ?
Oh yes, just stir as it cooks to prevent burning the bottom of the pan.
A tad late to the game on this one, but I used the Control Freak with the temperature set to 260℉, target temperature was 256℉, and it worked just fine.
