The Tale of The Caramel Maker
Dec. 18th, 2007 06:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
daidoji_giseiYesterday I discovered a bunch of written-off heavy cream in the employee fridge and immediately gabbed a couple of containers. I have no use for it in my everyday life, but cream is the essential non-sugar ingredient in my caramel recipe (and the one I never have in my house) and I decided that it would be nice to cook up some to share with my fellow employees.
Upon getting home with my dairy loot I discovered that my recipe calls for dark corn syrup and all I had was light. After pondering this a little I decided to use the light syrup and instead of all white sugar I'd use half white/half brown. I figured I was safe in this because there must be about 10,000 recipes for caramel in the world and one of them has to call for light corn syrup and a mix of white and brown sugars.
So I get the sugary stuff, the butter and half the cream into my best metal saucepan with my candy thermometer and start cooking. Upon which I realize that this pan is not big enough for this recipe. By dint of standing at the stove and stirring constantly I keep it from boiling over, but I can tell that the second addition of cream is going to make the mixture too large to fit. In case you are wondering, having caramel syrup boil over on to your gas stove is Not A Good Thing. After some rapid calculations I decide I'll finish the first-stage cooking in this pan, and then after I add the second amount of cream and mix it in I'll pour half of the resulting syrup into my second-favorite metal pan and finish the cooking in two pans. OK, I have a plan. A pan plan!
The boiling of the caramel in the first pan is going well so I take a moment to butter up a second cake pan to hold the second batch of caramel. The first pan comes to the correct temp on the candy thermometer and I pour it into the first buttered cake pan and leave it to set. Meanwhile I (carefully) grab the thermometer, attach it to the second pan and start to boil it. In the process I note that there doesn't seem to be as much syrup in this pan and think that that cake pan might be too big. In response I grab one of my 9x5 bread pans and butter it.
The second pan comes to the correct temp and on my way across the kitchen I decide that maybe the bread pan is too small after all and instead pour the syrup into the the second cake pan. I take the hot pan back the stove then go back to the counter and realize that no, the cake pan really is too large and dump the syrup out of the cake pan and into the loaf pan.
OK. I have caramel made. I finally have some dinner, MSN Fred about an issue with a story and eventually collapse into bed. (It had been a long day, even without candy-making.)
I get up this morning, put the water on to heat for my tea and commence to cutting up my caramel. At which point I make the discovery that what I have is not caramel, it's toffee. ARRG!
On a practical level this doesn't matter, because my co-workers will fall upon toffee with the same sugar-lusting rapture as they would have shown the caramel. On an even more practical level this matters A Lot because the only way this could have happened would be for my candy thermometer to be off. So now I need to ignore the markings on it and recalibrate it by going through the ice water tests on any future batches of candy I make. ARRG!
On the bright side, the toffee shards created in the chopping-up process will taste really good when mixed into a butter-cookie dough and baked.
Upon getting home with my dairy loot I discovered that my recipe calls for dark corn syrup and all I had was light. After pondering this a little I decided to use the light syrup and instead of all white sugar I'd use half white/half brown. I figured I was safe in this because there must be about 10,000 recipes for caramel in the world and one of them has to call for light corn syrup and a mix of white and brown sugars.
So I get the sugary stuff, the butter and half the cream into my best metal saucepan with my candy thermometer and start cooking. Upon which I realize that this pan is not big enough for this recipe. By dint of standing at the stove and stirring constantly I keep it from boiling over, but I can tell that the second addition of cream is going to make the mixture too large to fit. In case you are wondering, having caramel syrup boil over on to your gas stove is Not A Good Thing. After some rapid calculations I decide I'll finish the first-stage cooking in this pan, and then after I add the second amount of cream and mix it in I'll pour half of the resulting syrup into my second-favorite metal pan and finish the cooking in two pans. OK, I have a plan. A pan plan!
The boiling of the caramel in the first pan is going well so I take a moment to butter up a second cake pan to hold the second batch of caramel. The first pan comes to the correct temp on the candy thermometer and I pour it into the first buttered cake pan and leave it to set. Meanwhile I (carefully) grab the thermometer, attach it to the second pan and start to boil it. In the process I note that there doesn't seem to be as much syrup in this pan and think that that cake pan might be too big. In response I grab one of my 9x5 bread pans and butter it.
The second pan comes to the correct temp and on my way across the kitchen I decide that maybe the bread pan is too small after all and instead pour the syrup into the the second cake pan. I take the hot pan back the stove then go back to the counter and realize that no, the cake pan really is too large and dump the syrup out of the cake pan and into the loaf pan.
OK. I have caramel made. I finally have some dinner, MSN Fred about an issue with a story and eventually collapse into bed. (It had been a long day, even without candy-making.)
I get up this morning, put the water on to heat for my tea and commence to cutting up my caramel. At which point I make the discovery that what I have is not caramel, it's toffee. ARRG!
On a practical level this doesn't matter, because my co-workers will fall upon toffee with the same sugar-lusting rapture as they would have shown the caramel. On an even more practical level this matters A Lot because the only way this could have happened would be for my candy thermometer to be off. So now I need to ignore the markings on it and recalibrate it by going through the ice water tests on any future batches of candy I make. ARRG!
On the bright side, the toffee shards created in the chopping-up process will taste really good when mixed into a butter-cookie dough and baked.
