Caramels...revisted!

Clockwise from Left: Ina Garten Caramels, Aunt B Caramels #2, Aunt B Caramels #1, Coconut Lime Caramels in the middle

OK, so some of you have heard my rantings and ravings about trying to make home-made caramels. This mini obsession started with Orion's Laughing Way - part of the tradition is to give a small token of appreciation to each guest at the party - I thought it would be a great idea to make salted caramels.

I started with a recipe from Ina Garten that my friend Ansu found on the cooking network. Those caramels turned out hard but flakey and a really wierd color. The second batch was from a blog that I love called coconut lime. They tasted great with a nice chewy texture (just ask my friend Kate) but as they aged they began to crumble and disenigrate before my eyes...not to mention they were a really pale white color.

I decided to go straight to a pro and I emailed my Aunt Bobbi and asked for her secret family recipe for caramels. She makes them every Christmas and those along with her pickeled green beans send me to heaven. Once I had the recipe in hand I looked it over and holy shit it made a lot of caramels. I decided to 1/2 the recipe as my luck so far was not so good. Those caramels turned out a might chewy but with a lovely golden caramel color - which was a first for me in this adventure.

By this time the party had come and gone and I hadn't gotten anyone sick with my many candy making experiements that I handed out. As I looked in the fridge I realized I had another quart of heavy cream and I thought "what the hell" I can't let good cream go to waste why not try another batch of Aunt B's Caramels. I timed it for when little Toots was napping and got busy sweating over a hot stove. This go-round, I followed the recipe perfectly and timed things very carefully - what do you know the caramels got that lovely golden brown color again. I poured them into the pan and sprinkled them with sea salt. After letting them cool I began to pry them out of the pan expecting them to be a little soft and chewy. WRONG O!

I obviously have yet to perfect the caramel recipe. These one are even harder then the first and I seriously fear that someone may break a tooth on them. I have not bought anymore ingredients to try this recipe a 3rd time...I will soon as I feel like I have to master this. I wonder if my elevation has anything to do with the color changes or the reason they were so hard when I cooked only to "hard ball stage"??