Apple Cider Caramels

Last Saturday some friends of mine were getting together at my house to do a photoshoot. Of course, I couldn't be left out of the action, so I invited Chef Tess to come a bit early to make these amazing caramels. (She shares her side of the story on her blog.) What can I say? These are without a doubt the best caramels I have ever had. The brilliance of adding cider to caramel defies quantifying. I will forever be in awe of SugarPunk for dreaming these up.

Okay, okay on to the goods! Here is the recipe with some of SugarPunk's notes:

Apple Cider Caramels

2 c apple cider

Reduce to 1/3 cup, set aside.

2/3 c cream

6 tbsp butter

Heat to boil, then set aside.

1/2 c sugar

1/4 c corn syrup

1/4 water

Cook to light brown. I have found that my idea of "light brown" and what works with caramel aren't at all the same - I generally heat it to something more like medium-dark amber

Add cream, butter and reduced apple cider all at once, stirring constantly (It will foam up - use a good size pot). Oh boy, they’re not kidding! I always, always scald myself when doing this step.

Cook to 250 degrees, using fairly low heat - you want to take about 10-15 minutes to get it up to temperature. Now this, I just find to be incorrect. The sooner you can get it up to the mid-range of soft-ball, the better. I do use medium heat, but it has never taken longer than 5 minutes to get to temperature.

Pour it into a 8 inch square baking pan that’s been lined with two pieces of oiled parchment paper, one in each direction - this creates a “sling” to pull the caramel out of the pan. This has always resulted in a layer of caramel approximately 1/2 inch thick. If you want thicker caramels (and I usually do), you can use a smaller pan, or I've made a spacer from cardboard that turns my pan into approx an 8x6 pan.

I also sprinkled a little fleur de sel over the caramels at this point, as I find them far too sweet if they don't have a hint of saltiness about them

I've decided that this recipe is my new be all and end all recipe for caramels. I just can't get enough!

Pumpkin Caramel Bundt Cake

Between the holidays and teaching more cooking classes, I find myself in the kitchen more and more lately. Tonight we're having a women's meeting for church, and I've ended up doing dessert for 60+ people. They wanted something fall-like, so I decided this pumpkin caramel bundt cake would be just the thing. Three other women were kind enough to bake a cake each, so all I've had to do is assemble. In retrospect, this may not be the easiest thing to serve, but it's so yummy I'm sure no one will mind! After all who can resist pumpkin cake with cream cheese icing, homemade caramel and toasted pecans? Mmmmm mmmmm good!