Sweet Melissa Sundays

I haven't participated in Sweet Melissa Sundays in a month of Sundays! It feels like forever since I've baked along with this group, and I think that's a combination of my very hectic month of December and the fact that the group took a break for the last part of the month. To kick off the new year, Jeanette, of the Whimsical Cupcake, chose chocolate creme caramels. Now, the last Sweet Melissa Sundays I participated in was the butter toffee crunch and it didn't work out very well. I tried to make it again over the holidays and it was a little bit better . . . but not much. I had convinced myself that I just don't have a knack for candy making, and I was, to put it mildly, pretty nervous about making these caramels. In an effort to avoid a great loss of ingredients, I made 1/4 of a recipe, and lo and behold -- it worked!

These actually couldn't be simpler, and the only tricky business is waiting, waiting, waiting, and stirring, stirring, stirring while you wait for the sugar, corn syrup, cream, and honey mixture to come up to temperature. When the mixture comes up to 248 degrees you quickly add the chocolate, and then my mixture dropped back down to 235 degrees again. I was prepared to wait for a bit to have the temperature come up, but when I looked down again it was already at 258 degrees -- that's 8 degrees past the prescribed temperature. I was mildly stressed that I'd ruined another batch of candy, but it didn't smell scorched and I poured it into a mini loaf tin and set it outside to chill (yes, it's easier to chill things outside right now! It reminds me of my brother when he was at the University of Chicago:  he used to hang his leftovers from the window of his dorm room when he didn't have enough room in his little fridge!).

I couldn't believe how tasty these were. I had a blast cutting them up and wrapping them, though I suspect that's because I didn't have too many to wrap up. My caramels are much softer than a kraft caramel, and I'm not sure if they're supposed to be harder? I do love them, though, and I have every intention of making both this version and the plain honey version again soon. I also think I might be able to make these gingerbread caramels, which I've been dying to make, but I was worried I'd have a "fail" on my hands. Thanks, Jeanette, for such a great pick! I would never, ever have made these on my own, but I'm so glad I did! If you'd like the recipe, please visit Jeanette's blog, the Whimsical Cupcake. And if you're trying to figure out what to do with leftover caramels, these Rocky Ledge Bars are great.