Spiced Apple Caramels
Like peppermint bark, salted caramels are a once a year treat we look forward to making all year long. My little Eloise has what she calls “not just one sweet tooth” but rather “a mouthful of sweet teeth!” It’s not something I like to encourage, but once a year I try to indulge it with as little judgment and as much joy as possible.
And that’s how salted caramels make their way into our lives!
Truth be told, for the longest time, I avoided recipes like this and clung steadfast to what felt familiar: mixing and kneading and baking. But making caramel isn’t nearly as hard as making most candy (I made lollipops last summer and phew - the learning curve was steep!). It’s really just a matter of melting sugar and fats.
With this particular recipe, the tricky steps involve 1) cooking down the apple juice to create a syrup and 2) heating the syrup, sugar, butter and cream fraiche to 260 degrees F to ensure the caramel sets just right. Neither step is technical or involved, but both require paying close attention, which is something I sometimes struggle to do. The key, especially for those of us who are prone to multitasking, is to make sure you make this recipe when you’re unlikely to be distracted by competing tasks, small children, incoming calls, etc.,
One an other note: if for some reason you can’t source unpasteurized apple juice, you can easily make it fresh if you have a juicer. I used green apples to give the caramel a somewhat tart flavor, but red apples work just fine. You’ll need enough apples to make a quart of apple juice, which depending on the size of the fruit, should be somewhere between 6-10 apples.
Once your caramel has set, you can cut it into bite size pieces, wrap it in parchment paper, and give it away as gifts (or enjoy it all yourself!). They’ll keep for up to a week in an airtight container in the fridge. Enjoy!
Ingredients
1 quart unpasteurized apple juice or fresh squeezed and filtered apple juice
1 cinnamon stick
1 star anise
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more to grease the pan
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup crème fraîche
coarse sea salt
Materials
8” x 10” baking pan
candy thermometer
parchment paper or wax paper (to wrap the caramels)
Directions
1. Butter the baking pan, line it with parchment paper, and lightly butter the top of the parchment paper. If the parchment paper bunches up, you can butter the bottom of the paper as well to help it stick to the pan.
2. Pour the apple juice into a medium-size pot. Add the cinnamon stick, star anise, and cloves, and bring it to a boil. Cook over low to medium heat until the juice reduces to 4 1/2 ounces of syrup. If you have a scale, it helps to place a measuring cup on top of the scale, tare the scale to zero, and measure the syrup periodically so that you don’t cook it down too much.
3. When the syrup has reduced to 4 1/2 ounces, strain the spices, and add the syrup to another clean medium-size pot.
4. Add the butter, sugar, and crème fraiche to the syrup and cook on low heat, stirring frequently, until the butter melts. Continue to cook on low heat until the syrup reaches 260ºF. Be sure to keep the temperature on low heat; otherwise the syrup will have a burnt taste.
5. Remove the pot from the heat, detach the thermometer, pour the caramel in the baking pan, and sprinkle the top with sea salt, and let cool to room temperature for about 2 hours.
6. Using a lightly buttered sharp knife, cut the caramel into bite-size squares. Place each caramel on the center of a square of waxed paper or parchment paper and twist the ends. Store the caramels in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.