It’s Daring Baker time again, and for this months challenge we had the option of making a caramel cake, or caramel candy. I opted for the candy, since I thought it would be a nice gift to give away, and because I never used a candy thermometer, nor have I ever made candy! The recipe… Golden Vanilla Bean Caramels… comes from Alice Medrich’s Pure Dessert.

Well let me tell you, candy making is definitely NOT my forte!!! Yes, I posted my photo with my little caramels all nice and snug in a pretty tin, studded with hazelnuts and pistachio’s, but looks can be very deceiving!!

I got off to a good start, I stuck my new thermometer on my pan and waited for my sugar and syrup to boil, my heated cream was waiting in the wings to be incorporated. Everything was at the correct temperature according to the recipe.

When it was time to pour it all into my pan, my house smelled like a fancy candy shop on Michigan Ave.!! I thought it was the right color, but maybe in reality it was a little to dark, what do you think?

Here is the picture of how my caramels really turned out, like shards of cut glass! TOTALLY INEDIBLE! The first photo above, I practically had to take a sledgehammer to cut them, I had caramel shards flying all over my kitchen floor!

In conclusion, I noticed my candy thermometer said caramels to be done at 240F, but the recipe said 260F. I went with 260F . Maybe that was my problem!

A big “Thanks” goes out to our host Dolores, of Chronicles of Culinary Curiosity, where you will find this recipe, along with her assistants, Alex, of the Blondie and Brownie duo, and Jenny, of Foray into Food, and Natalie, of Gluten-a-go-go.

Be sure to click on the Daring Baker link above to see how the caramels were really suppose to turn out, and to check out all those good looking cakes.