option: caramel

Part of this month's Daring Baker's challenge included optional caramels. I knew I wanted to make the cake, and whipped that out much earlier this month. Since I looooooove homemade caramels, but have never made them myself before, I did decide, very late in the month, that I would give them a try. Too late to really include them in my post, but still, here are my vegan caramels:

Simple enough to veganize -- Earth Balance instead of butter, coconut milk instead of heavy cream.

Method, however, was a bit more challenging. It took me three batches of caramel, mountains of sugar and golden syrup (at six bucks a jar!!! gasp!), a new silicone baking pan, confectionery waxed paper (at $8 a pack,) loads of sticky dishes, and one very sticky stove, to get these right. An expensive and time-consuming adventure, more than anything else! I hate to say it, but towards the end, I wasn't really having fun any more -- my frustration was taking over, especially when I wrecked my $20 cheese knife when cutting them. Grr.

Verdict, however? The caramels are AWESOME. Awesome, I say. Perhaps worth all that work? Perhaps not . . . but it's easy to forget how frustrating they were with a toasty, sugary, sticky, salty blob of goodness rotting your teeth away! :)