Sunday, November 30, 2008

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:
example
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! :)

4 comments:

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Kudos for getting through the challenge!! I'd say it was worth the work ;-)

As a true caramel fanatic, I am SOOOO mesmerized by those caramels :-D

Anonymous said...

I, too, love caramels and have been attempting to perfect a recipe. . . and while I've never broken any knives, I HAVE wasted lots of ingredients. . .sheesh! But yours look perfect.

Anonymous said...

Haha. I know that kind of experience, but those caramels do look really amazing!

Anonymous said...

Wow--I am impressed! I am sorry it was such a pain to figure out, but it looks (and sounds) like they turned out in the end! Those would make impressive Christmas gifts :o)

Courtney