Even though the title of this post is Chocolate Creme Caramels I think that it should really be A Lesson in Buttering Every Surface.
It really all begins with the decision to try to make candy. This is something that I have tried before, several times, to no success. I have tried to make fudge only to end up with a hard, grainy brown block or a goopy mess that had to be salvaged on ice cream. Whenever I have mentioned my inability to create candy confections I am usually bombarded with "have you tried this recipe" or "there's this foolproof recipe you should try". Needless to say those recipes were foolproof right up until they fell into my hands.
And so, with determination I headed to the store to procur the ingredients to give this candy making thing another shot. With my latest foolproof recipe at hand I put the pot on the stove and began pouring things in. With all of the components cooking I slipped the trusty candy thermometer to the side and began stirring.
This was only the beginning of what turned out to be a very long process. I stirred and it was still pale. I stirred some more and it was still pale. I stirred even more and guess what? It was still pale. Finally after about 30 minutes (which really should have been included in the recipe) it began to darken ever so slightly.
So, I kept stirring and checking the termometer (that wasn't really moving up any). Finally after another 30 minutes or so it was almost there and had the lovely caramel color that I had been waiting so patiently for.
Now all I had to do was wait for that magic 250 degrees. Once it was (FINALLY) there the pot was swiftly pulled off of the heat and I could stir in the chocolate. Those chocolate creme caramels were almost ready to pop into my mouth. At least that's what I thought and what the recipe claimed.
Well, I poured my gooey (and hard earned) mixture into the buttered pan and began waiting (eagerly) for it to cool.
So now here we are waiting (and hoping) that everything will set up correctly. I sat down to finish watching a movie and work on that laptop cozy that has been taking forever to finish (its knitting, therefore I am SLOW, but that's another story). Finally (finally) its cool and set up so that it can be "turned out onto a clean work surface". Wax paper is clean and shouldn't stick right? WRONG!!!
Armed with a buttered chef's knife, as instructed, I try cutting the caramel into squares. Only to discover that either my butter isn't stick proof or that these things are stickier then advertised. Not to be discouraged, especially since this is the closest I've come to success with candy making, I improvise and put the trusty pizza cutter into lubricated play. Haha, it works wonderfully, better then I imagined, or so I thought.
That little wheel cut through like, well, a hot knife through butter. Thinking that this should be easy from here on out I cut wax paper for wrapping each one. That was simple. Getting the caramels to come apart from each other was not. Now, you might be asking "Why did she say that this should be A Lesson in Buttering Every Surface". Here's the answer, the unbuttered side of the caramels that were turned out onto that "clean work surface" decided that they were hugely attracted to it. "But you put it on wax paper..." you say. Uh-huh, that's right, it stuck. It stuck like glue and had to be peeled away, each little piece at a time. Lesson to be learned here? Butter the work surface next time.
Somewhere around 1:30 AM (I'll never start this process after 9PM again) all of the pieces were unstuck from each other and from the wax paper and individually wrapped.
Not only are they delicious but I FINALLY (yep that's right), FINALLY made candy!
