Black Halloween Caramel Candy
Homemade caramels are absolutely fabulously tasty and wonderful, so much better than caramels with tons of preservative. Add a drop of black food coloring and bango! A perfectly spooky and slightly creepy and yet terribly yummy candy to please all and any Halloween trick o' treaters!
- Prep time
- 3 min
- Cook time
- 20 min
- Yield
- 30 servings
- Difficulty
- MEDIUM
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- 1 cup cream, 230g
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter, 57g
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 cup sugar, 300g
- 1/4 cup corn syrup, 75g
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 -1/2 tsp black food coloring
Instructions
- 1
Have a 8 by 8 inch pan ready. Line with parchment paper, leaving paper hanging over sides. Butter lightly. Put a glass of water into the fridge in preparation for the water drop test.
- 2
Warm cream, butter, salt in small pot over low heat until the butter melts.
- 3
Remove from heat and add in food coloring a bit at a time until you get the black that you desire.
- 4
Using a medium sized pot with high sides, add in sugar, corn syrup and water. Stir until the sugar is completely combined with water. Check the sides of the pot and use a wet brush to wipe down any sugar crystals that you see over the level of the water. Once done, do not stir the sugar water mixture anymore.
- 5
Heat over medium heat until sugar syrup reaches 300°F-320°F.
- 6
Take off the heat and slowly pour cream/butter mixture into sugar syrup, stirring the whole time. The sugar syrup will bubble up quite a bit.
- 7
Heat over medium heat, without stirring, until the caramel reaches 248°F- 252°F. Once the caramel reaches these temperatures, test with water drop test as follows.
- 8
Water Drop Test: Spoon out a bit of caramel, being careful not to touch the very hot caramel. Drop caramel into the glass of water that has been keeping cool in fridge. The cold water will set the caramel right away. The caramel should form a firm chewy ball and keep its shape (called firm ball stage). If it does not form a ball or the ball flattens out after a few seconds the caramel is not yet ready and should be cooked a bit more.
- 9
Once your caramel has passed the water drop test, add in vanilla extract, give it a whisk and then quickly pour it into your lined pan.
- 10
It should firm up to its final consistency within 5-10 mins or so. Let cool until room temperature, about two hours.
- 11
To make it easier to cut, put caramel into freezer for 20 mins. Lightly score to whatever dimensions you want for your caramel candy and cut with an oiled knife, oiling again for each slice.
- 12
Cut parchment paper into squares or rectangles big enough to wrap your candy with.
- 13
Roll each caramel in paper and then twist the two ends.