Smitten Kitchen’s apple cider caramels are one of the recipes that went into this year’s cookie boxes, and seem to have been a hit, so I wanted to share the recipe for anyone who wants to make them!  I love unadulterated, classic caramels, so I usually eschew any of the trendy add-ins: cayenne pepper, gingerbread spices, etc.  These cider caramels are interesting as caramel recipes go, though – typically you combine everything in a pot and boil the whole mixture until it reaches the right temperature (somewhere around 250F).  This recipe involves making a boiling syrup out of apple cider, then you add everything and boil it to the right temperature.  Although reducing the cider to syrup takes a while, it requires very little attention, allowing you to do other things as it boils away.  The boiling syrup then accelerates the caramel-boiling time, so the amount of active time seems much shorter than usual.  The syrup also helps to prevent the caramel mixture from crystallizing as you stir it.  Toffee, for example, can crystallize if you stir too much, because it gets cooked to a higher temperature and thus doesn’t have corn syrup or any other syrup in it to help avoid crystallization.  Butter and cream have the same effect, but to a lesser degree than sugar syrups.

Flavorwise, the sharpness of the cider balances nicely with the buttery caramel.  A truly good caramel won’t taste too sweet – real caramels get their flavor from milk proteins and sugars that have caramelized, rather than from corn syrup and added flavors – but for those who think that even the best caramel is too sweet, these should hit the spot.  (The ingredients are pretty much the same as in the original recipe, but I’ve reduced the salt and re-written the instructions with more detail.) (more…)