Caramels: From My Home Kitchen to Yours

I love to bake, but candy-making is something I've seldom attempted--until now. A recent visit to Good Karmal, a thriving caramel business in Bozeman, Montana, inspired me to take up the challenge of making these luscious, chewy confections in my own kitchen. After all, Halloween is just around the corner. What could be more appropriate than caramels to tame the cravings of neighborhood trick or treaters--or your own little live-in monsters?

A Google search turned up a promising recipe for "How to Make Soft, Chewy Caramel Candies," with clear directions and pictures from a website called The Kitchn. My only beef was the use of corn syrup, which I usually avoid--particularly the high-fructose variety. However, the other components--butter, cream, sugar, salt and vanilla--seemed perfect. Using 1/4 cup of organic corn syrup didn't sound like a major ethical lapse, especially as organic foods aren't permitted to contain GMOs--the genetically modified organisms that have become such a focus of controversy lately. If the recipe didn't turn out as expected, I figured  the worst that could happen would be that I'd end up with caramel soup--and then I'd just make a batch of caramel apples!

Caramel ingredients include cream, butter, sugar, salt, corn syrup, water and vanilla.

The ingredients and directions for making the caramel are clearly spelled out at the site, so I won't go into as much detail as you'll find there. Instead, here's the recipe and a few pictures from my first caramel-making experience, with basic steps and captions to tell you what I did and how it turned out. The pictures are not a step-by-step guide, so be sure to check out the original recipe for more specifics and suggestions.

Soft Caramels

Ingredients

1 cup heavy cream

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/4 cup corn syrup

1/4 cup water

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Prepare a caramel mold by lining an 8x8 baking dish with parchment sprayed with nonstick spray. Make sure some of the paper is hanging over the edges.

Butter melting, melting... What a world!

Over medium heat, melt the butter in the cream in a 2-quart saucepan and remove from the heat.

Volcanic action in the saucepan!

Combine the sugar, corn syrup and water in a 4-quart saucepan, with an instant-read thermometer attached to the side. Without stirring, cook the syrup over a medium to medium-high heat until the mixture begins to bubble around the edges, then turns into a whitish-brown frothing mass. 

At about 250 F the sugar syrup will begin to boil rapidly.

After the sugar mixture reaches 250 F but before it reaches 325 F, turn off the heat. Gently whisk the butter-cream mixture into the heated sugar syrup. It will bubble up quite a bit.

Magic effect of heat turns the buttery mix to liquid caramel.

Return the pan to medium to medium-high heat. Let the mixture boil without stirring until it reaches 245 F to 250 F. It will turn from a whitish bubbly mixture to a darker caramel color.

Cool caramel in parchment-lined 8x8 pan for at least 2 hours.

Remove the pan from the heat and whisk the vanilla into the caramel. Pour the caramel mixture into the lined 8x8-inch pan. Let it cool for at least 2 hours, preferably more. It should be solid enough to lift from the pan.

Cut caramels with a sharp knife. Spray with oil if it sticks.

When the caramel has set, lift the square of candy from the pan by the parchment flaps and set on a cutting surface. (I left the caramel in the parchment, which the knife ended up shredding, so it may be a better idea to remove the paper before the slicing begins.)

The caramels taste the same, whether you cut straight or not!

Cut the caramels into lines using a sharp knife. I used a 5" Victorinox Fibrox knife that I sharpened a little on my father's old sharpening blade.

Cut crosswise to make rectangles.

I found that my caramels were firm enough so that the knife didn't stick, but if it does, a quick spray of oil will do the trick. Also, try cutting more with the knife point than with the edge.

Wrap in wax paper, cut a bit longer than your candies.

Good Karmal candies (my models!) are wrapped in clear cellophane, which might be pretty for the holidays. I used wax paper, less fancy, but it worked fine as well. Using a more generous amount of paper than you think you need makes for a good firm tie. Remember to twist the ends in opposite directions.

Observations and Notes

Amounts & shelf life: The recipe claims to make 55 caramels, but I managed to get 73 out of my batch, with a few uneven bits ending up in the scrap pile (actually, we taste-tested them!). According to the recipe, the candies have a shelf life of two weeks at room temperature.

Temp reading: An accurate candy thermometer that hooks onto the side of the pan is essential. Mine kept sliding to one side out of the mix, so I had to adjust it and tilt the pan to make sure the tip was immersed in the liquid, allowing a temperature reading.

Potential eruptions: Walking away from the bubbling mass isn't a good idea as it is likely to burn or boil over. Also, make sure the larger pan you use is the appropriate size. The recipe calls for a 4-quart saucepan, but the only one I have is 3 1/2 quarts, which proved adequate.When you whisk the butter-cream mixture into the boiling sugar syrup, it will churn up like a volcanic eruption, so high sides are a plus!

Chocolate-dipped caramels + one lonely pecan

Variations: Check out endnotes for The Kitchn website's recipe on making salted, gingerbread or chocolate caramels. I tried my own experiment, dunking several of my finished caramels in a melted combination of equal parts dark and semisweet chocolate, with a tablespoon or so of added vegetable shortening. The result was delicious--but isn't anything dipped in chocolate?

Taste test: The caramels were chewy and sweet. I might try increasing the vanilla and salt next time to add more character. It would also be fun to experiment with flavors, such as espresso, mocha, ginger, chai or green tea.

P.S.: As my caramel-making experiment went so well, perhaps I'll tackle fudge next! If so, you'll read about it here.

Gift idea: Caramels in a Hersheypark Carousel tin replica

Good Karmal: Not Your Grandma's Caramel

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."

                                                      -- Eleanor Roosevelt
                               
 

Patty Triplett West 

Think Montana and what comes to mind? Mountains, bears, camping and perhaps a sizzling beefsteak? But caramels? Not so much. Yet a thriving caramel business is what my husband and I discovered during a recent visit to the pretty south Montana town of Bozeman, about 90 miles from Yellowstone. At the family-owned and operated Good Karmal, those cute little confections that used to turn up in your grandma's candy dish or in your Halloween goody bag have had a 21st century makeover. Instead of Kraft cubes, they now come in little cellophane-wrapped logs in flavors ranging from sea salt to caramel apple to chipotle--all wrapped up in inspirational quotes.

We stopped in to meet founder and CEO Patty Triplett West, who gave up a high-profile Hollywood PR gig to create her candy business, which also employs husband Ryan, brother Steve, a few local college students and graduates, and sometimes, during holiday rushes, fellow moms and even her two daughters, Jane and Ruby, ages 5 and 8, in a quilting-bee-style wrapping fest.

At the local caramel factory that makes the kosher dairy, gluten-free treats to Patty's specifications--mixing brown and white sugars, cream, butter, tapioca starch, vanilla and salt, plus various natural flavorings--long sheets of caramel are sliced and diced, spun in metal cylinders, wrapped and boxed, awaiting the final human touch--quotes on small colored slips of paper that enclose the candy. That process takes place in the Good Karmal offices inside a building that backs onto rolling open fields and is adjacent to the sprawling Montana State University campus.

The view from Good Karmal

I sat down with Patty to talk about the high points of caramels vs. other treats and what it takes to create the highest-quality caramel--and how someone who made her name in Hollywood PR working for the likes of actress Sarah Michelle Gellar and film and TV producer J. J. Abrams became the CEO of a caramel company.

"I've always loved caramels," she said. "So when I found out you could make them on your stove top without any fancy equipment, I had to try it, even though I'm not a great baker or chef at all. They turned out great."

In 2002, while working at Warner Bros., Patty began giving out holiday gifts of the caramels wrapped in some of her favorite quotes. "Most of the people I gave these gifts to were sort of important people--celebrities, journalists, producers--and I got a really great response right away."

Shortly after it started, the company got a big boost after Oprah Winfrey picked the candy as one of her "favorite things" on her holiday show.

Caramels, hot off the presses

But success brought new challenges. Patty quit her job and moved with her husband to Santa Cruz to work on the business full time, but they were still making every piece of caramel by hand. When they discovered a local candy manufacturer in Bozeman willing to do it for them, they decided to move again.

Why caramels?

"It's a light treat. It doesn't sit in your stomach all day like a fudge would," she said. "I really see this as a spiritual gift, a quote wrapped around the caramel to make you think. And the sugar makes you more happy about it."

Good Karmal comes in six flavors--vanilla, sea salt, chocolate sea salt, cafe caramel, caramel apple and chipotle. Two caramels have 120 calories, 5 grams of fat, and 3 Weight Watchers Plus points.

"Our most popular flavor is definitely the sea salt," she said. "It's an old-fashioned vanilla flavor with the sprinkling of a nice crunchy sea salt on the outside--and it's delicious."

I'll vouch for that, although I'm rather partial to the chipotle, which has a hint of peppery spice, giving the candy a bit of an edge. The candies are much softer than the Kraft version, and the sea salt variety really do crunch slightly when you take a bite. Patty said the company is always considering new flavors. A caramel slab for those who would like to bake with Good Karmal is one possibility. Yes, please!

As for the quotes, they're really the piece that sets the candy apart. They're less like fortune cookie messages and more positive sayings you might paste on your computer or send to a friend--bits of good karma(l), so to speak.

"I've always been a passionate collector of quotes. I feel like the right quote always finds me at a certain point in my life as a message that makes me really shift my thinking," Patty said. Mixing the love of candy and the love of quotes "made perfect sense for who I am, because I loved candy, but I was always looking for more meaning in my life and thought that other people might be too."

One of her favorite quotes is from Gandhi:

"We must be the change we wish to see in the world."

Good Karmal basket

"I love that quote because even the littlest things--letting someone in in traffic, smiling at the checkout person who's having a bad day--I think that's who I want to be--and that's the change I want to see."

Her brother Steve says his favorite quote is from Jimi Hendrix:

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace."

Patty avoids overtly religious sayings that might offend someone or be preachy.

"I consider myself a kindist. I think we should all be nice to each other and nice to the Earth." The quotes reflect this philosophy--with some of the profits benefiting environmental causes.

Baskets and favors tailored for weddings, baby showers, sports events, grand openings, hospitals, charities--all of these are keeping the factory humming, Patty said. Perhaps it would be nice to go beyond her web-based model and sell her caramels in a few upscale retail outlets in Los Angeles and New York, she muses. But she doesn't want to grow so big she won't have time to pick up her daughters from school and enjoy the great life she and her husband have found in Bozeman.

"I'm all for slow, smart growth."

Sounds like a quote worth wrapping round a caramel.


Here's a video of Patty Triplett West talking about Good Karmal. It was produced by my husband, Jefferson Graham.