Home › Candies › Chocolate Caramels
Chocolate Caramels
1 cupful of sweet milk, 1 cupful of molasses, 1/2 cupful of sugar, 1/2 a cupful of grated chocolate, a piece of butter the size of an egg. Let it boil until thick, and stir constantly. Turn it out on buttered plates, and mark it in squares when it begins to stiffen, so that it will break readily when cold.
A milk-and-molasses caramel from the era before candy thermometers were common in home kitchens. The whole recipe hinges on cooking it far enough without scorching the milk sugars on the bottom of the pan.
- Butter the size of an eggRoughly 2 ounces, or 4 tablespoons. Nineteenth-century recipes used this comparison constantly; a large egg is about 2 ounces by weight.
- Grated chocolateThis means plain unsweetened chocolate, sold in the period as cake or baking chocolate. Modern unsweetened baking bars are the direct equivalent; do not substitute cocoa powder, which lacks the cocoa butter, or sweetened chips, which will throw the sugar balance.
- Sweet milkSimply fresh whole milk, as distinct from sour or buttermilk. Whole milk gives the closest result; the fat matters to the texture.
- "Until thick" means a temperature"Until thick" -- The book gives no temperature. Cooked to about the firm-ball stage, 245-250F, a mixture like this will hold a cut square; note that the recipe's own aim of candy that will "break readily when cold" suggests a firmer, more brittle set than a modern chewy caramel.
- Constant stirring is not optionalMilk solids and molasses both scorch readily, and the burnt taste cannot be stirred out once it develops. Use a heavy-bottomed pan and a wooden spoon or silicone spatula that reaches the corners.
- Watch for boil-overMilk plus molasses foams up hard in the first few minutes. Use a pan at least three times the volume of the mixture and keep the heat moderate until the foaming subsides.
- Buttered platesA buttered 8-inch square pan, or a parchment-lined one, is easier to handle. Aim for a slab about half an inch deep.
- Marking the squaresScore while the surface is set but the interior still warm and pliable, usually 10 to 15 minutes after pouring. Score too early and the lines close up; too late and the slab cracks unevenly.
- Yield and keepingAbout a pound of candy, roughly 40 to 50 small squares. Wrap individually in waxed paper, since they will fuse back into a single mass in a jar.