No. 3644

Vanilla Cream Caramels, or with Tea or Coffee

Caramels a la Creme Vanilles au The ou au Cafe

Set a pound of sugar in a copper pan to melt with three-quarters of a pint of cream, adding a split vanilla bean; stand the pan on a brisk fire and stir steadily until cooked to "large ball" (No. 171), then pour it in a square formed on the marble with slightly oiled square iron rods, having it the same thickness as the chocolate caramels. When cold cut out and wrap in waxed papers, finishing them exactly the same as the chocolates. These caramels can be flavored with tea or coffee, proceeding as for the above, only using one pound of sugar, two gills of cream and a gill and a half of infused tea or coffee.

← No. 3643 Chocolate Cream Caramels Candies & Bonbons No. 3645 Cordial Candies →

For the Modern Kitchen

A plain cream caramel from Ranhofer's confectionery chapter, written for someone who already knows the sugar stages and has a marble slab and caramel bars. The instructions assume both; here is what they translate to.

"Large ball" (No. 171)"Large ball" (No. 171) is one of the upper rungs of Ranhofer's sugar ladder; in modern terms it falls somewhere in the firm-to-hard ball range, around 245-250F. Cook to the low end for a chewy caramel, the high end for one that holds a cut edge in a warm room.
The measuresA gill is half a cup, so two gills of cream is one cup and a gill and a half of infusion is three-quarters of a cup. Three-quarters of a pint of cream in the vanilla version is one and a half cups. Use heavy cream; nineteenth-century "cream" was generally richer than modern half-and-half, though its fat content was unstandardised and varied a good deal.
Crystallisation is the hingeSugar and cream alone, with no glucose or acid, can grain if sugar crystals get back into the boil, though the milk fat and solids give some protection. Wash the pan sides down with a wet brush early, and pour without scraping the bottom of the pan; the recipe's direction to stir steadily throughout is there to keep the dairy from scorching.
The copper panUnlined copper is used here for even, fast heat transfer, not for flavour. A heavy stainless or copper-core saucepan with plenty of headroom works; cream-and-sugar boils climb suddenly.
Oiled iron rods on marbleThe caramel bars form an adjustable square frame on a stone slab. A lightly oiled 8-inch square pan lined with oiled parchment gives the same result. For depth, follow whatever thickness the preceding chocolate caramel entry (No. 3643) specifies, since that is what he means by "the same."
Tea and coffee versionsThe infusion has to be strong to survive the sugar concentration — far past a drinkable brew. Steep it very dark, strain it clear of leaf or grounds, and add it with the cream at the start so the water boils off with the rest.
Vanilla beanSplit the bean and cook it with the cream, then fish it out before pouring; the seeds will stay behind and speckle the candy. Two teaspoons of extract stirred in off the heat is a fair substitute, added at the end so the flavour is not driven off.
Yield and wrappingA pound of sugar with the cream gives roughly a pound and a half of finished caramels. Wrap each in waxed paper as directed - unwrapped cream caramels weep and stick within a day.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer put out The Epicurean in 1894 after some three decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its final chapters cover the confectionery a great restaurant was expected to produce in-house ar bonbons, cordial candies, glacéed fruit and boxed caramels for the end of a dinner or for guests to take away. The cream caramel itself is a nineteenth-century American commercial sweet, made by boiling sugar with dairy rather than water to produce a chewy candy that kept and travelled; by Ranhofer's day it was ubiquitous enough that he could describe one version and then simply say the rest are finished "exactly the same." The tea and coffee variants show the logic of a professional kitchen: one base formula, adjusted by swapping part of the cream for a strong infusion, so a single batch of technique yields three items in the confectionery case.