I personally don’t like soft caramel — just not something that appeals to me — but hard caramel is a whole different story. Mixed into chocolate, it gives that satisfying crunch and burst of flavor.
It’s easy to make, but patience is the name of the game here.
In this case, I’m making bark, but you could just make the caramel on its own for a nice decoration on your desserts.
(Experiment 166) Hard caramel
Ingredients
- ~1 cup of sugar use as much or as little as your want
- 200 g dark chocolate
Instructions
- First, we will make our caramel. This is very easy to do but very easy to burn. Time is of the essence and you need to be very patient. In a pan over medium heat add about half of your sugar. Shake the pan to spread it around and let it be, do not stir. Every 1-2 minutes, you can lift the pan and shake it gently so that it keeps spreading around. Keep an eye so it doesn’t burn, if needed reduce heat to medium-low.
- After a few minutes, it will start to slowly melt, again don’t stir. When it’s mostly melted, add half the remaining sugar, wait until it’s all melted, and add the remaining. When it reaches a nice golden colour ( maple syrup ish ) remove it from heat.
- On a baking tray lay parchment paper and carefully (it’s very hot) pour the melted sugar. Optionally, lay a second piece of parchment paper on top and use a rolling pin to flatten it. This will give it a nice thin layer, which for chocolate I prefer.
- Once cooled you can simply break it into pieces and use them as dessert decoration or in this case, we will mix it into chocolate.
- I like to have small bits of caramel so I break it very small.
- Temper your chocolate following the instruction in the notes. Once your chocolate is tempered, mix in your caramel pieces, stir and mould or simply lay it on parchment paper to make a nice bark.
Notes
Check out my how to temper chocolate here