Smoked Salt Caramels Recipe

By
Kerry Saretsky
a photograph of Kerry Seretsky, a contributing writer at Serious Eats.
Kerry Saretsky

Kerry Saretsky interned at Serious Eats in 2008, and wrote the French in a Flash recipe column. She also writes her own blog on modernized French cuisine called French Revolution Food.

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Updated October 10, 2018

In France, caramels are often flavored with fleur de sel, flakes of sea salt, that balance and emphasize the sugary sweetness of the caramel. Even macarons made with caramel are finished with fleur de sel. So I thought, why not make caramels, and substitute with smoked salt? It doesn’t taste smoky, it just tastes deep and interesting, like a woman with a lot of je ne sais quoi. Because I’m not a confectioner, I thought it best to adapt a recipe here, so I turned to Ina Garten.

Recipe Details

Smoked Salt Caramels Recipe

Prep 15 mins
Cook 15 mins
Chilling Time 2 hrs
Total 2 hrs 30 mins
Serves 16 servings

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup sugar

  • 1/4 cup light corn syrup

  • 1 1/2 cups heavy cream

  • 5 tablespoons unsalted butter

  • 1 teaspoon smoked salt, plus extra for sprinkling

  • 1 leftover vanilla pod

Directions

  1. Arrange parchment paper in the bottom of an 8 by 8 baking dish. Grease with flavorless oil.

  2. In a large, deep pot, heat the sugar, corn syrup, and 1/2 cup water over medium heat. Meanwhile, in saucepot, heat the cream, butter, vanilla pod, and 1 teaspoon of smoked salt until it just simmers.

  3. Swirl the sugar mixture until it turns the color of caramel. Careful, one minute it’s so clear you think you can walk away, the next, it’s burnt.

  4. Stand back and add the warm cream mixture. It will bubble up violently. Stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture reads 248 degrees F on a candy thermometer.

  5. Pour into the prepared baking dish, and refrigerate until firm. Roll one side tightly until you come to the middle. Separate that roll from the rest of the caramel. Then roll the remainder. You’ll have 2 logs. Cut each log into 8 equal pieces, and top lightly with more smoked salt.

This Recipe Appears In

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
147 Calories
12g Fat
11g Carbs
1g Protein
×
Nutrition Facts
Servings: 16
Amount per serving
Calories 147
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 12g 15%
Saturated Fat 7g 37%
Cholesterol 35mg 12%
Sodium 155mg 7%
Total Carbohydrate 11g 4%
Dietary Fiber 0g 0%
Total Sugars 11g
Protein 1g
Vitamin C 0mg 1%
Calcium 17mg 1%
Iron 0mg 0%
Potassium 23mg 0%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

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