Ingredients
Scale
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1/3 – 1/2 cup turkey gravy
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/2 – 3/4 teaspoon flaked sea salt
- 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup light corn syrup though dark will do in a pinch
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- First prepare the finished caramel pan. Line an 8×8 baking dish with parchment so that excess paper hangs over the edges. Spray the parchment and the sides of the pan with nonstick spray.
- In a small saucepan, heat cream, gravy and butter. Stir until the butter melts. Add the salt and stir. Remove from the heat and keep the pan close by.
- In a medium saucepan (a 4qt saucepan will be great as the mixture will bubble up bigtime when you add the cream) combine sugar, corn syrup and water. Stir until the sugar is moistened though the mixture will be thick and grainy. Place over medium heat and if you notice grainy sugar crystals on the side of the pan, use a wet pastry brush to brush them down into the pan. Clip a candy thermometer to the side of the pan so that the heat sensor is immersed in the sugar. Do not stir the sugar. Swirl the pan slightly as it heats.
- Heat over medium to medium-high heat. Let the sugar syrup come to a boil without stirring. Make sure the bulb of your thermometer is touching the sugar syrup for an accurate temperature read. First you’ll see bubbles around the edge of the pan and the bubbles will move towards the center until the entire mixture is boiling rapidly. Around 250°F, the sugar syrup will turn glossy and boil rapidly. Around 320°F, the syrup will darken slightly and smell caramel-like. You can proceed to the next step any time after the syrup reaches 250°F and before it reaches 325°F.
- Turn off the heat under the sugar syrup. Slowly pour the warm cream gravy butter mixture into the sugar syrup while whisking the sugar syrup gently. The sugar syrup will bubble up and triple in size. Stop whisking once all the milk, gravy, butter mixture has been added.
- Return the pan to medium to medium-high heat with the candy thermometer still clipped to the side. . Let the caramel come to a boil without stirring. It will start off as a soft buttery yellow and eventually darken to reddish-brown caramel. It may take some time but the cook until the caramel reaches 245°F to 250°F.
- Lastly, quickly whisk the vanilla into the caramel.
- Immediately pour the caramels into the prepared pan. Do not scrape the pan, just keep any burned bits on the bottom of the pan. Knock the pan with the caramel in it against the counter a few times to help air bubbles work their way out. It doesn’t have to be perfectly free of bubbles, they tend to work their way out while the caramel rests.
- Set the caramels somewhere out of the way to set, for at least four hours or preferably- overnight. Once the caramels have cooled to room temperature, you can cover the pan. I simply used a kitchen towel to cover the caramels to prevent any condensation.
- When the caramel block has set, lift them out of the pan by the parchment paper flaps and onto a cutting board. Cut the caramels into candies with a very sharp knife. If the caramels stick to your knife, spray your knife with nonstick cooking spray.
- Cut squares of wax paper a little longer and wider than your caramels. Wrap each caramel in wax paper and twist the ends closed. Caramels will keep refrigerated for about two weeks.