Picture of perfection (left)
Reality (right and below).
Last night I decided to make some caramel apples. I had the recipe, all of the necessary ingredients and a picture of what the end result was supposed to look like, easy enough. The recipe told me to let the caramel simmer until it reached 270*, about 15 minutes. Then it was supposed to thicken while cooling for 6-8 minutes. Things were going well until the caramel boiled over and made a gooey, sticky mess all over the range. I cleaned that up while the caramel was supposed to be thickening. After a half an hour the caramel was still not sticking to the apples but just running off of them like a fountain.
Flashback: Last Christmas I attempted to make homemade caramels and they ended up being so hard that it took me three days to soak the caramel out of my pan layer by layer. I vowed that I would never attempt candy making again but time has a way of dulling such memories.
So I waited, and waited--keep in mind that it's Tuesday and Andrew plays basketball late, so I had a free go to bed early card--and waited. Eventually some of the caramel decided that the apple wasn't it's polar opposite and began sticking, a little. So I dipped and swirled and decided to call it a night.
My swimming applesLesson learned: I may be a baker but I'm not a candy maker.
7 comments:
Hey, they still look good! Maybe next year will turn out better! :-) Your cooking always tastes really good, so I am sure that they tasted fine, the question is, did the carmel come off the pan?
Candy making is really hard. My grandma is awesome at it...me, not so much! Good Effort. You are a good baker..mmmm..chocolate PB giant cookie thing. :)
Don't you hate it when things doesn't come out the way you expected it? I usually buy the carmel sheet and cover it over the apple and bake it. It always tastes good when it's homemade though... did you have a hard time cleaning up that cookie sheet? IT's ok... Practice makes perfect, right?!?! There's always next year;)
Like I said the caramel wasn't that sticky so it came off the pan and luckily I put parchment paper under the apples on the sheet so that came off easy too. The third times a charm right?!
At least you tried! I don't know that I'll ever try my hand at candy making--everyone says it's so hard! And even though it wasn't on the apples i'm sure it still tasted good!
They'll still tast good, and besides, the ribbon part looks great!
I'll still eat them... ;-)
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