Chocolate-Covered Caramels

Emboldened by our truffle success, we decided to make chocolate-covered caramels for Sam for Father's Day. At the crucial moment (as the caramel was already bubbling away merrily) I couldn't find my candy thermometer (!) so I had to make the caramels just by eyeing the color and using the "firm ball stage" ice-water method (!!) and they turned out perfectly anyway (!!!). I was very impressed with myself. I love caramels but I must say, chocolate-covered caramels are even better.

Here is my good, faithful, tried-and-true caramel recipe. It never fails me (although I have sometimes failed it).

Caramels

2 c. light karo syrup
2 c. sugar
½ t. salt

Stir well with wooden spoon and place on medium heat. Bring to a full rolling boil and add alternately but do not stop the boiling:

½ pt. (1 c.) whipping cream (unwhipped)
1 cube butter (cut in 5ths and dropped in separately)
½ c. + 1/3 c. evaporated milk

Add the above three things a little at a time. Put in a thermometer and cook to 233 degrees---this may take about half an hour. The caramel should be darkening but not too dark. You can put a small ball of caramel into ice water and then taste it to see if the chewiness is right. When caramels are done, remove pan from heat and add 1 t. vanilla. Pour into buttered 9x13 pan. Cool several hours or overnight, until caramel is set. 

For caramels, cut into squares and wrap individually in waxed paper.

For chocolate-covered caramels, dip squares into melted chocolate (make sure chocolate stays in temper while melting; that is, keep it under 88 degrees for milk chocolate or 90 degrees for dark chocolate) and place on parchment paper. Sprinkle with a few grains of sea salt, if desired.

The older boys helped do the dipping. They are getting really good at it!

We put a couple layers of these, sprinkled with a little sea salt, between waxed paper in a box for Sam and covered them with a sheet of tissue paper. They were every bit as good as any you'd buy at a fine chocolatier---if we do say so ourselves. :)

Truffles

Since we've learned about tempering, we've been wanting to make various things and dip them in chocolate! We tried making these truffles a little while ago. The centers were made with milk chocolate, and we dipped them in semisweet chocolate. We were quite proud of how pretty they looked!

We followed the recipe for the centers here, and it was really good, but I think I like my old recipe a little bit better! The one we made this time was just slightly too sweet, or something. It's been a couple years since I've made the old ones, though, so I'll have to make them again soon to make sure I remember. :) Here is my usual recipe for truffle centers:

Truffles

1 c. heavy cream

2 T. butter

2 tsp. light corn syrup

1 pound finely chopped semisweet chocolate, plus 12 oz for dipping

Bring cream, butter, and corn syrup to a boil over medium heat. Turn off heat. Add 1 pound chocolate; gently swirl pan to cover chocolate with cream, but do not stir. Let stand 5 minutes.

Slowly whisk until combined. Refrigerate, stirring every 16 minutes.

After 45 minutes, mixture will thicken quickly, so stir every 3-5 min until thick enough to scoop, 10-20 min more. Form into one-inch balls and place on parchment-lined cookie sheet.

Chill centers until firm, but not hard (about 15 min). 

Dip into melted, tempered milk chocolate, and if desired, roll in cocoa powder to finish.

This is a (very bad) picture of a time when we made the old kind of truffles (from 2008!)---you can see that I didn't know what I was doing with the dipping at all, and the chocolate wasn't tempered---though that cocoa powder covers a multitude of sins! :)---but the taste was very good.

Back in the present day . . . the boys roll truffle centers

We dip with great seriousness

Truffles drying!

Chocolate Chemistry: Tempering

Untempered (left) vs. Tempered Chocolate (right)

This was one of my favorite days because I learned so much! I had always read in recipes, things like "melt the chocolate slowly and at 50-percent power, stirring frequently!" and wondered why on earth you had to be so careful. I always warmed my chocolate at full power and it was totally fine (I thought). You do have to be a little careful not to burn chocolate (or it will seize), but that seemed like such a rare occurrence that it was hardly worth mentioning.

After learning about tempering, I finally understand! As I understand it, cocoa butter crystallizes as it cools, and at different temperatures, it forms different types of crystals. (Just like in igneous rocks!) The crystals are named alpha, beta, gamma, etc. based on the temperature at which they form. The tempering process is basically this: you heat the chocolate high enough that all the crystals dissolve. Then you cool it slowly to a certain temperature (84 F) and then slowly and carefully heat it again, not letting it get above 90 degrees for dark chocolate, or 88 degrees for milk and white chocolate. At that temperature, only one type of crystal can form, and when all the crystals are the same type and shape, they form a really tight, interlocking lattice. That makes the chocolate shiny, it makes it have a snap to it when it breaks, and it holds the fat molecules tightly within the lattice so they can't get out.

Untempered chocolate, as you can imagine, has the opposite characteristics: the varying crystal sizes mean that there is no tight lattice of crystals, so the chocolate is dull, doesn't snap, and the fats can escape and cause that white film called "fat bloom."

Sometimes fat bloom just looks like a white film, as in the picture at the top, but sometimes it actually makes these ugly dots on your chocolate, as above.

Here is an experiment you can do with fat bloom, or you can do as we did, and simply get some of your chocolate out of temper so you can compare it with the tempered stuff.

Storing your chocolate at too high a temperature, or melting and re-hardening, can also cause fat bloom.

When you're melting chocolate chips, as I so often do, there's another factor: chocolate chips actually have additives that make them resist melting. This is so they will keep their shape and look nice in cookies. (You can see the difference in the cookies above, which were made with a mix of chocolate chips and chopped melting chocolate. The chips in the left cookie are mostly intact, while the chocolate piece at the bottom of the right cookie has melted and lost its shape.) 

So, if you're trying to melt chocolate chips, you have to do it at a higher temperature (meaning they will probably get out of temper) and they will not be as smooth and runny as chocolate intended for melting. If you're going to add liquid anyway (say, to make the chocolate frosting for Sebby Cake), it doesn't matter whether you use chocolate chips or not. But for dipping or coating things in chocolate, it matters quite a lot.

When chocolate is made at the factory, it's always tempered, so when you buy it the tempering is already done, and the easiest thing to do is just keep the chocolate in temper. That means never heating it above 90 F (or 88 for milk and white chocolate), which is why all the caution and half-power recommendations that used to so puzzle me in recipes. If your chocolate gets too hot and gets out of temper, you can re-temper it, using a couple different methods. There is a ton of great information on chocolate tempering here and here. It seems intimidating at first, but it's really fairly straightforward once you have the general idea.

We melted some chocolate, some hastily and too high so it would get out of temper, and some slowly and carefully to keep it in temper. Then we dipped lots of things in it.

Tempered (left) and Untempered (Right)

Boys dipping various things in chocolate

Again, the contrast between tempered chocolate on the left (shiny and glossy) and untempered on the right (filmy and dull)

I should point out that tempering your chocolate (or keeping it in temper) is unnecessary if you're adding other ingredients to it, and even if you're planning to eat all of it right away. The fat bloom can be a bit unsightly, but the untempered chocolate tastes fine and sometimes even looks fine until the next day. But if you're trying to make chocolates that look really beautiful and fancy, and keep their lovely shiny appearance for several days, you should make sure you're using tempered chocolate. This was a revelation to us and we're really glad we learned about it!

Oh---and also of interest, speaking of chocolate chemistry, is this page on the difference between theobromine and caffeine (scroll down a bit). My neighbor when I was growing up was a chemist, and I can still remember talking to him at the ward campout one time, about how and why caffeine in chocolate was different than that in coffee. Very interesting.

The Berlin Airlift and The "Chocolate Pilot"

I really liked the idea of tying the story of the "Candy Bomber" (or the "Chocolate Pilot," as he was also called) into this Chocolate Unit. Montserrat has a cute mini unit study here. This subject is close to my heart as I have a special connection with the Candy Bomber, aka Brother Halvorsen---he was in my church congregation when I was young and he is my best friend's grandpa! I actually lived in his house for a semester of college, while he was away. And most exciting of all, I got to go to Germany with him, his wife, and my friend Rachael, right after we graduated from high school. It was a totally amazing trip that still seems unreal when I remember it. 

Bro. Halvorsen was visiting Germany for a bunch of celebrations based around the 50th Anniversary of the Berlin Airlift, and Rachael and I got to tag along at all the black-tie events, and the ceremonies with visiting dignitaries and 4-Star Generals. We got to visit an elementary school named after him (Gail Halvorsen Elementary) and even see a musical written about his life (which, awesomely, had little-girl Rachael as a character in it!). I have probably never felt so important in my life as I did on this trip (and I wasn't even related by blood---though he is my adopted grandpa too) :)

Menu, commemorative coin, and nametag from one of the dinners. "Miss Marilyn!" I love it.

I love Brother Halvorsen and even though I've heard his story probably dozens of times over the years, I never stop being amazed and moved by it. He always says, "From little things come big things!" I love his humility and his kindness and his wonderful sense of humor, and I love him for how he treated me like his own granddaughter and was so good to me over the years. And he looks exactly the same now as he did when I was young! He never ages!

Last year, my mom took Abe to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert, and to her surprise, they had a whole segment featuring Brother Halvorsen! They showed a video about his story, and at the end, parachutes holding chocolate bars actually dropped from the sky! It's an amazing moment, even when you watch it on the video.

And . . . even more amazing . . . Abe caught one of the parachutes! He has saved it and treasured it since then (he won't even eat the candy!), and I love it, because now he feels like he has a special connection with Bro. Halvorsen too!

It was so fun to talk with the children about Bro. Halvorsen's story, and to remember and show them pictures from my trip to Germany with him. Abe got this book for Christmas, so we read that and watched the accompanying DVD (so awesome). We also read a couple other books about the Berlin Airlift and "Operation Little Vittles."