These beauties were all inspired because I asked myself the question, can you make caramel in the microwave?! Turns out you can! Quite easily and within six minutes.
But then what? I had to do something more so I made my own candies by coating them in a chocolate glaze. I also made them romantic by using my heart-shaped cookie cutter and they ended up being pretty as a picture and unbelievably delicious at the same time.
Microwave Caramels
I found this recipe on how to make caramels in the microwave which appealed to me because it just seemed safer and easier than on the stovetop.
Combine 1/4 cup of butter, 1/2 cup white sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup light syrup (I used regular corn syrup) and 1/2 cup of sweetened condensed milk. Cook for 6 minutes in the microwave, stirring every two minutes.
By the end of the total six minutes it gets very molten lava-like.
I personally recommend that you add a dash of salt at the beginning and a splash of vanilla extract at the end. That is what I am going to do the next time I make this.
Carefully pour the caramel into a greased dish and let cool.
I sprinkled some of the caramel with fleur de sel which is why some of it looks white and weird
I cut the caramels out with my small heart-shaped cookie cutter.
I put them in a plastic container and froze them. I did not want them melting in the hot chocolate.
Then I put them on a wire cooling rack with parchment paper underneath.
Dark Chocolate Coating
I kind of went off the foodie map at this point. If you have a preferable way to make chocolate coating, use it. Mine was an experiment.
I chopped up 210 grams of dark chocolate and added 3 tbsp of whipping cream.
I melted everything together on a double boiler…
… Until it got nice and smooth and ready for the caramels.
I dipped them into the chocolate to coat them completely. I let them sit and set. The problem?
They were so unbelievably soft! And gooey. Which I know does not sound like a bad thing but Reg found them messy. I was worried the whipping cream had been the wrong choice to mix with the chocolate. Perhaps I should have used butter?
So I put the caramels in the fridge overnight. When we had guests over, I took them out a few hours ahead of time to come to room temperature and they were perfect! Absolutely delicious and the dark chocolate perfectly balanced the sweetness of the caramel.
These would be so pretty in a heart-shaped box with tissue paper, wouldn’t they? Imagine giving homemade candy to your sweetie for Valentine’s Day and the majority of it was made in the microwave within six minutes? Easy and delicious but also thoughtful and romantic.
[yumprint-recipe id=’155′]
Yum! And I love the photo of the unmixed caramel ingredients — so pretty. Also, love the little pink pearlized plate that your chocolate heart is sitting on.
Ah, the dipping chocolate–I did something similar with homemade marshmallow cookies recently. The interwebs suggested 2-3 tablespoons of shortening… apparently butter has liquid in it that will make the chocolate seize (I read you can clarify it to remove the liquid, but you sacrifice taste.
I didn’t have any shortening on me at the time, so I just used plain melted chocolate… it worked but was thick and messy and didn’t have the coverage that I would have wanted. I ended up wasting half of it.
if you don’t have shortening, you can use vegetable oil. I found that it makes a thinner coating and seizes better than with whipping cream.
BTW, they look good! 🙂
Oh my gosh they look amazing, the caramels on their own would be amazing but the chocolate definitely takes it over the top. So cute on the pink plate too, look out Martha Stewart there’s a new foodie sheriff in town, and she’s got homemade heart shaped candy 🙂
Isn’t that plate adorable Debra?! I just love it too.
Noob, yes, butter has milk solids in it, oh dear! I have learned the hard way about plain melted chocolate too, too difficult. For this, you could definitely use shortening or butter.
Oh that is interesting missME! I hadn’t thought of using vegetable oil but I definitely will try that.
New foodie sheriff, that’s awesome Ava! Thank you. 🙂 Although I doubt I am a match for Ms. Martha but I appreciate the encouragement.
if you use tempered chocolate it should be smooth and fairly thin but tempering can be difficult and you would need a lot of good quality chocolate to do it (try Barry Callebaut, literally the best, or Ghiradelli chocolate chips or Bakers brand), these have more of a ganache coating but unfortunately the ganache looks broken. easy fixes include adding more chocolate or using an immersion blender to grind up those bumpy bits.
You did a super job with these!! They look so cute cut into hearts. I just made the caramel and am waiting patiently for it to cool. It won’t be as cute as yours because I plan on eating SOON. Thank you for all the great pics.
Layla, I wasn’t going for tempered chocolate… yet. I’m working up to it and thanks for the info, that helps!
Diane, hope you enjoyed the caramel! You are most welcome. Thank you for letting me know you were making this. I absolute adore inspiring people to play in the kitchen.
This comment has been removed by the author.