Thursday, July 1, 2010

World Pastry Forum Day 1: Caramels

Apparently I got no good pictures of caramels so here are the three recipes.

Pecan Crunch
350 g Pecans, rough chopped
350 g Granulated sugar
250 g Water

Bring sugar and water to just a boil and add the nuts. Continue boiling 2-3 minutes and pour through a sieve to remove the syrup. Chef pitches his syrup, I say use it in ice tea or bourbon. Oven to 360ºF. Nuts on a silpat and in the oven for 10 minutes, spread the nuts and return to the oven until toasted and fragrant. Bring to room temp.

Vanilla Pecan Caramels
1 g Soy lecithin liquid (available at Whole Foods or co-ops in the supplement section)
368 g Granulated sugar
25 g Sorbitol powder
68 g Glucose DE38
268 g Cream 35%
2 Vanilla beans
185 g Milk
1 g Baking soda (for color)
3 g Fleur de Sel
318 g Butter 85%, diced
125 g Pecan Crunch

Combine the cream, milk, soy lecithin and bring to a boil. Once at a boil, remove from heat. Place the sorbitol in a pan and heat to melt. In a small dish combine the salt and soda. Add the sugar in three stages to the melted sorbitol. Then add the vanilla until fragrant and the glucose. Once it hits the desired color, add the hot cream mix and boil until the caramel melts off of the whisk. Remove the vanilla bean and cook to 112ºC. Add the butter and cook to 118º. Be careful to not stop the boil when adding the butter so you may need to add it in two or three additions. Finally add the salt and soda mix and whisk. Then add the nuts, pour into your frame and cool overnight.

Coffee Caramels
368 g Granulated sugar
25 g Sorbitol
68 g Glucose DE38
268 g Cream 35%
185 g Milk
1 g Baking soda
2 g Sea salt
318 g Butter 85%
62 g Coffee paste

Cassis Caramels
800 g Cream
520 g Granulated sugar
200 g Glucose
370 g Cassis puree
60 g Butter
50 g Mycryo cocoa butter
4 g Citric acid

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello,
Thanks so much for posting these formulas. For the coffee caramel I was wondering at what point you add the coffee paste? Also, for the cassis caramels at what point do you add the cassis puree, mycryo cocoa butter, and the citric acid?

Gfron1 said...

None of these actually got covered in the workshop due to time, but based on the basic formulas that we worked through here are my answers. For the coffee, I would add it at the very end, where in the previous recipe we added the nuts. For the cassis, you would want it to cook a bit, so I would add it in where the vanilla is added in the previous recipe. The mycryo and citric should be at the very end. Let me know if it doesn't work.