Caramels Au Chocolat (Chocolate Caramels)
Submitted by danielle
French chocolate caramels made with real vanilla bean, melted chocolate, and butter cooked to the ball stage. Old-world confection technique with rich, chewy results.
YIELD
12 servingsPREP
10 minCOOK
20 minREADY
30 minThis is classic French confectionery, the kind you’d find in a Parisian chocolatier’s display case. Real chocolate gets melted slowly in a copper pan, then combined with a warm milk, sugar, and vanilla bean mixture and cooked to the soft ball stage.
The vanilla bean is not a detail you want to skip or replace with extract. Split it, scrape out the seeds, and let the pod steep in the warm milk. Those tiny black flecks and the deep, floral aroma they carry are what separate these from ordinary caramels.
Cooking to the ball stage means the sugar reaches 235-245°F (113-118°C). The old-school finger test described in the recipe works, but a candy thermometer takes the guesswork out. Too cool and the caramels won’t set. Too hot and they turn hard and brittle instead of chewy.
Stirring constantly is not an exaggeration here. Chocolate and milk scorch fast at moderate heat, and once burned, there’s no saving the batch.
Chef Tips
- Use a heavy copper or stainless steel pan. Thin pans create hot spots that burn the chocolate before the sugar reaches temperature.
- Add the butter off the heat and stir vigorously. It emulsifies into the mixture and gives the finished caramels their smooth, glossy chew.
- Oil your marble slab (or a baking sheet lined with parchment) generously. The caramel sticks to everything once it starts to cool.
Variations
- Add a pinch of fleur de sel on top of each caramel after cutting for a salted chocolate version.
- Stir in a tablespoon of espresso powder with the chocolate for a mocha caramel.
Ingredients
Directions
Put milk, sugar, vanilla bean and glucose into a stewpan.
Put the chocolate into a round-bottomed copper pan and melt it slowly on the stove.
Meanwhile, heat the mixture in the stewpan, not letting it boil, since you merely want to melt the sugar and glucose.
When completely melted, pour this mixture, bit by bit, into the chocolate, while stirring.
When thoroughly mixed, cook at moderate heat, constantly stirring.
Cook to the ‘ball’ stage.
(To test the stage of cooking by finger, dip the thumb and index finger into cold water, then into the mixture, bringing the 2 fingers together and dipping them again into water.
This should be done quickly to avoid burning.
The mixture forms a ball that can be rolled with the tip of the fingers. ) Remove from the fire, add the butter, mix well, and pour onto an oiled marble slab in an oiled, iron framework.
Let cool and cut.
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