The Recipe and Directions were taken from Cupcake Jemma and slightly adapted. Watch the official video here.

INGREDIENTS

• 360g double cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 360g golden syrup or liquid glucose
• 420g caster sugar
• 120g chopped unsalted butter
• Vegetable Oil (or any unflavored oil) - to grease the pan
• *Any type of "Black Tea" (I used TWG's Breakfast Bulldog Tea)
• *Dark chocolate

* = ingredients added by me

TOOLS

• Candy thermometer (this is absolutely crucial to making caramels)
• Sauce pan
• Heat-safe spatula or wooden spoon
• Parchment paper
• Baking Sheet

Tips

Tip 1 : Keep your butter in the fridge so that when you add it into the hot caramel mixture later on, it will cool the mixture (help bring the temperature down).

Tip 2 : Make sure your saucepan has tall sides, because the caramel mixture will bubble up and possibly overflow.

Tip 3: For an easier time removing your cooled caramel from the pan...

a. Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit your pan.

b. Grease your rectangular pan with  vegetable oil.

Directions

1. In a pan, heat up the cream, vanilla extract, salt, and dried tea leaves.

Really let the tea leaves soak in and imbed in the cream's flavor, so that when the caramel is finished, the tea flavor comes across more strongly.

2. In another pan (tall sided sauce pan), add the glucose syrup and sugar.

*Also remember to attach your thermometer on the side of the pan.

3. Stir sparingly from time to time, and wait for the sugar-glucose mixture to reach 155°C (on medium-high heat).

Temperature is extremely important. One of the greatest lessons I've learnt from this experience is that caramel is all about temperature. Upon misplacing the required temperatures, I ended up with a hardened caramel deprived of that beautiful chewy texture.

     4. Once you have reached 155°C, add the cream mixture. The hot sugar will bubble and steam intensely, so make sure to be careful (please don't have your hands near the inside of the pan) when adding the cream.

     5. Turn the heat off and keep stirring until the bubbles have disappeared. Then, bring the heat back up to 127°C.

6. When the desired heat is reached, add the cold butter and stir well.

Again, please be careful not to burn your hands.

7. Turn off the heat once again, and mix until the bubbles have subsided completely. Now you can pour the mixture into the greased rectangular pan. (Tip: Bang your pan on the table so that the bubbles come up to the surface).
8. Simply wait for the hot caramel to cool (around 1 hour), and once the caramels are ready, start slicing the caramel into small rectangles.
9. To add another dimension of flavor, I dipped my caramels into dark chocolate.

That is a wrap for the chocolate coated caramel candy!

• Disclaimer: These caramels were by far perfect (the texture turned out more like a hard candy) because I confused the temperatures. However, they still taste absolutely scrumptious and my classmates at school loved them! I like to honestly share my experiences to show others that your first time making something won't always turn out flawless, so rather than being disheartened by "first" attempts, make the most out of your mistakes and results. For example, I will make sure to double check my temperatures next time.

*The recipe here by Cupcake Jemma is accurate (I simply confused the temperatures)!

Thank you for watching, and make sure to check out my next post concerning my FIRST ATTEMPT at making caramels (hint: "attempt").