Smokehouse Salted Caramels
Smokehouse Salted Caramels
Ingredients
- 1/2 Lb Chopped Bacon Enough to Make 2 Tbsp of Bacon Grease
- 2 Cups Sugar
- 3/4 Cup Light Corn Syrup
- 6 Tbsp Butter
- 1 Cup Heavy Cream
- 1 Cup Milk
- 1 tsp Smoked Salt
Instructions
- Cook the bacon in a frying pan. Remove the bacon from the pan when crispy. Don’t throw the bacon grease in the frying pan away. That will be one of the ingredients for the caramel.
- Butter a square 8x8x2 pan. Mix the heavy cream and milk together in a 2 cup measuring cup, and set aside. In a large sauce pan, mix the sugar, corn syrup, butter, 2 Tbsp of the bacon grease, smoked salt, and 1 cup of the cream and milk mixture. Bring to a boil on medium heat, stirring constantly.
- Once the mixture is boiling, add the rest of the cream and milk mixture. Constantly stir the mixture, and continue to cook on medium heat until it is approximately 232 degrees F (soft ball), on a candy thermometer. Remove the pan from the heat and dump the caramel mixture into the buttered 8x8x2 pan.
- Let cool at room temperature for approximately 3-4 hours. Cut into equal sized squares or rectangles, and sprinkle each piece with a small amount of smoked salt and/or bacon crumble. Enjoy!
Blog Post
This is one of those treats that doesn’t show up in any smokehouse I’ve ever been to, but I wouldn’t complain if it did. Most people out there really like caramel. I absolutely love the stuff. For some reason, salted caramel is even better. When I think of caramels, I think of a recipe I grew up eating every year around Christmas time. It’s an old recipe from an old cookbook that we make every year. Now that I have gone down the BBQ road, I felt like I needed to make some changes to the recipe that would make it my own. Why not make it smoky?
How do you make caramel smoky? That was the first question I had to ask myself. The answer actually ended up being really simple. Smoked salt. These caramels don’t have that much of a smoke taste to them, but it is enough to make it unique. The smoked salt gives off the perfect amount of smoke flavor, while also taking you on a journey down the salted caramel boulevard.
One of my favorite parts of the recipe, is the subtle addition of bacon. I don’t just throw bacon in the caramel, because in my opinion it adds too much of an odd texture. Instead, I add bacon grease. Cooking up a half pound of bacon leaves you with an awesome bacon crumble garnish, along with that smoky and salty grease.
This is a fun play on a recipe I grew up tasting, and I hope you all enjoy!