This is taken pretty much verbatim from an Alton Brown Recipe. I’ve played with some different stuff, but really the only difference is the amount of soy sauce I use. Also, I dip mine in chocolate before I sprinkle salt on top.
Ingredients
14 1/2 ounces sugar (~2 cups)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup heavy cream, room temperature
1.5 teaspoons soy sauce
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces, at room temperature
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
Directions
- Line the bottom and sides of an 8-inch square pan with parchment paper.
- Combine the sugar, water, corn syrup, and cream of tartar in a heavy 4-quart saucepan and put over high heat. Stir occasionally until the sugar has dissolved. Cover and continue to cook for 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, combine the heavy cream and soy sauce in a liquid measuring cup. Have this and the butter standing by.
- Remove the lid from the sugar mixture, and attach a candy thermometer to the side of the pan. When the sugar mixture reaches 230 degrees F, reduce the heat to medium and cook, without stirring, until the syrup is a golden color and is approaching 300 degrees F, about 6 to 7 minutes. At this point, there is less likelihood of any crystallization, so gently swirl the pan to break up any hot pockets.
- When the temperature approaches 350 degrees F, it will turn deep amber. Remove the pan from the heat, and gently swirl again to break up all of the hot pockets. Cool for 2 minutes.
- Carefully incorporate the cream and soy mixture and the butter into the pan. Stir to combine. Return the caramel to medium heat, stir until the butter is completely melted, and continue cooking until it reaches 255 degrees F. Remove from the heat and pour into the parchment-lined pan, tap gently to release air bubbles.
- Cool on a cooling rack for a couple of hours and then cut into 1-inch pieces ( I use a pizza cutter).
- Now you can dip them in chocolate! Here are some good resources on tempering chocolate.
The quick version:
- Bring the chocolate to 114-118 degrees Fahrenheit (46-48 C) for dark chocolate or 105-113 degrees Fahrenheit (40-45 C) for milk chocolate , or 100-110 degrees Fahrenheit (37-43 C) for white chocolate.
- Seed the remaining chocolate and cool to 88-89 F (31 C) for dark chocolate or 84-86 F (29-30 C) for milk or white chocolate
