kitchen_fu

I've been on something of a sugar binge, and nothing will do but for me to teach myself how to make the caramels I want. The first time I tried to make caramels, I used this recipe from 101Cookbooks, and they mostly came out okay-ish, but either due to the extremely high temperatures inside my apartment (that place was a sauna) or some other deficiency, they tended to melt at room temperature. My next try was these orange-scented caramels from the Craftzine blog, which came out like rocks. Hard sticky ones. My dad lost a crown to those suckers.

However, a little help from Google brought me to this recipe, from about.com of all places, and I have found my happy caramel place, where the caramels are perfect and wonderful (and don't need corn syrup).

Time: ~30 mins to make, ~2hrs or so to cool
Cheapness: not bad.
Difficulty: pay attention and be bold
Meal: dessert
Servings: not enough for your entire Christmas gift list, but enough for that small party you are going to.


( Recipe, with my modifications noted )

Time: 30mins, max
Cheapness: pretty cheap.
Difficulty: if you can squish things with your hands, you're set
Meal: dinner, leftovers if you don't eat the whole thing
Servings: ~ 4 medium-size pizza crusts.
Ingredients: basic grocery level yeast


( The best pizza you've ever had )

We're going to start this one off easy.

Difficulty Level: Easy-Peasy
Ingredients Level: Basic
Meal Level: Snack-ish
Time: 10 mins.

Ingredients:
Bread (I like the "fresh" Italian bread from Kroger)
Cheese (I like your basic block of cheddar, but you can mix it up)

Step 1: Slice bread to desired thickness (Skip if you have pre-sliced bread)

Step 2: Slice several pieces of cheese, pretty thin (think 1/8th inch or so).

Step 3: Put cheese slices on bread. Trim any that is hanging over the edge of the bread as it will drip and make a mess.

Step 4: Put cheese-covered bread on some sort of cookie sheet or pan under the broiler on your oven (on the highest rack possible) or in your toaster oven. Set to Broil or toast. Wait till cheese is nice and melty and bubbly, less than 5 mins.

Step 5: Carefully get it off the pan without burning yourself and EAT.