Old Fashioned Caramels

These Pennsylvania-style chocolate caramels are the real deal: brown sugar, molasses, and unsweetened chocolate boiled together until they hit soft ball stage, then poured into a pan with nuts and cut into chewy squares.

The molasses adds depth that plain sugar can’t touch. Combined with brown sugar, it gives the caramels a dark, complex flavor with bitter and sweet notes playing off the unsweetened chocolate. This isn’t candy-counter chocolate caramel. It’s something richer and more interesting.

The soft ball test is your only doneness check. Drop a small spoonful of the boiling mixture into cold water. If it forms a soft, pliable ball you can flatten between your fingers, it’s ready. Too soft and the caramels won’t hold their shape. Too firm and they’ll be hard as rocks.

Stir constantly once the chocolate goes in. Chocolate sinks and burns on the bottom of the pan if you let it sit, and burned chocolate tastes bitter and acrid.

Chef Tips

• Use a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Thin pans create hot spots that scorch the sugar before it reaches the right temperature.
• If you have a candy thermometer, soft ball stage is 235-240°F (113-116°C). But the cold water test works just as well.
• Grease the pan generously. Caramel bonds to ungreased metal like glue.
• Cut the squares when the caramel is still slightly warm and pliable. Fully cooled caramel cracks and crumbles under a knife.

Variations

• Sea salt caramels: Sprinkle flaky sea salt over the top before the caramel fully sets.
• Espresso: Dissolve a tablespoon of instant espresso into the milk before adding for a mocha caramel.
• Vanilla bean: Split a vanilla bean and scrape the seeds into the mixture instead of using extract.