I'm gifting homemade flour de sel caramels to my Valentines this year. My favorite caramel recipe is Ina Garten's, which you can find here. I have a few tips, which I'll share at the end of this post, to help ensure success when making them. They truly are melt in your mouth deliciousness!
I use clear cello papers to wrap my caramels. In the past, I've used unbleached parchment paper because I loved the look. However, the caramels would sometime stick to the parchment paper and they never stick to the cello wrappers. Plus, the cello wrappers arrive pre-cut, unlike the unbleached parchment. I purchased mine from this shop on Etsy.
Deciding on gift packaging is the time to let your creativity take over. I chose Weck jars for their simple, yet practical design. An added benefit is your gift recipient can reuse them. They are readily available online and you save when purchasing them by the case (usually 6 jars). I attached my own label with double sided tape. By the way, if you don't own a Scotch ATG Advanced Tape Glider Gun, treat yourself to one. I use mine for so many different things, attaching labels being one of them.
I nestled the jars into boxes filled with green moss, although tissue or shredded paper would be a wonderful alternative. The napkins are from our Liberty of London line, and are available in my shop.
The last touch was to attach the Valentine tags I made earlier and tie up the box with some pretty silk ribbon. (Both the velvet and silk ribbon are also available in my shop.)
A few helpful hints.... I purchased this ChefAlarm temperature probe last fall and I love it! I highly recommend it if you enjoy making candy. It makes everything less daunting and I find it much more accurate than the typical mercury candy thermometer. It's great for many other uses, but I also use it as an oven thermometer. I believe they are only available directly from ThermoWorks. Also, I'm a huge fan of using a kitchen scale and measuring everything in grams. I make notes on most of my baking recipes with the gram conversion. It truly is much easier by adding ingredients directly to your bowl or pan, and also easier when doubling recipes. There are many great scales out there, but be sure to choose one that has the gram conversion and one with a tare option - the ability to deduct the weight of the bowl to allow for measuring individual ingredients in the same bowl. I also prefer one with a digital reading, instead of a fraction. My scale is by Salter.
To my new readers, my blog has always been ad and sponsor free so any recommendations you see here are strictly because I love the product, and or recipe, and wish to share them with you. I hope you all have a sweet Valentine's day surrounded by those you love. Let me know if you try the caramels.
