Dark chocolate covered Fleur de Sel Caramels

I have been making this recipe for years now.  I love giving them as gifts or just having a small pile on a pretty dish in my kitchen makes me happy!  You can make the caramels without the chocolate as well, but I prefer them covered in dark chocolate with a little crunchy sprinkle of good flaky sea salt. 


Fleur de Sel Caramels:
1 cup heavy cream
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tsp fleur de sel
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup water

Line the bottom and sides of a square baking pan w/ parchment.  I use a 9" square pan. 

Bring cream, butter and fleur de sel to boil in a small saucepan then remove from the head and set aside.  Boil sugar, corn syrup and water in a saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved.  Boil without stirring but gently swirling the pan until the mixture is a golden caramel color.  Stir in the cream mixture (note: it is going to bubble up alot, that is normal) and simmer, stirring until the caramel reaches 142 degrees Farenheit.  It is very important to watch this termperature...if you let the caramel get hotter than around 142 you will end up with hard brittle.  Pour the caramel into the square baking pan and let it sit for 2 hours.

After the caramel has cooled completely, cut the caramel into squares (the size is up to you).  I use this pastry cutter to cut the caramel but a sharp knife should do the trick as well.

                                       
Now you need to temper a bowl of chocolate for dipping.  I use a pound of dark chocolate disks (at least 65% cocoa) but these would be delicious with milk chocolate as well.  My favorite chocolate is Guittard which happens to be a bay area company making me love it even more!  Before you begin, you will  need to find a glass bowl to melt the chocolate in, which is able to rest on one of your saucepans, without fully submerging it.  You also need a thermometer. You will also want to set up an ice bath to place the glass bowl in while you are cooling the chocolate down. 

Place 3/4 of the chocolate into a glass bowl that is sitting over a pot of simmering water (this is called a double-boiler or "bain-marie").  Melt the chocolate watching the temperature closely until it reaches 118 degrees (for dark) or 112 degrees (for milk).  Immediately remove the glass bowl from the heat and place over the ice bath.  Dump in the remaining 1/4 chocolate at this point.  Continue to stir the chocoolate until the temperature has dropped to 95 degrees (dark) or 87 degrees (milk).  Now it is time to dip the caramels!  Keep an eye on the temperature, if it drops below 87 degrees (dark) or 84 degrees (milk), the chocolate is out of temper and should be re-warmed over the double-boiler.  I like to use this digital spatula thermometer because it makes it easy to stir and watch the temperature with one utensil.

Use a couple of forks to dip the caramels in the chocolate, one at a time. Placing them on a piece of parchment or a silpat sheet.  After letting them sit for a couple of minutes, sprinkle a little fleur de sel on each chocolate.  I am not going to lie, this is a messy task.  Myself and my kitchen usually ends up absolutely covered in chocolate from the dipping.  An apron and a couple of wet towels are great to have on hand during this!

The finished product!