Caramels made with dry ice hash

[Ichabod Crane]

Every year at this time I make caramels. Everyone seems to like them and wants to know how to make them. So here is how I do it with dry ice hash.

The first thing you will need to get is the cleaned dry ice hash. What I mean is that the leaf should be cleaned out of it. This is fairly easy and I created a thread on how to do it. I am posting a link to it here so you can see what I mean by cleaned dry ice hash.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?p=8142074#post8142074

I use 5 grams of that but you should decide what you think is good for you. We will be making 98 caramels. You can use any other stuff to make this like bubble or BHO but it should be free of leaf material for the best results. I have made these with bubble but any leaf will make the caramels texture a little gritty to really gritty.

To start you need to gather your supplies. Here is what tools you will need to make them.

Candy thermometer
Butter knife
Large knife
Wooden spoon
Spoon rest
Greased 9x13 glass pan
Cutting board
Measuring cup
Heavy bottomed pan with lid at least 3 quarts
Handy Wacks hamburger patty paper
Latex gloves
Hot pad



Next you need the stuff to make the caramels with

1.5 sticks butter
2 cups sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
5 grams dry ice hash

 

[Ichabod Crane]

Now to get started.

Place your pan on the stove and put the butter into it. Keep the heat low. Once the butter has melted about half way put the hash into it.



Stir the hash in while the butter is melting. Use your spoon to break down any chunks of hash. When the butter has melted and the hash is broken up so there are almost no pieces add 1 cup of the heavy whipping cream and stir it up. Remember the heat needs to stay on low so you do not burn the cream and butter.

After mixing the cream, butter, and hash add the 2 cups of sugar, 1/4 tsp salt, and the corn syrup. Mix this all together gently. Be careful not to get any sugar stuck to the side of the pan. This will make crystals in you caramels when they set up.

Once mixed up it will look like this.



Now you need to set the flame on your stove. If you have a electric stove sorry sell something and get a good stove. You want to keep the stove on medium low. If it is to hot the butter will separate a leave oil on your caramels at the end. Plus you want to make sure you have enough time to activate the hash.

Here is the flame size I use with my big pan.



When it first starts to boil it should look like this.




After it gets going it will look like the next picture. Notice in the above picture the ingredients on the side of the pan. They got there when I stirred the stuff up. In the next picture you can see that the bubbling has raised the top up over this stuff. Do not stir this mix up very much or try to clean the pan sides unless you want gritty texture in your caramels.



Notice I have placed my candy thermometer on the side of the pan. It should be pushed all the way to the bottom of the pan then pulled back up about a half inch off the bottom.

 

[Ichabod Crane]

Now while this is cooking you have to prepare your greased pan. It needs to be put on some thing that can take heat. I place mine on a pot holder. When you put the caramels into this pan they will be 245 degrees.



Now when your mix has reached about 210 degrees put the lid on it for about 2 minutes. You want the steam to pool on the top and run down the lid like this.



What this is doing in washing any stray sugar crystal down the side of the pan. Hopefully this will help stop crystals from forming in your caramels later.

After about a half hour your temp should be at or close to 238 degrees. At 238 degrees you add the other cup of cream. Be careful when adding it to the hot pan because it can bubble and spit onto your hand and burn you. Try not to get this onto the pan sides. Quickly stir this into the mix before it gets scorched.

After adding the cream your pan will stop boiling and look like this.



Let this come back to a boil. It will take about another half hour and your batch should be starting to get that caramel color. When it does look like this you are close to done cooking.

 

[Ichabod Crane]

After about a half hour we are reaching 245 degrees. At 245 degrees turn off the heat and add you vanilla extract. Again be very careful as this will bubble and spit and you could get burned. Stir this in quickly and dump the mix into the greased pan.



It will be all bubbly and rough but dont worry it will flatten itself out quickly. When you dump it into the greased pan do not scrap the side of your heavy bottomed pan. Thats right you guessed it. It could cause crystals to form.

After a short time it will flatten out and may have a little oil on the top. If you greased your pan to much or cooked it to fast this is where it came from. If you look closely to the left of bottom center I have a little in mine. It is no big deal just let it harden up and clean it off. It will float to the top and be easy to get off.



Now just let the pan cool to room temp on the counter.

 

[gaiusmarius]

wow cool, thanks for sharing this, gonn have to try it out,

 

[Ichabod Crane]

After the caramel has cooled it is time to cut it up. But first we need to get it out of the pan. It will most likely need to be pried out. Use the butter knife along the edges to break it free from the pan.

I rushed getting mine free and it chipped a little. If you go slow it usually does not crack or chip.

Once I have it out of the pan I place it onto a cutting board or sheet. I place it upside down on the chips. This will fuse the chips back in.

I like to cut mine into 98 pieces. To do this I cut the long side into 3rds.



This is very important. Go slow when cutting and keep your fingers back from the blade. If you go to quick the caramel could snap instead of cut. Dont have a finger under the knife when doing this. If your caramel will not cut you cooked it to hot and instead should pull it out at a degree or to less next time to make them softer. If it is real gooey you did not get it hot enough and should add a degree or two next time.

Now i cut that third in half and the halve the those halves. This will give you 12 strips from the long side.

The shorter side of the pan should be cut in half. and then the halves in half and then one more time in half. This will give you eight strips after cutting 7 times on the short side for a total of 98 pieces which are just slightly bigger than 1 inch by 1 inch.





Notice in the above picture 2 pieces are missing. This is because I cut to fast and the caramel snapped and those pieces fell on the floor. That is $10 worth of caramel at the dispensary. So go slow.

Notice in the above picture some pieces cracked even though I was going slow. This is no big deal. Just squeeze them together and they will fuse back together.

 

[Ichabod Crane]

Sorry about the blurry pictures. I was trying to take them with gloves on.

Now it is time to wrap the candies up. I like the Handy Wacks because they are already cut up and cheap. I get them at a local restaurant supply store called Gordons for $5.78. There are 1,000 papers in each box and the papers are 5.75 x 5.75 inches.

I just put a caramel onto a sheet roll it up and twist the ends.



Some times you will get a sharp edge that will tear the paper when rolled up like this.



If that happens just press that sharp edge into the cutting board and it will be pressed back into the caramel and smoothed out.



Like mentioned before if these are to hard drop your final temp a degree or two. If they are to soft add a degree or 2.

It takes me about a hour and 15 minutes to make a batch and about 10 to 15 minutes to wrap one.

I would store these in the fridge till you want them. Leave them out for a little bit to soften. If you want them softer hold them in your hand for a few minutes before eating.

Make some with out hash to test your temps and because they taste great and you will want to eat several. And if you do your house will have no food when you do wake up.

 

[Aspenou812]

Wow Itchy thats awesome.... thanks they look fantastic...

 

[tea_is_back]

i tried this a half year ago with iso oil but i only got caramell spread ...still yummy but not what i wanted
thanks for sharing ichabod

 

[Ichabod Crane]

Wow Itchy thats awesome.... thanks they look fantastic...

Wait till you try them. They taste so damn good. You will want to make them with out the hash so you are not a drooling stupid mess from eating to many.

 

[MrBungle]

If you have a electric stove sorry sell something and get a good stove.

Best quote of the tutorial

Good tutorial.

 

[GoldenPot]

That sounds interesting. How do you think, can I do the same with Skywalker?

 

[Ichabod Crane]

That sounds interesting. How do you think, can I do the same with Skywalker?

You can do it with what ever strain you want.