Hello,
So I have made caramel sauce many times before and have had no troubles. But just recently I got the cook book Sugarbaby and wanted to try the caramel and vanilla cream fondant spirals recipe. Well I followed the recipe to a T and the caramel ended up rock hard!!!!

According to the recipe the way I understood it the caramel should have a soft chew, melt in your mouth consistency to match the soft fondant center.

Instructions said to cook the caramel mixture to 257 degrees, the mixture contained cream, corn syurp, and sugar.

So either my candy thermometer is off or the temp has to be lower at high altitude?

Any advise?

Any Ideas? Please?

Candy adjustments for 5000 ft:

Soft Ball (Fudge, Penuche, Fondant) 224-230 degrees
Firm Ball (Caramels) 232-238
Hard Ball (Divinity, Taffy, Caramel Corn) 240-258
Soft Crack (Butterscotch/English Toffee) 260-268
Hard Crack (Brittles) 290-300

HTH!

I use her caramel recipe. Read the introduction where she explains how to manipulate the outcome through temperature. Make sure your thermometer reads 212 at boiling. Adjust for altitude. Her recipe isn't really any different than most. That is one of my favorite books.

Actually, at high altitude we can't check that our thermometers read 212 at boiling, we need to see what our thermometer reads at boiling (usually around 198 where I live at about 6000 ft.) because it will vary depending how high above sea level you are; then adjust accordingly.

I didn't know that about high altitude. The good thing about caramel is that after making it a few times at different temps, if you keep notes, you can manipulate the flavor and consistency.

Thank you every one for your help. I really want her recipes to work because even though the texture was wrong the flavor was great

I did a little research and found exactly what Elcee said. So I did the boiling water test and mine boiled at about 195-200 area. So this fri I will try again.

Thank you for all your help