Has anyone tried caramels or chocolate recipes with coconut oil?

i have a recipe for caramels made with coconut oil that i'd like to try, and i was wondering if anyone has tried it?

I made a chocolate bar last week and the taste was good, but the chocolate melts at room temp, so I wanted to avoid this with the caramels. 

jen

I think your caramel would come out fine since the fat is just one component of the caramel. However, making chocolate with it is something else because the melting temp of coconut oil is about 20 degrees lower than chocolate. How did you make your chocolate bar?

To be honest, i'm making edible "herbal remedies" for my step mother, who is seriously ill. 

I had to steep the herbs in the coconut oil in order to infuse them into the final product. 

I used approx 1 T of infused coconut oil, and 12 oz of 70% dark chocolate, which, i actually melted and tempered in a mini crock pot. That worked very well.  I lined the mold with dried pineapple for more taste-texture. 

The result has good taste and texture when cold, but squishes completely at room temp.

I did not know (or even consider) the lower melting point for the coco oil. 

Thanks for the info. Onto caramels! 

:D

jen

Jen - you could also steep the herbs in cream and mix that with chocolate to form a ganache and use that as a filling for a mold lined with your tempered chocolate. Just thinking aloud...good luck with the caramels, I'd be interested to know how they come out.

RJ

hmmmmm the herb is fat soluble, so I'll have to see if the cream is enough fat, but it's totally worth a try!

#edited

i looked it up and heavy cream has more than twice the fat of coconut oil, so good call! i'mma do it!

The  caramels came out great. I only made one mistake, I scraped the sides while i was stirring and ended up with dark flecks in my candies. It doesn't change the flavor, just the appearance. I thought the idea was to keep cleaning the sides because the recipe said to stir constantly. Now I wonder if i should have just left it to boil.

thank you for the help!

jen

Good to know you can make them with the coconut oil!  Glad it worked out for you! 

Another great recipe for chocolates made with coconut oil is Peter Greweling's mint meltaways. Made with simply coconut oil and chocolate - I think you can probably google the recipe. 

Best of luck with your herbal candymaking!

RJ