Making crazy caramel!

[distiller_dresden]

So I've been experimenting with making new and unique types of caramel for my rums. First I tried just a 50/50 white sugar and coconut sugar caramel and let it really brown up but not burn, I had to do a second batch because the first one got away from me, in a matter of seconds really.

This came out REALLY complex and nutty and has a deep flavor, it's really fantastic.

Next I thought I'd go NUTS and I combined equal parts panela, white sugar, maple sugar, and coconut sugar - this one I was used to how the coconut looked when it browns, and it was a little lighter to start with because of the panela (brown, but lighter than coconut, about like dark brown sugar) and the maple (like light brown sugar colored). I never had a 'full bodied' caramel, but here we go, this stuff is great caramel. I think I might make another batch and cook it a few seconds longer to get it just a bit darker/caramelized, but it's really good, I want it on ice cream, it's almost malty which I think is the maple and the panela combination of flavors with the white and coconut combination nutty flavor.

Tomorrow I think I'll ditch 'white' sugar and use some zulka, turbinado, panela, maple, coconut, and make the zulka one part, turbinado/panela another, maple another but punch it up another 25% from the other parts because it's less dense, and then the coconut, plus punch it up 25% because really like the toasty nuttiness it takes on when it's caramelized.

I'm gonna keep experimenting and hope to hit on a 'perfect' combination for a caramel for adding to most of my standard rums. That's aside from my 'project' rums, like my maple run, which I'm going to caramelize just maple sugar for that one.

Anybody else have caramel experiments??

[fizzix]

I've used coconut sugar with a little water maillardized in a Teflon pan to make some crunchy brittle.
It breaks up real easy after cooling, and a piece will dissolve in the rum over a few hours.
Over did the first jar, and had to "dilute" with more rum. It was a novelty, but not sure I like it enough to do ALL my rum.

[distiller_dresden]

This made a really complex subtle caramel flavor in my rum when I backsweetened with it.

Anyone going this route or using coconut sugar - I recommend doing a 'wet' caramel and cooking the water out. Reason is to FIRST make a simple syrup with your coconut sugar, then nuke it just until it bubbles, and then run it through a funnel with some cheesecloth wadded in the bottom. There's a lot of particulate in coconut sugar; do this then add your other sugars (if you're making 'crazy caramel') since it's already 'wet' and cook that down until the water evaporates and your begin to caramelize the sugars.

My caramel turned out fantastic though; final recipe was zulka organic cane, panela, maple sugar (could also use syrup, just need to cook out water as in a 'wet' caramel -- but got maple sugar on Amazon very good product), turbinado, and some palm sugar I picked a couple discs up at the Asian grocery very cheap. Equal parts of each (if using maple syrup, perhaps use 1.5x the grams --kitchen scale!-- due to the water content weight) and once the water evaporated it caramelized quickly. Made a fantastic complex caramel though, was perfect for rum coloring and backsweet'nin'.