Artisan Caramels [Paperback] Sandy Arevalo [Paperback] Sandy Arevalo

Great book and easy to use.

The book uses a different technique than I'm used to, but it does make excellent caramels! The chocolate caramel recipe alone is worth the price--I took them to work and people were groaning in ecstasy! : ) They came out a bit softer than I'd like, so I think I would cook them to a few degrees higher than the recommended 248, but that's a minor complaint. I also think the cookie recipe she uses as base for some of the caramels is too greasy. I assume she uses melted butter to make them easier to pat into the pan, but I'll just use my standard shortbread recipe next time.It's also very easy to halve the recipes, if you don't want to spend the bajillion hours it takes to individually wrap the number of caramels from a full recipe. I got lazy with one batch and tried to just stack them on a plate--not a good idea, as they just "glued" themselves together.I don't quite understand the negative reviews, some of which make unwarranted claims. There's no need to "wash down the sides of the pan" in these recipes--that is done only with the "dry" method of making caramel. The whole process is also so straightforward, detailed instructions would be redundant.

I’ve made several of the caramel recipes from this book. All of them turned out wonderful. The only downside is that the recipes make a LOT, and I mean a LOT of caramels. Try the French Toast caramels. So yummy

For the price (at least the kindle version) this is a worthy addition to your candy making library. The pictures are beautiful and the instructions are clear. The recipes are big and yield a lot of candies so be prepared to scale down if you don't want so much.I was concerned that I'd have too much when I saw that she measures a jelly roll pan at 12.5 x 17.5 which is bigger than my pan which was labeled as a jelly roll pan. All of the Carmel fit though so if anything I may have thicker pieces.I would have liked to seen more info on general Carmel making procedures such as wet vs dry method and why the author chose her method which is the first time I've added the cream at the beginning. I also would have liked to seen some info on using her recipes to make a Carmel sauce.Overall I think it's worth the $6. As others have stated its more recipes than info but it does contain some good tips at the beginning. Just take the authors subtle advice and get a SAMs or Cosco membership to buy your cream and sugar as you'll need a lot and cream is expensive these days.

Excellent recipes. I have only one fault with this book. I am a novice at making caramels and the recipes are straight forward enough but when it comes to wrapping the caramels after they're made, that's a different story. She tells you that wrapping in cello will produce a longer lasting product but I think for a beginner it would have been nice if she had explained there are different types and what would be the best. I bought a roll of food grade cello that I had to cut myself and after painstakingly cutting the wrappers found that they would not twist making them virtually useless. I have since ordered some that the reviews say stay twisted very nicely. Make sure you do a little more research than I did.

Great book! Easy step by step instructions in the front of the book. I let the pan set overnight and cut them the next day. Easy to do. I ordered cello wrappers from caramelwrappers.com and they were perfect. I got the 5x5 squares. Affordable and quick shipping. I made the vanilla salted caramels so far....DELICIOUS. Everyone loves them. The only thing I did not like about the book are the recipes that add cookie/pie/etc texture to the caramels. I decorate cookies and just want to do flavored caramels. I gave it 5 stars anyway because I will still use the recipe provided and just skip the "crusts." Worth the purchase!

I have been making caramels for years. This book is not for the first-time caramel maker. The instructions are not detailed enough. The most important instruction that is missing is how to deal with sugar crystals during cooking. Every other recipe I have explains how to wash down the sides of the pans to remove sugar crystals so the caramels do not get grainy. Another important tip is that you should not scrape the pan when pouring out the caramels. Other books go into more detail about how to cook caramels successfully and what to do when things go wrong. Also, there is no information on how much each recipe yields. How many pounds or pieces do these recipes make? My guess is each recipe makes about 234 pieces. That's based on the size of a sheet pan and cutting each caramel into 1" squares. That's a lot of caramels. This book appears to be more of a listing of someone's recipes than an instruction book on making caramels. If you want to know how to make caramels, buy a different book. If you want a bunch of recipes with no real instructions, buy this book. I will be trying some of the recipes soon. However, I will be using the tried and true techniques I have learned from better books.I have read the book in more detail and found several ingredients that I have never heard of. They are various flavors of bakery emulsions. These appear to be flavorings. I looked them up on Amazon and was able to find the 4 used in the book. Three of them are about $6 for four liquid ounces and one was $7 for four ounces. From Lorann Oil website regarding emulsions: "Emulsions are ideal for baking and to flavor frosting, but are not appropriate for flavoring chocolate or hard candy due to their high water content; however, emulsions can be used to flavor candy centers."The other ingredient I had never heard of is raspberry jammy bits. This is available on Amazon from King Arthur's Flour for $8.95 + $6 shipping. It would have been nice to have these ingredients explained in the book.

Sandy Arevalo, I bow down to your greatness.What a fantastic book you've put together. If only more books were like yours: simple and exact.I managed to make, for the first time in my life, the most splendid, richly textured and firm caramels using your well laid out recipes, easily followed photos (I was able to remain confident and assured when the pot was boiling away).The only thing I would suggest for future editions would be to include a conversion chart to cater for your international readership. As a baker, I was able to do this but many would not be aware, for example, that an American cup and an Australian cup are not equivalent measurements. In addition, as a baker I cook by weight as many outside the US do so that conversion chart would make millions secretly love you and ardently sing your culinary praises.But I cannot fault your book. I love it.As such, I truly look forward to more books from you in the future.

Livro bem escrito. Receitas bem detalhadas. Inicia o interessado no mundo dos caramelos. Vai desde o básico ao gourmet, passando também pelo exótico.

Buenísimas recetas, todas deliciosas. Explicación es sencilla y los resultados son muy ricos.

Great recipes! The salted caramels & the cinnamon bun caramels are a big hit with my family & friends! I’m very happy with the purchase & highly recommend this book.

Delicious