Vegan Yetinips - aka pink himalayan salted caramels, recipe 7, Sorta fail!

what became of my fail

I thought of the Yeti today.   Why?  It's chillin out there!  I decided to work on the yetinips today because tomorrow I have a date with a beast.   (J/k I shouldn't call Christy a beast, should I?)  All joking aside - brave me will be at Kings Island tomorrow, screaming on The Beast with my Christy.  Just her and I, like old times.  Back when we shared an apartment we had seasons' passes and used to go at least twice a week.   Mind you, it did get old, but we shared alot of fun memories there - and even though it's going to be chilly tomorrow... I'm looking forward to spending time with her, being ridiculous.  :)

Pink Goodness!

So, back to the yetinips.

Early afternoon - and i get all of the ingredients together - including my favorite - yeti approved secret ingredient:   Pink Himalayan Salt!

So, I found out that using corn syrup in candy recipes help prevent sugar from crystallyzing.   Everybody seems to have such a dramatic issue with corn syrup.. heck, you've seen the commercials trying to convince us that 'sugar is sugar' blah blah blah.   Regardless, research further proves that many a vegan's friend 'agave nectar' serves equally as well as corn syrup for the glucose content - so instead of corn, I used agave.  So - this is unlike most candy - dairy AND corn syrup free!  :)

The whole concept was fairly easy.  But I had to be on top of it at every single turn.     One thing I didn't have (of which I really need) is a candy thermometer, and if I plan to make more candy I will invest in one of these fancy things.   I just used the 'eyeball' and 'time' test.   I'm hoping that my instincts to not fail me in this attempt.   But look at the golden vegan love boiling up in this pot!

salted caramel, boiling away!

So, quick as this went I let it do it's thing, then eyed it up and readied it straight into it's pan.   Right now it's chilling in my fridge getting ready for the end cap - the cutting, addition of the extra pink salt and the wrapping.

The waiting - it's the hardest part.  Yes Tom Petty, it is.  So, while I wait I plan to get an hour and a half of Kundalini under my belt... by then I'll be able to finish them and revisit this little blog.  
Til those caramels are ready - I'll be back.  Yogafied and ready to write more!

***Time Elapses***
Wow - my second fail in two weeks!  Well, ok we'll call this a sort of fail.  It COULD have worked..  I needed a candy thermometer.  Let this be a lesson.  I'm still going to hold on to this recipe because it can work.   And I'll try them again later on my own time.. because - - -
They're perfect for covering apples with.
This is what happened.  They were too soft to actually use as candy caramels.   I rolled them in balls, but they just kept flattening to something that looked like so: 

Perfect.. not for what I wanted them to do, but perfect for sauce, hard chocolate middles oozing out, coating apples - and the one thing that "I" just used it for - hot caramel apple cider.   Which is yummy!   So, it wasn't a complete fail.  I've saved those flattened balls so I can use them for my cider til they're gone.  Just about a spoonful is what they make.   I might even make some chocolate candy and put it in the middle when I have more time if I'm feeling frisky.  So, like I said - I'm keeping the recipe and trying again later when I get a thermometer so that they may turn out correctly.   Those of you who were hoping to get caramels - I 'owe' ya one!

Til next recipe.. i'm off to enjoy my 'wickedly awesome' caramel apple cider - and btw - the caramel is buttery, soft and so melty in your mouthy good I can't even explain. 
So, I'm still happy.
Hehe.



Music Enjoyed while cooking and writing this blog:
Goldfrapp - A&E
Bjork - Isobel
Bitter Sweet - Dirty Laundry
Ladytron- Ghosts
Goldfrapp - Ride a White Horse
Moby - Look Back In
Schiller - The Smile
Lady Gaga - Fashion
Shakira - She Wolf
Bitter Sweet - Trouble
A few episodes of Three's Company

Current Motivation:  Warming up this house!

Current Craving - Mac and Cheese