"Chocolate by brand" is the theme of Sugar High Friday, Volume 27, chosen by David Lebovitz, the chocolate patissier and host of the event himself. I chose chocolate honey caramels from Trish Deseine's book "Caramel".

The recipe asks for "good dark chocolate". Valrhona 70% would fit perfectly for that occasion. I normally buy this chocolate in quantaties of 250 g at my favourite pastry shop in Hamburg. If you asked them for it they would cut you the big bars from their own supplies as they use nothing else for their great truffles. I like Valrhona for its strong chocolate taste and its texture once melted.

The chocolate caramels seemed easy to prepare but Trish Deseine warns that they are not that easy to make. First you melt the sugar, then the chocolate - cut in little chunks - is added. Then you slowly add the skimmed milk, afterwards the butter (salted) and the honey. Until then everything was fine. But the next instruction is: Let it boil for about 10-15 minutes, stir well. The mixture started to form almost a ball and the butter (or the cocoa butter?) started to separate from the caramels. I stired madley but couldn't manage to incorporate the butter into the mixture. So the final caramals had little spots of butter or cocoa butter. Nevertheless I got lovely caramels: soft, not too sweet and melting on your tongue.

Here's the recipe:

========== REZKONV-Rezept - RezkonvSuite v1.2

Titel: Chocolate Honey Caramels
Kategorien: Sweet, Chocolate
Menge: 40 Portionen

15 Sugar cubes (100g)
250 Gramm Good dark chocolate
1 Glas Milk; skimmed
1 Essl. Butter; salted
1 Essl. Honey
Quelle: Trish Deseine "Caramel"

============================ QUELLE ============================
-- Erfasst *RK* 20.01.2007 von
-- Claudia Schmidt

Place the sugar cubes in a pan with a little water. Let the sugar
meld slowly. When it boils, add chocolate in small pieces. Stir well
to avoid scorching. Add milk, then butter and Honey. Let it boil for
about 10-15 minutes. When the mixture hardly drips off the spoon,
put it in a rectangular pan. Let it cool at least one hour before
cutting the caramel into small pieces.

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