How to Make Chocolate Dipped Caramels

One of my lovely readers, Azara, commented on this week's Listicles post:

"Chocolate covered caramels sound like a great treat to make at home. Are they hard to do? I'm not very domestic but they sound like fun."

Clearly not a food photographer...

I started to type out the recipe in my reply to her comment & then realized that it might make a good post unto itself. I'm not very domestic, either, Azara (just ask my husband) but I do like making sweet stuff. This little project was easier than I thought it would be--from unwrapping the chocolates (I admit I had an assistant with that) to dipping part, I think it took less than 15 minutes.

Ingredients

• Some chocolate chips (I used a cup or two of Cote d'Azur Belgian Semisweet)
• Maybe two dozen caramels (I raided the bag I bought for trick-or-treaters. We get less than five kids, usually)

*Unless I'm doing something that requires leavening, I never measure. Even then...

Procedure (that makes it sound official, right?)

1. Unwrap the caramels you bought & try not to eat too many. (I guess you could make them, but that's more work than I'm willing to do)
2. Melt some chocolate chips in the microwave by heating them for 20 seconds at a time & stirring in between each time until melted. If you just put them in for a few minutes straight, you may burn the chocolate in the middle.
3. Use chopsticks or a skewer to pick up/stab each caramel & dip/squish it around it in the chocolate. (Bet you never heard a candy recipe that used the terms squish & stab)
4. Put the caramels on some foil, parchment, waxed paper or a non-stick pan.
5. Distract yourself until they're cooled & ready to eat.

I didn't bother with tempering the chocolate. I hear that it's some mysterious process involving double-boilers, marble & careful temperature calculations. Meh. Some of my chocolates have a whitish cast to them (wax bloom or something?) but most didn't & all of them taste great!

I'm tempted to try it with nuts instead of caramels next time. Also, you could make these really fancy by sprinkling chopped nuts or coconut or something on top before the chocolate sets. Maybe even give them as gifts for the holidays? (Ha! They'll all get eaten first!)

I may never have reason to buy boxed chocolates ever again. I may also need to add another fitness class to the week to make up for this dangerous new hobby.