Apple Cider Caramels

I love me some apple cider in the fall, but the smallest size it comes in is often a half gallon, and because there are only two of us in the house and we have taken to drinking less juice in recent years, sometimes I end up with a large amount of cider that I need to use up before it spoils.

look how shiny it is!

Enter apple cider caramels. I saw these on Smitten Kitchen earlier this year and loved everything about them, and I just so happened to have a bunch of apple cider to use up so I gave them a try!

Notes:

• Definitely make sure to get apple cider (the cloudy kind with sediment on the bottom that must stay cold) and not apple juice. Mine was pasteurized and worked just fine, but I think the fresh-from-the-farm stuff would taste even better. If it has to stay refrigerated, that's a good sign.
• I reduced the apple cider a few days before I actually made the caramels because I started without having all the ingredients to make it (whoops). The reduced apple cider keeps great in the refrigerator. It's thicker when it's cold but it easily loosens once you put it back on the heat.
• My candy thermometer does not have exact temperature markings when it gets to the different ball stages range (weird) so I cooked it to what was marked on my thermometer as "firm ball" stage, which I think is technically just under the 252 degrees F that the recipe tells you to cook it to and it turned out fine. I would probably even make them a tiny bit softer next time.
• My 8x8" pan of caramel ended up about 3/8 in thick, for an idea of how much it makes. I cut them smaller than the 1x1 inch that the recipe suggests. I cut my pan into 6 rows (~1.25 in wide) and cut those into about 1/2 inch pieces (13-15 pieces per row), making about 78-90 pieces total.

Verdict: Way easier to eat than a caramel apple for sure. The cinnamon coated salt bits mixed throughout were better than I imagined they'd be. The cinnamon + salt are the flavors that I associate with the crust of an apple pie. They are apple pie in caramel form. I would definitely make these again.

On a related note, I tasted the reduced apple cider all by itself and it tastes like the best apple candy, sour and very distinctly natural apple. I have heard of people using it instead of maple syrup for pancakes and/or waffles and I am excited by this idea.

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RECIPE: Apple Cider Caramels