Lightly grease a 20cm square cake tin with butter and line with baking paper.
Place all ingredients in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan.
Cook on high heat, stirring occasionally until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture comes to a boil. This will take about 4 minutes on medium-high to high heat.
Reduce heat to medium and insert a candy thermometer in the caramel mixture. Cook without stirring for approximately 9-12 minutes or until the temperature reaches 121°C (250°F).
Remove the pan from heat. Remove the thermometer from the pan. Allow caramel mixture to cool slightly for 3-4 minutes. Carefully pour the hot caramel into the lined tin.
Set aside to cool and set for 8 hours or overnight.
Lift the caramel out of the tin and onto a cutting board using the edges of the baking paper. Using a long (20cm) shark knife, cut the caramel into square or rectangle pieces of desired size (1-inch squares are the perfect size for popping in the mouth). This recipe yields approximately 56 pieces (7 rows, each cut into 8 squares).
Cut 56 pieces of baking paper, each 12cm X 12cm in size.
Wrap each caramel in baking paper and twist the ends to form a toffee.
Notes
Double Cream – Double cream is cream with a high fat content (45%-48%). It is also called heavy cream or double thick cream and is easily available in supermarkets. It can be substituted with thickened cream which has a slightly less fat content (35%). This substitution results in a darker coloured caramel.Golden Syrup – Golden syrup, also known as light treacle in the U.K., is inverted sugar syrup, made by either refining sugar or by adding acid to a sugar-water solution. It has a beautiful amber colour and a texture similar to honey. It can be substituted with corn syrup in same quantities even though it is lighter than golden syrup. Dark corn syrup will yield a darker caramel.Butter – I use salted butter to give the caramel a beautiful depth of flavour. You can use unsalted butter and optionally add sea salt flakes on top of the cooled set caramel before slicing.Caramel Temperature – On medium to medium-high heat, - Caramel reaches Soft ball stage at 6 minutes (115°C / 240°F) - Caramel reaches Firm Ball stage at 11 minutes (121°C / 250°F) - Caramel reaches Hard Ball stage at 14 minutes (124°C/ 255°F) For this recipe, I cook my caramel till it just hits 121°C / 250°FTopping & Flavour Variations - Add a tablespoon of whiskey/rum/orange liqueur/brandy/hazelnut liqueur after cooking during the cooling stage. Mix and then pour in the tin to set.- After the caramel has set in the tin for an hour, add nuts like salted peanuts, pistachios, candied or plain pecans to the top. Follow this if you only want a light topping of nuts.- If adding more nuts (half a cup or one cup), add them just after cooking. Mix well and then pour the nut studded caramel into the tin.- Sea salt flakes can be added on top after the caramels have set for 8 hours.Sugar Content - I have successfully created another version of this caramel that uses less sugar. Just halve the golden syrup to half a cup and follow the recipe exactly for a lower-sugar version.