Tips for Making the Best-Ever Batch of Caramel Popcorn

August may have just begun, but when you see school supplies fill the store aisles, you know fall is just around the corner.

There's something warm and comforting about caramel corn in the fall--but sticky, clumpy caramel corn is no fun at all! After reading this week's quick tip, you will never want to make caramel corn without this ingredient!

If your caramel corn sticks together and becomes difficult to separate, adding lecithin will help. Randy Hofberger of R&D Consultants advises mixing lecithin with a little oil and adding this mixture at the end of your caramel corn recipe. This will help the caramel spread apart easier and save you the hassle of manually pulling it apart. 

Allergy Alert! 

It is advised that individuals with soy allergies do not consume products that contain lecithin. Although lecithin is a byproduct of soy, there is always a chance soy protein will find its way into lecithin. Lecithin derived from sunflower or canola are more allergy-friendly alternatives to soy. 

Don’t cry over spilled lecithin.

Resist the urge to clean spilled lecithin with a damp cloth or spray cleaner, which will cause it to gum-up and make it worse. Instead, cover the spill with sugar and it will clean right up without a sweat.

New Flavor Inspiration

Once you’ve perfected your caramel popcorn recipe, consider experimenting with different flavors and ingredients to take your corn to the next level. Here’s some inspiration for the upcoming fall season.

Bourbon Caramel

Equally suited as a tailgate party snack or a jolly holiday treat, bourbon caramel corn will keep ‘em coming back for more.

Dulce de Leche

Dulce de leche is a South American delicacy made with slow-cooked milk and sugar. A natural fit for caramel corn, it offers a rich, creamy and more complex flavor for your caramel popcorn.

Pumpkin Spice

Is it even fall without pumpkin spice? We don’t think so!

In the past, Starbucks has released their pumpkin spice latte as early as the end of August. Get ready for the craze by introducing pumpkin spice caramel corn for this fall season.

Here’s to making your best batches of caramel corn ever and to a sweet fall season!

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Tips for Making Caramel Stick to Apples + Summer Inspiration

Have you ever experienced problems with caramel slipping off your caramel apples? The wax on your apple may be the culprit. By simply wiping each apple with a damp cloth prior to dipping, you can remove the waxy residue that rests on the apples.

An apple naturally produces a waxy film to protect itself, however, in some instances additional food-grade wax is added by suppliers to further increase an apple’s shelf life. For this reason, it could save you time and effort to request unwaxed apples from your supplier, if they do add wax to their apples.

If that doesn’t help, consider adding white compound to your caramel at a 5 to 1 ratio to help it better adhere to the apple.

If you can’t wait to test this out, here’s a few summer-inspired caramel apples ideas to try too!

Patriotic Caramel Apples
Show your patriotic stripes with drizzles of red and blue over a white chocolate coated caramel apple.

 

Zesty Coconut Caramel Apples
Think tropical by adding a generous helping of toasted coconut and a little lime zest to your caramel apples.

 

Wormy Caramel Apple
Turn shoppers heads with these fun, wormy caramel apples!

S’mores Caramel Apples
Transform your caramel apples into a s’mores lover’s dream by adding layers of graham crackers, marshmallows and drizzled chocolate. 

Was this tip helpful? If so, let us know in the comments below.

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Throwback Tip # 137: Tips for Making Caramel Stick to Apples

After recently wrapping up RCI’s second Caramels, Toffees & Brittles course, we want to share a favorite caramel apple tip.

Have you ever experienced problems with caramel slipping off your caramel apples? The wax on your apple may be the culprit. By simply wiping each apple with a damp cloth prior to dipping, you can remove the waxy residue that rests on the apples.

An apple naturally produces a waxy film to protect itself, however, in some instances additional food-grade wax is added by suppliers to further increase an apple’s shelf life. For this reason, it could save you time and effort to request unwaxed apples from your supplier, if they do add wax to their apples.

If that doesn’t help, consider adding white compound to your caramel at a 5 to 1 ratio to help it better adhere to the apple.

Caramel apple season is just around the corner, so we hope this quick and easy tip will help when making this customer favorite.

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Throwback Tip #133: 3 Ways to Extend the Shelf Life of Your Truffles

Today is National Truffle Day! Often considered the highest expression of a quality confection and often commands the highest price when purchasing, there’s no question why these little morsels are good cause for celebration.

A decadent truffle made with high-quality ingredients is a welcome surprise to chocolate lovers around the world, however, the surprise appearance of mold could ruin your sweet reputation. Keep reading for three ways to extend the shelf life of your truffles.

Reduce Water Activity

The high moisture of cream is often the cause of microbial growth in truffles. While cream arrives pasteurized, it is usually scalded to 190°F to ensure there’s no yeast and mold.

Reducing water activity will reduce the microbial growth and can be accomplished by:

• Replacing a portion of the cream with corn syrup
• Adding invertase (an enzyme derived from yeast)
• Increasing fat percentage
• Increasing chocolate solids

Use of Preservatives (including natural preservative options)

Preservatives can also control microbial growth. Potassium sorbate is one of the most effective options, however it is not usually considered natural. Natural preservatives might include cultured dextrose. Other preservatives can include reducing the pH of the ganache or the addition of alcohol. Legal and flavor considerations, however, must be addressed before using these methods.

Reduce Storage Temperature

A rule of thumb is that reducing the temperature by 18°F (10°C) will double the shelf life. Freezing truffles can substantially increase their shelf life, however, this must be done properly. Click here to view previous blog post on freezing truffles.

A truffle’s short shelf-life is a major challenge for many confectioners. With these tips from RCI’s Chocolate Boot Camp you can effectively extend the shelf-life of your truffles and avoid any unwanted surprises.

Get solutions to your problem candies from fellow confectioners and industry suppliers at RCI's Annual Convention & Industry Expo next month! Register online now and join us in Chicagoland June 12-16, 2017!

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Tip # 224: Troubleshooting: Hazy Chocolate Moulds

Are you a little hazy on what’s causing the buildup of a film on the surface of your chocolate moulds? You’re not alone. Learn what causes this common problem and get preventative tips on how to avoid it in this excerpt from RCI’s Mechanics of Chocolate Moulding course.

We all know the temperature of chocolate and, even, your workspace is important, but did you know the temperature of your moulds could also be affecting the quality of your chocolate?

Cold moulds can cause chocolate to stick to the surface of a mould because the chocolate has not had time to grow the proper crystals and shrink free of the surface. Moulds should be 75-80° F before coming into contact with chocolate. And, bonus, the solution to this problem is easy, because moulds within this temperature range will self clean. Repeated deposits will remove the buildup from the surface of the moulds.

Although cooking spray can work wonders for baking pans, never coat chocolate moulds with vegetable oil to prevent sticking. This may appear to help prevent buildup; but it will create early bloom on the surface of a moulded piece because of the incompatibility of the vegetable oil and the cocoa butter in chocolate. Compound coatings made with lauric fats, such as palm kernel oil, are even more susceptible to bloom than chocolate, if incompatible fats are mixed with them.

Now that you know your chocolate moulds like to be kept at a cozy 75-80° F, how do you check the temperature of a mould? An infrared thermometer "gun" will do the trick and can be found at any of your local home improvement stores. Click here to view best-selling infrared thermometers on Amazon. Prices range from $16 to $130.

Happy Moulding!

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Tip # 221: Caramel Cures: Avoid a Sticky Situation

Known for its characteristically smooth and chewy texture, caramel is one of the most popular and beloved candies. However, even caramel’s biggest fans are not willing to risk dental work for sticky caramel. If creating an unhappy customer isn’t enough, caramel that is too sticky can also lead to difficulties during the manufacturing process, thus creating a very sticky situation.

Below we’ve identified the top seven common causes for sticky caramels and possible solutions, presented at RCI's Caramels, Toffees & Brittles course.

1. Not enough fat – Increase the percentage of fat and/or the amount of milk being used in the recipe. A minimum of 8% fat is recommended when making caramels. 

2. Excessive inversion – Inversion occurs when sucrose (a disaccharide) is broken down into glucose and fructose. This can be caused by extended cooking times (especially under acidic conditions) and the use of the enzyme invertase. Increasing reducing sugars will add to the flavor and color of caramel – but too much can cause excessive stickiness.
   
   Check the pH of premix, water and other ingredients, including scrap, to identify excessive inversion as the problem. Caramel premix should have a neutral pH (6.8-7.0). 

Two possible solutions for adjusting pH levels:

a)     Add low-pH flavors at the end of cook sequence or use buffered flavors.

b)    Increase premix pH with the addition of basic salts, such as sodium bicarbonate, sodium citrate (both considered natural and should be approximately 0.1% of batch)

3. Not enough milk – A minimum of 3.7% milk protein solids or higher is recommended

4. Low cooking temperature – Increasing the final cooking temperature slightly will produce caramel with a harder texture. Even one or two degrees can make a significant difference. Additionally, do not allow the moisture from the cooking process to drain back into the kettle.

5. Too much corn syrup – Too much corn syrup can create a tender caramel, but also lead to stickiness and lack of body. Adjust the ratio of sugar to corn syrup (reduce the corn syrup or dextrose equivalent of corn syrup)

6. Too much humidity – An overly humid environment can make caramel sticky and create a less than desirable layer of scum on its surface. Too avoid exposure to excessive humidity, pack and store cooked caramel away from steam kettles and in an area with a relative humidity of 40-50%.

7. Lack of emulsifiers – The addition of mono and diglycerides (generally 1-1.25%) will produce caramel that is less sticky.

Great caramel doesn’t happen by accident. With all the factors that play into the science of making caramel, even one or two degrees, for example, can mean the difference between coveted caramels and a sticky mess.

Make your customers stick, but not your caramels! Registration for RCI’s Caramels, Toffees & Brittles course opens tomorrow, February 15. This three-day intensive course is designed to help candy makers (RCI members and non-members) understand the science behind recipe formulations and learn troubleshooting techniques for caramels, toffees and brittles. Participants will gain hands-on experience in the kitchen making variations of these coveted confections for several different applications.

Visit retailconfectioners.org/caramels for more information and to register for the course, starting February 15. Note: This course is limited to the first 24 registrants and is expected to sell out quickly.

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Tip # 217: Get the Crunch Without the Cracks

Randy Hofberger of R&D Candy Consultants, LLC, is an active member of RCI and the lead instructor for RCI’s Chocolate Boot Camp^®. This week’s post is an excerpt from his article “Crunch Without the Cracks,” which offers eight tips to reduce cracking in chocolate-covered pretzels, cookies and crackers.

Texture is so very important in our foods and is a large part of the eating experience. Many of our most popular confections have a crunchy texture and using baked goods such as cookies, crackers and pretzels is one way to provide this. When coated with chocolate, however, there is a chance the finished product will crack, making it less appealing to consumers.

What cause these fissures to develop? While it may seem that there are little micro earthquakes occurring on your pretzels or gremlins attacking the chocolate-covered cookies, one of the main culprits can be moisture entering these dry baked goods and causing them to expand. To prevent moisture from coming in contact with the finished product, one of the most obvious solutions is to use packaging with a good moisture barrier. While this will solve many of the cracking problems, there are other factors that can cause cracking. Also, this will not help any of your products that are open to the atmosphere in your display cabinets.

Other suggestions to reduce cracking in chocolate covered pretzels, cookies and crackers include the following:

1. Have a uniform coating. Unequal coverage will cause different contraction rates and, thus, cracking.
2. Thicker coating is a stronger coating and a better moisture barrier. Coverage should be complete without pin holes, air bubbles or thin spots.
3. Using a chocolate formulated to be softer will be less prone to cracking.
4. Enrobed baked goods will generally have less of a heat load and will require a gentler (less) cooling.  Good cooling tunnel conditions will have little or no air movement at the tunnel entrance and a temperature of approximately 65ºF.  Air velocity may be gradually increased to about 700 CFM until the chocolate is set – at which time velocity may be increased to 1200 CFM. Coldest tunnel temperatures exceed the low 50sºF. Total tunnel time should be a minimum of eight minutes, but 12 minutes is better.
   If your operation requires you to maintain consistent tunnel settings because of various product mixes, increasing the tunnel belt speed will give less total cooling and more line production. 
5. Enrober/tunnel/feeding area relative humidity should not exceed 55%.
6. Pieces to be enrobed should be room temperature or warmer (up to 78ºF).
7. Pretzel and cookie packages can be opened the evening prior to enrobing. This will help them equilibrate to the atmospheric conditions.
8. Rough-surfaced centers reduce cracking and the loss of the chocolate shell, e.g., salted pretzels are better than unsalted pretzels.

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The Best of 2016: Top 5 Tips of the Week

We've curated the most-read tips from 2016, to pinpoint topics that are most important to candy makers. 

From troubleshooting tips to sky-high merchandising inspiration, plus a customer service must-read, the following posts deliver quick and easily executed tips to simply the lives of confectioners, like you!

#5: Stop Sea Salt Caramels from Sweating

Suffer from sweaty sea salt caramels? Take tips from fellow candy makers and RCI members on how to avoid this common problem.

#4: Take Merchandising to New Heights

Get step-by-step instructions for creating this eye-catching truffle tree.

RCI MEMBER BONUS: Click here to login to RCI’s member site and snag three variations of ganache recipes on page 9 of RCI’s Kettle Talk magazine.

#3: Coat Marshmallows in Dextrose 

Nobody likes hard, dried-out marshmallows! Keep your ‘mallows soft and pillowy all year long with this popular tip of the week.

#2: Remind Employees of the Value of Customer Service 

An oldie, but a goodie, this throwback from 2012 covers four customer service basics that are too important not to review with your team on a regular basis.

 #1: Say “Buh-Bye” to Chocolate Bloom

Bloom is easily identified as one of the most common problems facing candy makers. No surprise, this post tops the list with common causes of chocolate bloom, as well as simple solutions.

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Tip #190: Don’t Sweat It! Stop Sea Salt Caramels from Sweating

Suffer from sweaty sea salt caramels? Take tips from fellow candy makers and RCI members on how to avoid this common problem, as discussed through RCI’s member forum, List Serve.

“We are looking for a high-quality sea salt for our caramels. We experience problems when storing salted caramels in our cool room (50 degrees – 50% humidity). The sea salt seems to sweat or become clear on the caramel when stored.” - M. Mootz, Michael Mootz Candies, Inc.

“We do not store our sea salt caramels at a reduced temperature due to similar issues, we store [sea salt caramels] at factory room temperature.” – T. Hicklin, Candy House Gourmet

“Some salts are harder than others. Pink Himalayan sea salt is harder and more dense. It is less likely to absorb moisture.” – R. Hofberger, (retired)

“I would recommend dehumidifying to at least 40%. If that can’t be done, shrink wrap the boxes/cases. Completely enclose the product and then store. It works very well.” – Marty Lyp, Peterbrooke Chocolatier

If you’re a member of RCI and you would like to get in on the conversation, click here to subscribe to List Serve. Not a member? Click here to learn how RCI can help you build your sweet business. 

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