Smoked Olive Oil Caramels with Chocolate & Pecans

SmokedOliveOilCaramel1
Hi again. It’s me, Emily, here, with a recipe that is probably mostly definitely going to make you want to tear your hair out in absurdly delicious confusion.

So, remember when I posted those spicy chocolate caramels the other day? (Yes, the day AFTER Valentine’s Day.) And then I promised a naughtier version would be forthcoming? Well, hunnayy, you would not imagine the emails I received after that post. People were really freaking curious!

It was all like:

– What do you mean by naughty?
– Are they shellac’d with some kind of latex-finish gloss?
– Caramel Room of Pain?
– Stuffed with foi gras and served impaled on a spiked collar?

Just kidding. Nobody cared at all — although, aren’t those all totally legit ways to naughtify a caramel? Especially that last one. Can you imagine it? Pinterest would be all over it. 50 Shades candies. Serve them on a spiked collar from the pet store and then force your guests to eat them when they’re not hungry. I found this collar on sale for $4 at Petco. Brilliant!

Wow.
That was an elaborate and likely confusing detour if ya’ll don’t read NYT best-selling Twilight fan fiction.

How about this instead: the actual naughty version of the chococaramels from Valentine’s The Day after Valentine’s Day, now featuring dark chocolate, uber smoky olive oil, roasted pecans and sea salt.

So hot right now.

SmokedOliveOilCaramel2Smoked Olive Oil Caramels with Chocolate & Pecans
By Emily Stoffel
Cook time: ~45 mins (plus chilling)
Makes: 25-30 caramels

Note: Sweet, smoky, salty — I won’t lie, this caramel tastes a bit like candied barbecue sauce, but in an ohhhhh so good way. We’re talking seriously sophisticated flavor that opens with a big punch of salty smoke before melting into golden, sugary goodness. Be sure to use a high-percentage dark chocolate for this. Any less and you’ll lose the flavor to the olive oil. (Enfuso Smoked Olive Oil can be purchased at www.enfuso.com.)

Ingredients:

Instructions

Combine condensed milk, olive oil and chocolate in a nonstick saucepan. Cook over low to med-low heat for 18-25 mins or until mixture is shiny and very thick, stirring constantly. (Time will depend on the heat of your stove and the size of your saucepan.) Pour into a shallow dish and cool to room temp for 15 minutes. Refrigerate until completely cooled.

Combine pecans and sea salt in a small food processor and pulse until nuts are finely ground but not pasty – about 10 times. Pour into small dish. With buttered hands, scoop rounded teaspoons of cooled mixture into balls and roll in pecan mixture, lightly pressing to adhere to caramel, if necessary. Set aside on parchment. Repeat with remaining mixture. Refrigerate until serving.

Birthday Eggplant (Simple Sicilian Eggplant Involtini)
Enfuso Smoked Olive Oils (Live, from my sofa, it's Saturday night!)

13 Comments on “Smoked Olive Oil Caramels with Chocolate & Pecans”

  1. Pingback: Smoked Olive Oil Caramels with Chocolate and Pecans | enFuso Recipes

  2. I actually want to pipe these into molded chocolates. I’ll have to get back to you when I try them out. This sounds great. 🙂 Thanks for sharing!

      1. Turned out pretty darn good! I couldn’t pipe them because of the thickness so I ended up not chilling them. At room temp I rolled them into little balls and pushed them into the chocolate molds (I used 72% dark). I salted the top of the interior of the molds (eek you can see a gap) cut it in half to show the insides.

        http://oi47.tinypic.com/30lj7a1.jpg

        Very good! Saltiness perfectly offset the sweetness of the caramel. Thanks again 🙂

        1. Wow, these look spectacular! I love that you’ve taken the caramel recipe to the next step by transforming it into such an elegant treat. I can only imagine how it tastes with a crunchy chocolate exterior. Thanks for trying it out and reporting what looks like a rather delicious success. 🙂

  3. Pingback: 10 Sticky Sweet Caramel Desserts | Yummly

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