Deer House

The other day while teaching my puff pastry class, we made a caramel for the tarte tatin. Since I always write everything down in my head, I knew what I had put in and how much. We tasted the caramel that was left in the pan with my students and thought it was very similar to Werthers. But in fact, once they were covered in milk chocolate, I found that they totally tasted like deer! This caramel is perfect: rich in butter, it is crisp and crumbly. A very easy to make must! You can either make a large slab of caramel that you break into pieces and dip in good tempered milk chocolate, or you can make small round or rectangular molded caramels… 

Recipe for homemade ‘deer’:

-180g of sugar

-150g of soft butter

-1 teaspoon of salt

-200g of tempered milk chocolate (recipe HERE) for me: Ghana de Cacao Barry

Place sugar and salt in a saucepan.  Add   enough water to cover the sugar (soak it in) and be careful that there are no grains of sugar stuck to the wall of the pan, which could crystallize all the sugar once the temperature reaches 110°C. 

Mix well (this time there is normally no more sugar crystal!). 

Still over moderate heat, stir constantly to color the mass. 

The caramel is coming! It must have about this beautiful color: caramel amber not too strong. 

Place an oiled frame (around the edges) on a baking mat or prepare silicone moulds. 

Pour the caramel entirely for a frame of 21X21cm 

Or if you are making a thinner plate or making more caramel, you can also pour it into the indentations. 

Let the caramel cool to harden perfectly. 

Remove any imprints from the mould. 

Take them out with a fork. 

Scrape off excess chocolate from edge of bowl and place on parchment paper or guitar paper. 

The same goes for the caramel plate, which we will break into pieces. 

Allow to crystallize at room temperature then store in an airtight box like lock&lock. 

The homemade fallow deer have a long shelf life and are very crispy. Attention: if the caramel is visible, it must be put in an airtight box, otherwise it will liquefy with the ambient humidity!