Chewy caramel cubes coated with dark chocolate. Sounds simple? The caramel may be, but learning how to temper chocolate properly in order to get stable, nice-looking candy, is more difficult than it seems! So much so, that I've devoted an entire post just to chocolate tempering.

The chocolate I used here is called couverture, which is a special kind of chocolate specifically intended for coating things. It has a higher percentage of cocoa butter, which is the fat in the chocolate that crystalizes and gives it a nice sheen and snap. For these caramels, I used this 74% bittersweet Orchid-brand chocolate. More recently I've been liking Callebaut 811 which is a bit sweeter.

Making caramel is pretty straightforward as long as you have an accurate candy thermometer. You cook some butter, sugar, corn syrup, and cream in a pot until it reaches 248°F. Pour the contents into a parchment-lined baking dish, let it cool, and cut into cubes. Then "simply" dip into the tempered chocolate and place on a tray while you wait for the chocolate to harden.

As long as the chocolate fully surrounds the caramel, these last for a very long time in an air-tight container.