Sweet Success

I used to make caramels every year at Christmas time. It was one of my baking/confectionary traditions. And then Matthew came along. With my determination to never make him feel deprived at home (knowing he would be left out foodwise everywhere beyond our door), I gave up the caramels. I mean, how do you make buttery, creamy caramels for a kid that is allergic to milk? So they became a thing of the past. By the time Matthew did his food challenge for coconut and passed with flying colors, caramels were no longer on the brain. But with coconut milk added to his safe food list, a whole variety of banned foods became an option. Coconut milk can substitute for milk, whipped cream, sweetened condensed milk, etc and makes amazing ice cream. We ran with it and quickly discovered that I needed to keep a stock of coconut milk in the house.

A few weeks ago, my relief society had a Christmas taster’s table for our midweek activity. Everyone brought a sampling of their favorite Christmas treat to share and had a copy of the recipe on hand so we could take pictures of those we liked. One of my fellow RS presidency members shared her recipe for microwave caramels. They were delicious and the cooking method was much simpler than the labor-intensive traditional caramel making method. And instead of traditional heavy cream, it called for a can of sweetened condensed milk. And thus, an idea was born. It made me think about making Matthew friendly caramels because sweetened condensed coconut milk is extremely easy to make. And guess what? The dairy free caramels look and taste just like their allergenic counterparts. Matthew has already laid claim (with my complete support) to the majority of the batch. First taste of caramel=success.