Caramels

I finally dragged my lazy arse up early yesterday morning for a jog. The last time my running shoes saw the sight of me was like probably two months ago. Which is like long long time ago. I know. Poor them. Now that I have the time on hand, I should probably make the most of it by meeting up more often with the neglected shoes.

And, the weather these coupla days has been stifling hot, to say the least. Singapore has always been a hot and humid country. But the last week has totally stretched the terms "hot" and "humid" to the very max. The intense heat has me feeling sticky perpetually all day, and it does not relinquish its hold on me at night even when I'm asleep. I normally sleep in shorts and a tee shirt, and cover up with a blanket to keep away the slight chill the night brings. But these days, I kick my blanket away (what breeze? it's hot even at night now.), and when I wake up in the morning, I feel a restlessness in me, and my neck and back feels hot. My hair sticks to the back of my neck, very lightly damp from the perspiration.

It doesn't help that I have way long hair in this sweltering heat. At times like these, it brings to mind that a trip to the hair salon, a snip of a scissors, and I could be feeling way much comfortable. Alas, the vanity in me recoils at the horror of a hairdresser shorning away my precious locks. My last short haircut took me more than a year to grow back. I won't easily forget the pain of how I looked in that hair-growing-out phase.

Anyway, enough of the weather, I have some caramels to share today. Over photographs of course.

Little caramel nuggets

I had leftover cream in the refridgerator, and was not very keen to make any cake or pudding. My next thought was candies. I've never attempted making candies before, since I didn't own a candy thermometer. But once the idea hatched, I just couldn't shake of the need to make them. It's like I must make them. And so I did. Without the help of the candy thermometer.

Of course, that wasn't my smartest plan, and I had to pour the mixture back into the pot to cook again I had already poured them out to cool. The mixture wasn't hardening into caramels form, that's how I know I had undercooked them in the first place. No harm done, I just waited till it became stickier and a darker hue of brown before I removed them a second time and cooling them again. Though they weren't as hard as I would have liked them to be, the final result was a soft chewy caramel, which flavour reminded me of the caramel sweets (Wurther? Werthers? You know you know, that brand with the light yellow packaging?). I cut them into pieces and wrapped them with baking paper and brought them to the office to share around.

Chewy caramels

Thank god it's late afternoon now, the heat isn't that unbearable now as in the early noon when the sun is at its strongest. I have a gathering with my girls later for dinner. Man. It's steamboat. Pray hard for me that it rains heavily during dinner time okay? Not before or after the dinner since I gotta travel to and fro my friend's place, but during the dinner itself okays? Need to keep my cool in the face of the steam I'm gonna be facing. Thanks. ;)