A Fair Win for a Fair Food Caramel Flight
Among other things, for me, Spring means deciding if there is anything I’d like to enter in our local county fair. I started submitting entries to the Culinary Arts competition in 2018 (when my husband convinced me to enter my Prickly Pear Lemonade Pie). Over the years, I’ve entered pies, cakes, breads, cookies, brownies, fudges and jams – and each has received a very positive and encouraging response from the judges.
Most of the entries at our fair are judged using the Danish Judging System. Simply put, this means that each entry in a particular class and division is judged against a set standard rather than against the other entries within that class and division. This judging method allows for multiple entries to receive first place awards if they all meet the blue-ribbon standard. This can be a wonderful confidence boost – if your entry receives a ribbon the award is earned entirely on the individual merit of your entry.
Sometimes, though, our fair will run special contests along side their usual competitive entry structure. Entries in these contests get judged in their home division and class with the Danish Judging System, but also against each other as part of the special contest. That means entries to the special contest have the potential to win up to two ribbons – one for their individual merit and one for the contest.
This year, I was intrigued by the Candy Makers contest. Contestants could choose to enter any kind of candy they liked, entries must be entirely homemade and would be judged on texture, flavor, technical execution and presentation and each entry must include at least six pieces. At first I was considering fudge – I had previously entered a couple of fudge recipes that had judged well (Red Velvet Fudge and Salted Caramel and Toffee Fudge) – but I wanted something that, for me, was a bit more of a challenge.
Caramel was something that I had struggled with in years past, but I never let that deter me from attempting recipes that included homemade caramel. Over time, as I gained more experience, I also gained confidence – perhaps enough confidence to enter caramels into the county fair. I thought, wouldn’t it be fun to infuse the caramels with an assortment of popular fair food flavors – specifically the flavors of caramel popcorn, caramel apples and caramel dipped churros.
If you plan to submit a competitive entry to the fair, you need to pay your entry fee and provide a description of your planned entry by early March. That leaves about a month to get your entry ready for submission. I spent those weeks leading up to the fair developing my caramel recipes and refining them across numerous test batches (much to the enjoyment of my family who got the chance to pre-judge my caramels). To bring the idea to life, I ended up developing four recipes – each one inspired by a classic fair food:
- Caramel Popcorn: I wanted to garnish my caramel popcorn caramels with individual kernels of glossy, crunchy, sweet caramel corn. I was doing a scaled down caramel batch for my entry, I really didn’t need a whole lot of caramel popcorn, so I created a mini batch caramel popcorn recipe that ended up tasting just like Cracker Jacks.
- Caramel Popcorn Caramel: freshly popped popcorn is infused into the cream and butter elements of the recipe ensuring clear popcorn flavor in every salty, sweet bite of the caramel while the kernel of caramel popcorn on top adds a crunchy contrast to the chewy, creamy caramel.
- Caramel Apple Caramel: Super concentrated apple cider gives this caramel a bold apple flavor that is complemented by the base caramel notes. I chose to tint the caramel red and finish with a sparkly edible red glitter that enhanced the gloss of finished caramel. I poured and set the caramel in apple shaped molds to hint at the flavor.
- Caramel Churro Caramels: Cinnamon infused cream and toasty browned butter give the base caramel all the flavor of a caramel dipped churro. I achieved the visual impression of a churro by twisting the caramels and rolling them in sparkling cinnamon sugar.
With the flavors finalized, the next challenge was figuring out how to present them in a way that captured the whimsy of fair food. I finally came up with the idea of the caramels riding on a Ferris wheel in groups of three, one of each flavor, with three more waiting in line to get on the ride. The entry needed to be labeled with the title, as well as key ingredient information in case of allergies – I tied together the fair theme with a sandwich-board style label in black with the title information on the front in metallic acrylic marker and ingredient information on the back. I thought it was perfect positioned just behind the three “in line” caramels giving both a menu board and ride entry vibe. I need to give full credit and a shout out to my sons and husband who took the 3D printable Ferris wheel I found and tweaked and modified it until it suited my vision.
With all the elements that needed to come together for the final submission, we were literally down to the wire in getting this entry to the fair. In a final flurry of wrapping, labeling, printing and assembling we finally delivered my entry exactly at noon – right when the window for entries closed. With the entry turned over to the judges, there was nothing more to do but wait to see how it performed.
The fair opened on April 16th. We couldn’t make it out there on the opening night, but I really wanted to see how my caramel entry had done – in person and before any of my friends or acquaintances could tell me. So, on April 17th, our whole family trooped out to the fairgrounds. I was thrilled – and honored – to discover that my caramel flight was awarded a first-place ribbon in the Culinary Arts candy class and division and the first-place ribbon for the special Candy Makers contest. Seeing those two ribbons on my entry was an exciting and validating milestone – I really had conquered not just basic caramel, but innovative and fun caramel flavor combinations.
Now, over the next several weeks, I will be sharing all four of the recipes that went into these award-winning caramels. You can look for my weekly posts on Sunday evening, or you can always come back to this post and find the updated links in the carousel below.
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