Tomato Caramel Candy

A delicious soft caramel candy recipe made with just 3 ingredients that you can easily made at home. The fun ingredient here is salted tomato juice, but it can be replaced with water or other juices for different flavour.

Caramelization is the removal of water from a sugar, proceeding to isomerization and polymerization of the sugars into various high-weight compounds. Compounds such as difructose-anhydride may be created from the monosaccharides after water loss. Fragmentation reactions result in low-molecular-weight compounds which may be volatile and may contribute to flavor. Polymerization reactions lead to larger molecular weight compounds, which contribute to the dark brown color. Wikipedia

• 200 g Tomato juice, salted
  
• 400 g Caster sugar
  
• 60 g Kerrygold butter, diced
  

1. Line a loaf pan with tin foil and generously grease the bottom and sides with corn oil. Set aside.
   
2. Place sugar and tomato juice in a saucepan. Cook the mixture over the medium heat, stirring constantly, until sugar dissolves and mixture just begins to simmer. Stop stirring. Continue to cook the mixture over medium heat until it reaches 120C/240F.
   
3. Turn the heat off, then stir in the butter until well incorporated. Turn the heat back on, continue to cook over medium heat until the thermometer reads 125C/250F, the firm ball stage. Remove from heat immediately and set the pot aside to cool for a few minutes.
   
4. Pour into the prepared loaf pan and cool until set. Cut into rectangles and wrap with baking paper. Store the caramels in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.