On Friday, I will leave for Seattle and one of my favorite weekends of the year: the International Food Bloggers Conference. I am so excited to spend time with my fellow food bloggers in one of this country’s best food towns.

Among the activities and sessions that I am most looking forward to are a pre-conference excursion to the Sur La Table Corporate Test Kitchen for a demonstration of time-saving techniques utilizing new products from KitchenAid; a discovery session on how to improve my content for the upcoming winter holiday season with Irvin Lin of Eat the Love, and Sarah Flotard, a Seattle-based food stylist; and an everything-you-want-to-know-about-lamb class with information about about locally raised lamb, the variety of lamb cuts, cooking tips and wine pairing suggestions.

Of course, knowing me, I am also excited to eat my way through Seattle‘s Pike Place Market, including stops at Piroshky Piroshky bakery for a smoked salmon pâté piroshky and a fresh rhubarb roll; Elleno’s Greek Yogurt for the best marionberry yogurt on the planet; and Mee Sum Pastry for an astonishing cheap and delicious BBQ pork Hom Bow.

Another reason that I am especially excited for IFBC this year is that the organizers of the conference have invited me to hold an informal food swap during lunch on Saturday. You all know how much I enjoy spreading the food swap love! Remember when I made jam-filled hand pies to bring to the Eat Write Retreat food swap?

This time, however, I am taking a plane to the conference — not just driving down to the West Loop. So I had to think strategically about what I could bring to swap that would travel well and not require me to check a bag. I decided to make candy, specifically caramels, because candies are small, light and portable.

But, naturally, regular ol’ homemade caramels would not do when swapping with my fellow food bloggers. I had to make these caramels unusual and enticing enough to grab the attention of the other attendees. And indeed another reason that I decided to make caramels in the first place is because you can flavor them in so many different ways.

I searched my cupboards for some interesting flavor ideas. My eyes fell on a collection of dried chiles and a box of smoked sea salt I brought home from Sweden. Ancho Chile Smoked Salt caramels sounded pretty mind-blowing to me! I began by steeping the chiles in warm cream and butter for thirty minutes while I made a sugar syrup. Then I used the chile-infused cream to make my caramels. I also added a pinch of cayenne at the end of the process to pump up the heat.

While the caramels cooled, I sprinkled a generous layer of smoked salt on top. The result is a sweet, salty, spicy, stick-in-your-teeth caramel that may, in fact, blow your mind. I am excited to bring my caramels to the IFBC Food Swap and trade them for whatever my fellow food bloggers have come up with!

I know it is early to start thinking about holiday gift ideas. But, you may want to bookmark this recipe because Ancho Chile Smoked Salt Caramels would make one heck of a edible gift or hostess present.

You do not need to go all the way to Sweden to find smoked sea salt, by the way. Chef favorite Maldon Sea Salt has a smoked variety that is available at Williams-Sonoma, Sur La Table — did I mention I was going to its corporate test kitchen? — and The Spice House. Ancho chiles, which are simply dried poblano peppers, are also easy to source in a Hispanic market, the Latin foods aisle of a large grocery store, or online.

I will be sharing a lot more about IFBC and my experience there in the coming weeks. I hope that the first-ever IFBC food swap is a big success. Who knows? Maybe it could become a regular feature.

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Ancho Chile Smoked Salt Caramels

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups heavy cream
• 2.5 oz (5 TB) unsalted butter
• 2 ancho chiles
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 1/4 cup water
• Pinch cayenne pepper
• Smoked sea salt

Instructions

1. Line an 8x8 baking pan with parchment paper and spray the paper with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Combine the cream, butter, and ancho chiles in a small saucepan and heat until the butter has melted. Cover and allow to steep for thirty minutes.
3. In a large saucepan, combine the sugar, corn syrup and water and stir until combined.
4. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat but do not stir. Brush down any sugar crystals that form on the sides of pot using a pastry brush dipped in water.
5. Continue to boil the sugar syrup until it registers 250 degrees on a candy thermometer.
6. Remove the chiles from the butter and cream mixture and slowly pour the mixture into the sugar syrup and whisk to combine.( It will bubble up, so be careful!)
7. Return the saucepan to the stove and heat over medium-high heat, again not stirring, until the mixture begins to turn golden brown and registers between 245 and 250 degrees.
8. Remove from heat and add the cayenne pepper.
9. Pour the caramel into the prepared pan.
10. Sprinkle a generous portion of smoked sea salt over the top of the caramels.
11. Allow the caramel to cool completely before cutting, at least two hours.
12. When the caramels are firm and cool, lift the parchment paper from the pan and place on a cutting board. Using a sharp knife, cut the caramels into square or rectangular pieces.
13. Wrap the caramels in squares of parchment or wax paper. (You can find precut candy wrappers at craft and kitchen stores.)
14. Makes about 50 caramels.

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