Salted Caramel Candies

Caramel has always been delicious but of late it is enjoying a new fashionability in food circles. Everywhere you turn these days there seems to be something about caramel, especially salted caramel.  And why not?  Who can resist the sweet sticky goodness that we call caramel:)Caramel is mystery to many.  It is really nothing more than sugar that has been heated until it liquifies and then is cooked until it “caramelizes”…reaching that lovely color and flavor. Candies, sundae toppings, cakes, Salted Caramel Pie

and of course that delicious treat…Caramel Corn

are only a few of the caramel flavored goodies that your Two Chums enjoy.  Caramel candy is a simple mixture of sugar, butter, milk, cream, salt and vanilla.

People are often afraid to make candy because they assume there must be some “trick” to it.  Of all the candies a person can make, caramels may be the easiest.  The only “trick” is not to cook the candy past 250 degrees, or what is referred to as the ‘hardball stage”.

Some recipes for making caramel desserts call for caramelizing the sugar by itself, before adding butter or liquid.  When you do this, it is important to get the sugar to just the right color.  Too light and what you are making with the caramelized sugar will just taste overly sweet.  Too dark and it will taste very burnt.

This recipe doesn’t require melting or caramelizing the sugar on it’s own.  So as long as you don’t cook it past the 250 degree point, you will have yummy and delicious caramel candies in no time 🙂

A little something sweet and homemade can only add to an abundant life full of love …enjoy!

Homemade Salted Caramels

1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter
1 cup corn syrup
2 cups heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt or fleur de sel

Before you begin butter a 9″ square pan and line with parchment paper.  Make sure it is parchment paper and NOT waxed paper as waxed paper will stick to the candy as it cools and it is VERY difficult to remove once it is stuck to the candy.

Combine the sugars, butter,corn syrup, cream and 3/4 teaspoon salt in a heavy bottomed pan.

Cook until everything is liquified and the temperature on a candy thermometer reaches between 246 and 250 degrees.

This will take several minutes but stay with it and stir it regularly so that the candy doesn’t burn or stick to the bottom of the pan.  DO NOT allow it to go above 250 degrees because if it does, the candy will be very hard when it sets up.  Keep in mind that the candy will continue cooking even after you have turned off the heat, so you may want to take it off the heat before it reaches 250 degrees.  Stir in the vanilla.

It  will foam up a bit when you do this.  Pour it into the prepared pan.

Sprinkle with the remaining 3/4 teaspoon of salt. (You can find some really nice fleur de sel at Trader Joes or Whole Foods)

Allow it to sit until it is cooled and completely set up, about 3 hours.  Using a very sharp knife, cut the candy into 1″ strips.  At this point you can either use the knife to cut the candy strips into chunks or use a good pair of kitchen shears to cut the strips into bite sized pieces.  Wrap each piece of candy with waxed paper that you have cut into squares.  Place in a candy dish and try not to eat them all at once 🙂