Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Homemade Caramel Candy

These are rich little morsels of yum! I was inspired by some lovely ladeies (Ruthi & Becca) to make this as a holiday gift for friends and family. Dave's totally on board with me making gifts for Christmas, so that we don't break the bank. Instead of adding clutter (not to say that all gifts are guilty of this) to your loved one's houses, consider giving them something edible and made with love!

As I was perusing the web for a caramel candy recipe, I discovered that there are quite a few. Overwhelmed--I decided to settle on the one that was deemed a classic recipe from the Old Recipe Book. I chose to go with the "Melt in the Mouth Caramels," which is the first one on the website.



Ingredients:
(makes about 2 1/2 pounds. this recipe yields quite a bit of caramel, so feel free to 1/2 the recipe if you need to)

1 cup butter or margarine
1 pound brown sugar (16 oz.)
Dash salt (I used about 1/2 tsp--Who doesn't love salt and caramel together?)
1 cup light corn syrup
1 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I did 1 1/2)

Directions:

1.Melt butter in heavy saucepan (important that it's a heavy pan).
2. Add brown sugar and salt. Stir until combined well.
3. Stir in syrup and mix well.
4. Gradually add milk--stirring constantly.
5. Cook and stir over medium heat until candy reaches "firm ball" stage on candy thermometer (245 degrees)--about 12-15 minutes.
6. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla.
7. Pour into a buttered 9 inch square pan. Cool and cut into whatever size you'd like. I like them to not be too big--maybe a one to two-bite piece. You can also roll them into thin little logs. Wrap in wax paper.

Split them up, package them however you'd like, and give your friends and family a little treat for the holidays.

As you can see in the pictures below, I wrapped some of them like a classic candy w/ the little ends and some other like a little box present. The ones w/ the ends are a lot faster to do, I think.




A few phone photos to brag about my helpful husband:



These candies aren't as intimidating to make as I had thought. I want to try making chocolate caramels next time.

Enjoy!

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