Salted Caramels

The other day my mom gave me some of her candles because she doesn't light candles anymore. (Yes, I am one of the few who does not yet have a "Scentsy" type candle) One of the candles she gave me was the scent "Salted Caramel". Are you kidding me? I love salted caramel anything and now I have a candle so that my house can smell like it all the time. I immediately started using it and the next day my Mr. asks, "This candle makes me want to eat caramel". Ya... me too. Not sure if this is a good thing now! But it inspired me to make some salted caramels that I actually could eat. So the other day when I had about an hour of free time while my baby girl took a nap I decided to make some. I researched different recipes, since I was limited on time I wanted something that was a little easier than others. Then, I found this recipe from Inspired Taste and decided to go with it!

You only need 6 ingredients:
Salt
Heavy cream
Vanilla
Butter
Granulated sugar
corn syrup

 You will definitely need a candy thermometer. I got mine at Walmart for only $3. Totally worth it.
Boil the corn syrup and sugar together. Meanwhile in another saucepan warm cream and butter together until just barely reaches a simmer and remove from heat.

 Cook sugar and corn syrup over medium heat until it reaches 310 degrees. It will look like this. DO NOT STIR!!!

 Remove from heat and slowly add cream/butter mixture. Watch out it might jump out at you. Stir until smooth and place back on heat. No more stirring! Cook mixture until temperature is back up to 260 degrees.

 Line a bread pan with foil or parchment paper and make sure it is well greased!

 Pour caramel into bread pan and let cool for a few minutes. Then sprinkle with course salt.

 Cool completely on a wire rack. When it has cooled peel the caramel from the foil and cut into bite size squares.

 And then.... indulge....

So now I can enjoy the taste and smell of salted caramels.

Here is the recipe!!

Salted Caramel Recipe from Inspired Taste

For these, we used salted butter instead of unsalted, the extra salt in the butter really adds lots of flavor. We also use two types of salt in the recipe, first we used kosher salt, which goes into the caramels and a course sea salt that is sprinkled on top. The caramels themselves are slightly hard, but soften slowly in your mouth. These would make a perfect gift for the holidays!

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 1 hours, 20 minutes

Yield: 35 caramel candies

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 4 tablespoons salted butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon course sea salt

Method

1. Line 9x5-inch loaf pan with foil; spray foil with cooking spray.
2. In 1-quart saucepan, heat whipping cream, vanilla, kosher salt and 2 tablespoons of the butter over medium heat until mixture just begins to simmer. Remove from heat; cover with lid. Set aside.
3. In 2-quart heavy saucepan, mix sugar and corn syrup; add candy thermometer. Cook over medium heat, stirring gently, until sugar is dissolved. If granules of sugar become stuck to sides of saucepan, use wet pastry brush to brush granules down towards syrup. Cook syrup, without stirring, until thermometer reads 310°F. If hot spots or darker areas occur while cooking, gently roll saucepan around to evenly disperse syrup.
4. Remove saucepan from heat. Slowly pour cream mixture into syrup. Syrup will bubble violently so be careful to add cream slowly to ensure syrup does not bubble over edge of saucepan. Stir until smooth.
5. Return saucepan to medium heat. Cook caramel until thermometer reads 260°F.
6. Remove saucepan from heat; remove thermometer. Stir in remaining 2 tablespoons butter until caramel is smooth.
7. Pour caramel into loaf pan. Cool 8 to 10 minutes. Sprinkle coarse sea salt evenly over top. Cool completely in pan on cooling rack.
8. When caramel is cool, remove from pan by lifting foil. Peel foil from caramel. Using sharp long knife, cut into 35 to 40 squares. Wrap each caramel individually with waxed paper or cellophane.