Salted Caramels

Happy Halloween!  In case you run out of candy for tonight or just have a sweet tooth any other day of the year, try making these melt-in-your mouth salted caramels!  I've never made candy before, yet alone caramels, but this recipe was much easier to follow than I anticipated.  Essentially, you're just boiling ingredients until you reach the right temperature on your candy thermometer.  The "firm ball" state (248 degrees) as they call it in the recipe books.  The only "boo-boo" occurred after I cut the pieces and poured them from the cutting board into a bowl before wrapping... initially this was fine, but as I made it halfway through wrapping, the caramels started melting together into a huge glob!  Glob = indiscernible mountain of chaotic goo.  I'm exaggerating just a little bit :P, as I luckily I was able to catch this early enough and salvage the caramels by pricking them away one by one (time consuming).  Just warning you though it was a mistake to avoid for next time! 

Salted Caramels

Adapted from Gourmet 

yield: Makes about 80 candies

active time: 45 min

total time: 2 3/4 hr (includes cooling)

Ingredients

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1 teaspoon sea salt (or fleur de sel)
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 1/4 cup water
  fleur de sel for sprinkling
  

Special equipment: parchment paper; a deep-fat thermometer

Line bottom and sides of an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper, then lightly oil parchment. 

Bring cream, butter, and fleur de sel to a boil in a small saucepan, then remove from heat and set aside.

Boil sugar, corn syrup, and water in a 3- to 4-quart heavy saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Boil, without stirring but gently swirling pan, until mixture is a light golden caramel.

Carefully stir in cream mixture (mixture will bubble up) and simmer, stirring frequently, until caramel registers 248°F on thermometer, 10 to 15 minutes. Pour into baking pan, sprinkling fleur de sel over the top after about 30 minutes.  Continue to let cool at least another 1 1/2 hours. Cut into 1" x 1/2" pieces, then wrap each piece in a 4-inch square of wax or parchment paper, twisting 2 ends to close.