Homemade Caramels

What’s a party without goodie bags?  To that end, I happened to see this bunch of bags (complete with red foil seals!) at a store while shopping for provisions, so I snatched them up.  Aren’t they cute?  In each bag, I placed a Crunch bar, mini candy canes, homemade sugar cookies (which were actually a huge multi-part process; my sister’s cousin-in-law made the dough for her, then her mother-in-law, our aunt & cousin and myself rolled, decorated and baked them all on Christmas Eve- I don’t have the recipe, but everyone loved the cookies because they were very thin and crispy), and my own addition, homemade caramels. 

Most people who know me will ask, “What the heck made you decide to make caramel?”  First because I don’t really go the sweet route.  I like savory things, and candy-making is right up there next to “anything that involves making dough” for things I won’t/don’t do.  Second, because on Halloween, I tried valiantly at my sister’s house to make caramel apples, making the caramel from scratch from recipes off the FoodNetwork site that I’d never watched the episodes for.  I had no idea what “firm ball stage” was and lacked a candy thermometer, so while I could dip the apples, once I put them aside to set, the caramel would slide right off.  I was pretty pissed about that. 

But you know what?  I saw this great recipe on GroceryGuy that looked so easy, even I could do it, plus I had just purchased a digital thermometer to make the turkey (though it says nothing about being a candy thermometer…).  With that knowledge in hand, plus some tips garnered from the commenters on HabeasBrulee (thank you guys!), I felt a whole lot more confident that I could do this.  I could.  Just watch. 

Basically, recipe found here, except I added a splash or two of pure vanilla extract ‘cuz I like vanilla.  I’m soon going to attempt Kahlua Caramels, except as it turns out, most of my friends don’t really like caramel in general, so oh well.  A note: I let mine sit for a few hours in the fridge, and that’s a terrible idea, because when I removed it, it was so hard I broke my [cheapy] cleaver.  (Honestly, I think someone else had already kind of messed it up and weakened it in one spot, and that’s why it broke when I tried to force it through the caramel, but regardless, it broke my g’damn cleaver). 

And a few other notes: thank you, A-Train, for sharing the recipe!  Thank you also for suggesting into the back of my mind that I could wrap these in squares of waxed paper, because I then proceeded to, all the while cursing myself and my anal ways.  My final note is that I did half of these in the wee-hours of the morning, and finally gave up, plopping the unwrapped ones into a sandwich bag for later wrapping.  Maybe my apartment is really hot (I control my own heat, though, unlike most NYC apartments), but the caramels softened and smushed into each other in the bag, so that I had to pry them apart later (the really misshapen ones I left unwrapped for my boyfriend to eat, and he devoured the bag instantly).  And you really do want to keep these in a container of some sort, even the wrapped ones, because they’re buttery/greasy and will almost certainly attract bugs or worse.  Otherwise, these were delicious!!!  And a pretty impressive recipe, like, “Dude, you made your own caramel???”  You know how I like low effort but impressive.

PS Also, heed the warning about how hot this stuff gets.  Because it’s hot.  And no one likes to have to go to the hospital for third degree burns while making delicious and beautiful presents for other people!

Enjoy & Happy Eating!!!