Salted Caramels

There is nothing I like better than caramel, well almost nothing.  Anyhoo, this morning, I decided to whip up a batch of Ina Garten's Salted Caramels since I had 16 ounces of heavy cream just chilling in the fridge waiting to be turned into a tres leche cake on Saturday *mental note- buy more cream.  Today the sun was out, the Bee Gees were blasting and life was good.

Salted Caramels- stolen from Ina Garten

1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup corn syrup
1/4 cup water
1 cup heavy cream
5 T unsalted butter
1 tsp sea salt- more or less to your taste
1 tsp vanilla

Add the sugar, water and corn syrup to a heavy duty sauce pan and let the mixture come to a boil and continue boiling until it turns a beautiful amber color- don't let it get too dark, you want these caramels chewy, not crunchy like the batch I made from David Lebowitz- that's a story for another time.

At the same time in another saucepan, gently heat the cream, butter and salt until the butter is melted.  Turn off the heat and let sit until you are ready for it.

Once the sugar mixture is amber colored, pour the cream mixture in.  I take the pan off the heat for this and you will get a violent bubble, it's ok, it's supposed to do this.  After the cream is in, add the vanilla.  Put the pan back on the heat and let the mixture come up to 248 degrees on a candy thermometer.

Once it is at the right temp, pour into a greased, parchment paper lined 8 x 8 pan and stick in the fridge for a few hours.  At this time, you can also sprinkle on additional salt before the caramels harden.

Voila!

Once hardened, you can cut into squares and wrap with parchment paper......so good!

Finished!

Have I ever mentioned that I can eat a whole pan of this stuff by myself?  Shhhh, don't tell my thighs.

-Jenny