Here’s your chance to savor what salted caramel is all about. These are a perfect treat to have along with tea or coffee, and make an excellent gift to give during the holidays. They aren’t terribly difficult to make, though they do require a candy thermometer.

* I’m sorry I don’t have step by step photos for these. I was in a rush to make these to bring over to a brunch that I completely forgot to snap a few pics along the way. I will be making these again soon and will backfill with photos once I do.

Recipe:

1/4 cup light corn syrup

1/4 cup water

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup heavy cream

5 tbls butter

1 tsp coarse sea salt or fleur de sel, plus extra for sprinkling

Step One, Prepare

It’s important that you spend the time getting all the different components ready before you even think of turning on a burner. Get an 8×8 inch pan and line it with parchment paper. Spray the parchment paper with a little bit of non-stick cooking spray. Make sure to have a candy thermometer handy.

Measure out all the ingredients. Get two sauce pans, one larger and deep (at least 5 inches deep) and one smaller one. Now you’re ready to cook!

Step Two, Candy

Combine the sugar, water and light corn syrup in the larger one. Combine the butter and heavy cream in the smaller one. Turn the sugar mixture on to medium high and cook, swirling the pan, until a nice light amber brown color (should take about ten minutes). While that one is cooking, turn the smaller pan on to medium and simmer until the butter melts. Turn off and keep aside until the sugar mixture is to the color you want it.

Step Three, Combine

When the sugar mixture is a light amber brown color, turn off the heat and slowly pour in the cream and butter mixture. Be careful with this step as it bubbles violently, so only add small amounts at a time. Continue until all of the cream mixture is incorporated. At this point, you can stir using a wooden spoon. Turn the heat back on to medium, and cook the mixture, stirring, until it reaches 248 degrees on the thermometer. This should take 8-10 minutes.

Step Four, Pour

Once it is at 248 degrees, promptly take it off the heat and pour carefully into the prepared pan. Once poured in, place in the refrigerator, uncovered, until fully cooled.

Step Five, Wrap

Remove from refrigerator. Sprinkle coarse sea salt over the top of the caramels. Cut into squares, using either a very sharp knife or a sharp bench scraper. Once cut, wrap each individual one in small squares of parchment paper.

Keep refrigerated until ready to eat. Enjoy!