Caramels by Erica

To add a bit more sugar to your day, a recipe for caramels. When I asked my friend Erica (mentioned here and here) to join in the 25 Days of Cookies, she at first agreed. But, after some thought, felt like her thing was less cookies and more pure sugar caramels. Having tasted the wares, I’m glad she chose them to share. They are delicious.

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I am so flattered and excited to be a part of this heART of mine and the 25 days of Christmas cookies! My name is Erica and I had the amazing opportunity to get to know Amy during our college years and since moving back to the state of Minnesota, we have re-connected and it has been nothing but seamless. We have completed a few projects, with hopefully many more to come. I feel honored to be asked to be a part of the cookie countdown, amongst all the creative and inspiring bloggers. Although I love to craft, sew, and bake I have yet to find the time to regularly post between a full time job, graduate school work, working several part time jobs, and trying to be the best wife, friend, daughter, and sister I can be to all those important in my life. Don’t get me wrong it is definitely on my to-do list (along with the other 50 million things that have found a permanent home on that list), but just hasn’t been crossed off yet! In addition to being one of the only posters without a blog of their own, I am also going against the grain and share a non-cookie recipe (insert GASP here!) I promise, however, that these sweet treats will be well worth your time and effort.

Ever since I can remember, my Dad was always the Christmas baker. With a strong Norwegian heritage, there was never a shortage of festive Norsk holiday treats made by my Dad at our house. There was one holiday treat, however, that my Dad did not make; Mom’s Christmas caramels. These caramels would only be made and Christmas and you always knew you were important if you were the recipient of Mom’s caramels. They are sweet, but not too sweet. They are soft, but not too soft. They are…well…perfect. (DISCLAIMER: Once you make these treats and give them away, realized that people will immediately fall in love and will in turn hope and pine for them for every subsequent Christmas!)

Caramels by Erica

Ingredients

1 cup butter

2 1/2 cups brown sugar

1 cup corn syrup

14 oz. sweetened condensed milk

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

To begin, you will want to pre-measure out of your ingredients. It is really important that once the ingredients are added, they are stirred constantly. It isn’t necessarily hard on the biceps (such as Amy’s Pull Apart Dinner Rolls), but you won’t have a free hand to measure out any ingredients.

You will also need a candy thermometer to make sure that the batch hits 240 degrees or “soft ball”.

Over medium heat in a large pot, melt the butter completely. Once the butter is melted, add in the brown sugar. Cook until the brown sugar has dissolved into the butter. (Make sure you are stirring this whole time!)

Add the corn syrup and mix well. Next, add in the sweetened condensed milk. At this point, it should turn that pretty brown caramel color.

This is the point that it is critical you keep stirring the batch, because if you stop stirring, the sugars will burn and the batch will be ruined.

Throughout this whole process you will want to keep a watchful eye on the thermometer. The temperature will control whether or not your caramels hit the right texture. If you don’t get the caramels hot enough, they will be gooey. If you get them too hot, they will be hard and brittle. Once the batch hits 240 degrees, which is also known as “soft ball”, quickly grab the vanilla and add it to the batch. It will boil up and steam a little bit. Give it a couple more good stirs and then remove from heat. Pour into a lightly greased 9 x 13 pan.

Let the caramels cool overnight before you attempt to cut them. You should be able to use a butter knife to cut them apart. Cut 1 row at a time when you are at the point where you can wrap the caramels. I typically cut each one into a 1” square.

To wrap them, place each caramel at the end of a piece of wax paper that has been cut into a 4-5” square. Wrap the caramel to the end, and then twist each end to enclose. At our house, my husband always volunteers to help wrap caramels, but with his motto “Wrap one…eat two”, I am not sure it is quite cost effective for me to have him help. But, with how delectably delicious these sweet treats are…can I really blame him?

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Thanks Erica!

And thank you also for giving us a sampling. We really enjoyed them all. :)

Take care.

♥amy c