Salted caramels

I got my wedding photos back the other day, and it got me thinking about the wedding again, about how wonderful and perfect that weekend was. And one of the many awesome things was that the favors went over so well -- I made homemade salted caramels, tons of them, in one grueling day of boiling-cooling-cutting-wrapping-boiling, etc., etc., seven pans of candy and a whole day of work for me and my mom (she was my wrapping helper). They were a lot of work, but I wanted to put something I made into the wedding, something handmade by me.

And I totally pulled it off. Not only that, but I got raves about them from everyone, talking about how awesome they were and how much they wanted to steal other people's when they weren't looking -- now that's a complement. :) I got raves at work, too, when I took a test batch in to share. People were actually asking me when I got back from getting married, hey, was I going to make those awesome caramels again? Now that's a winning recipe.

So here it is, the caramel recipe that was such a hit at my wedding and earned raves from so many people. Enjoy. :)



Salted Caramels
From The Kitchn

1 c heavy cream
5 tbsp butter
2 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 c sugar
1/4 c light corn syrup
1/4 c water
Flaky sea salt (I used Maldon, pricey but pretty and high-quality, and it goes far)

1. Line an 8-by-8 pan with parchment, then spray it with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Put the cream, butter and sea salt into a bowl and microwave until melted and hot.
3. Meanwhile, put the sugar, corn syrup and water into a saucepan, turn the heat to medium-high and stir just until dissolved. Then, put the spoon down, put in a candy thermometer and boil until the temperature reaches 248 degrees.
4. Pour in the cream mixture, pick up the spoon again and start stirring. Simmer this mixture slowly, stirring constantly, until it reaches 248 degrees again.
5. Immediately pull the pan from the heat and pour the contents into the pan.
6. Sprinkle a liberal amount of flaky sea salt over the top. (Some of it will melt, but if you wait until the candy cools at all, the salt won't stick.)
7. Let set for 2 hours. Then, cut into pieces and wrap in candy-wrapping papers or parchment. I found that doing eight cuts one way and 12 the other left nicely sized pieces.