Sea Salt Caramels

A little background –

So there I was…in Whole Foods…staring at all of the caramels in the sweets display case.  It happened to be my birthday so I bought a few chocolate covered sea salt caramels.  They didn’t make it to the car.  It’s a long way home from Whole Foods – I kept wanting more caramels to magically appear in my empty bag.  So, I thought there HAS to be a way to make caramels at home.  After some research (and some recipes that just don’t cut it), I found this to be the
BEST EVER CARAMEL RECIPE!

Homemade Sea Salt Caramels

1 C heavy cream
5 T unsalted butter
1 tsp coarse sea salt (plus 1 T for the final step)
1 1/2 C sugar
1/4 C light corn syrup
1/4 C water

Directions:

Line 9×13″ baking pan with parchment paper (you could also use an 8×8″ pan – I like my caramels on the thin side so I use a larger pan.), then lightly oil parchment.  Bring cream, butter, and salt to a boil in a small saucepan, then remove from heat and set aside.

Boil sugar, corn syrup, and water in a 3-4 quart heavy saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved.

Boil without stirring but gently swirling pan, until mixture is a light golden caramel.

In the next few pictures, you’ll see how the color changes from an off-white to a golden brown.

Carefully stir in cream mixture (mixture will bubble up)

and simmer, stirring frequently, until caramel registers 248 F on thermometer
(about 10-15 minutes).

Pour into baking pan.

I sprinkle the caramel with more coarse sea salt.

Update:

I’ve probably made these homemade sea salt caramels at least 100x now.  They’ve become a family favorite – especially at Christmas time.  After making them so.many.times., I’ve found an awesome tool for making the caramel making process even smoother.  Better than lining my pan with parchment is Reynold’s Pan Lining Paper.  It’s parchment on one side and foil on the other side so it molds to the pan and stays put while pouring hot caramel.  It’s a fantastic invention!  Here’s a picture of what I use.