Homemade Caramels

   Folks ask, can you make homemade candy for Holiday gifts easily in a Small Kitchen or RV Galley and get Big Flavors??? The answer is YES.  This recipe relies on the use of a microwave oven, a 2 quart microwave safe glass measuring cup and a heat tolerant spatula.

Makes about 150 individual caramels

Ingredients

1 cup or (2cubes)   unsalted butter

1 cup                      unsalted butter (1/2 tsp to coat each of the baking parchment sheets of paper)

1 cup                     dark brown sugar

1 1/2 cups             light brown sugar

14 oz                     sweetened condensed milk

1 cup                     Karo light corn syrup

1 tsp                      pure vanilla extract

t/2 tsp                    coarse sea salt

Directions

1.  Place a sheet of baking parchment paper on each of 2 –  9″ x 11″ baking pans.
2.  Lightly coat the top of each parchment paper with 1/2 tsp of softened butter, set aside.
3.  Place the butter in the 2 quart glass measuring cup, melt on HIGH for 1 minute.
4.  Add sweetened condensed milk, brown sugars and karo syrup, stir.
5.  Heat in microwave on HIGH for 5 minutes, stir.
6.  Heat in microwave on HIGH for another 5 minutes, stir.
7.  Heat in microwave on HIGH for 4 minutes, then stir and do a sample test to check the consistency of the candy to see  if it forms a ‘soft ball’  when a half a teaspoon of the boiling syrup is added to a cup that is 2/3 full with cold water. Gently move the caramel ‘blob’ at the bottom of the cup to see if it holds a soft squishy like ball shape or close to it!
8.  Heat the caramel again in the microwave as needed using 1 minute intervals, checking the candy consistency as noted in #5. 
9.  Add the vanilla, stir and pour the caramel (semi-liquid) onto the buttered parchment paper on 2   9″ x 11″ baking pans.
10.  Lightly sprinkle coarse sea salt.
11.  Let the candy cool.  I placed the baking pans on hot pads in the fridge for an hour.
12.  Lift the parchment paper with the caramels out of the baking dish. Cut the caramels into about 3/4″ x 3/4″ pieces.
13.  Roll the individual caramels in wax paper and twist the ends to seal each piece of candy.  Use wax paper squares that are almost 3″ x 3″ in size for wrapping the candies.

Note:  My total microwave times were 5 minutes, plus 5 minutes plus 4 minutes, plus 1 minute.

My cookbook Small Kitchen Big Flavors! is available at a great Introductory Price on Ebay and my blog site at : http:/smallkitchenbigflavorsblog.wordpress.com

Chef MJ