Salted Caramels Are Just Minutes Away

One of the most popular new items in desserts and candy is to mix sweet and salty.  How about making some homemade caramels, sprinkling them with some coarsely ground kosher salt and having delicious caramels?  It's so easy and so quick.  Here is all you do.

1/2 cup corn syrup
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt

Wisk all ingredients together.  Microwave all ingredients for four minutes, stirring every two minutes.  Line a pyrex pan with plastic (two layers is best), then pour caramel into the pan. If you want them to be salted caramels, sprinkle coarsely ground salt on them before the mixture sets, so the salt will stick.  Every microwave is different, and with my first batch I microwaved for six minutes.  That was way too long.  I got something like caramel brittle.  At four minutes my caramels were nice and chewy.  I might do my next batch for four minutes and 20 seconds.  Don't use too big a pan or your caramels will be very thin.  Let the mixture set for two hours, then place in refrigerator for a few hours and then cut caramels into bite size pieces.  Wrap each candy in parchment paper or waxed paper, twisting the ends.  You've got homemade caramels that are as good or better than anything you can buy, and a lot less expensive.  Stick them in the freezer if you want.  They freeze well, and enjoy.  One clean-up tip:  wash the pan containing the hot caramel immediately after pouring it into the baking dish, before it has a chance to harden.  Clean-up is tough if you don't do this.  One more thing.  I will add vanilla flavoring to my next batch as I think that will make them even better!