Homemade Caramels

My mom likes to send a lot of goody boxes my way of things that she picks up while garage sale shopping, and I love to return the favor by using the things she sends me and having a good story to go along with it, which is the case with these caramels. She sent along an old candy thermometer and I was determined to put it to use so when I came across Ina's recipe for caramels in the December issue of Food Network Magazine, I was so excited to try it out and asked Tim to help me out...

Ingredients:

• vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 1/12 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1. Line a 8 inch baking pan with parchment paper, leaving about 2 inches to overhang, and brush lightly with veggie oil.

2. In a deep saucepan, combine water, the sugar, and the corn syrup and bring them to a boil over medium high heat but don't stir, just swirl the pan. Boil it until it's golden brown.

3. While the sugar mixture is boiling, bring the cream, butter, and salt to a simmer over medium heat in a small pot. Once simmering, remove from heat.

4. When sugar has turned golden brown, remove from heat and slowly add the cream mixture to it. It will bubble up so be careful and go slow. Stir in the vanilla with a wooden spoon and cook over medium low for 10 minutes until candy thermometer reads 248 degrees. (We found we needed to increase the burner temp. to medium in order to get to this temp. This is also when Tim added half the bottle of vanilla, instead of 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla)

5. Carefully pour the hot caramel into the pan (which I put two hot pads under) and refrigerate a few hours until firm. (This is when Tim and I got into an argument over if to put the hot pan into the fridge right away or not. He made me wait an hour)

6. When caramel is cold and set, remove from pan and cut square in half. Roll up tightly creating two 8 inch long logs. Using a sharp knife, cut the caramels into bite sized pieces and wrap them in parchment paper. Store and serve chilled.

REALITY: I would RECOMMEND this recipe and although it was a little bit intimidating, I used my old pots just in case I really messed it up, it was fairly easy and the results are delicious! I am planning on using this and some bread recipes for gift baskets this year at Christmas, but without Tim's help next time :)