Sea salt caramels

Every Valentine's Day, I give something homemade to the special guy I am seeing. It is never terribly expensive, and never over the top; just something that says, "I was thinking about you". In years past, I have made brownies, painted a coffee mug, and made cards - some of which looked like they were made by a three year old as I never seem to know when to put the glue down! haha I hope my last boyfriend destroyed the evidence of my crafting retardation. So this year there will be no card; instead, I am making sea salt caramels.

Making your own candy always elicits praise and adoration disproportionate to the effort you put into it, and that's not a bad thing. So whip up these delicious, chewy caramels, give them to the one you love, and bask in adoration reserved for candy making gods or godesses.


Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 6 tbsp butter
• 1 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 3/8 cup corn syrup
• 3/8 cup water
• 3/4 cup dark chocolate chips
• 1 heaping tsp butter
• sea salt for sprinkling on top of caramels

Method

1. Line an 8x8" pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
2. In a small saucepan, combine cream, butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt. Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly until just barely boiling. Remove from heat and set aside.
3. In a large saucepan (3-4 quart, tall sides), combine sugar, corn syrup, and water. Heat until boiling, stirring often.
4. Continue boiling the sugar mixture without stirring; instead, occasionaly lift and swirl the pot. Boil until the sugar mixture is caramel colour. Be sure to constantly watch the pot as once the syrup begins changing colour, it changes quickly and you do not want it to get too dark as it will taste burnt.
5. When the sugar mixture is a nice caramel colour, pour the cream mixture into the sugar mixture while stirring constantly. Use caution as the caramel will foam up.
6. Continue boiling the caramel until it reaches precisely 250f. The second it reaches 250f, remove the pan from heat. This is important as a couple of degrees when candy making means the difference between crunchy caramel and nice chewy caramel.
7. Pour the caramel into the prepared pan.
8. After the caramel has been allowed to fully cool, remove it from the pan and cut into pieces. (I used a small heart shaped cookie cutter)
9. In a microwave safe bowl, combine chocolate chips and 1 heaping teaspoon of butter. Microwave on high 15 seconds at a time, stirring after each cycle, until the chocolate is melted.
10. Dip the caramel pieces in the melted chocolate. Place on a parchment lined cookie sheet to allow the chocolate to set.
11. After approximately 20 minutes, when the chocolate has begun to set, sprinkle one of the chocolate covered caramels with a few grains of sea salt. If the salt turns transparent, let the chocolate set a bit longer. You want the salt to stick to the chocolate, but not dissolve in the chocolate. When the salt sticks, but does not dissolve, continue sprinkling all of the caramels
12. Wrap each caramel in a square of wax paper.

Tip: For $2.99 I bought a small, stainless steel box at Michael's craft store, which I then lined with parchment paper. You could also use rafia to attach a gift tag and to tie the tin as you would with a ribbon.
Enjoy! :D