Salted Caramels.

Happy New Year!

I've been away for the past few weeks, so this is my first post since Christmas! I'm glad to be back.
How was your New Year's eve? Brent and I went to the Falls Festival in Marion Bay with some of our friends, and it looked a bit like this:

And then Brent and I went on a trip to his shack up north for a week and it looked a bit like this:


So, I've had a very relaxed holiday and it's about time I finish posting my Christmas recipes (how slack that I didn't do it before).

(And in these really hard times we are facing, I think it's good to be able to be thankful for the holidays you can take. I wouldn't be surprised if the people of Queensland wish they were on holiday somewhere else at the moment.)

I made these salted caramels to give as gifts to my large family for Christmas, and they were pretty tasty. I had a bit of trouble with them though. The first recipe I used didn't work so well, and I ended up with a too salty mess of sweet, softly sticky caramels, which isn't really what I wanted. I don't think the instructions on the recipe were very instructive, if you know what I mean. I wanted chewy, not too hard-not  too soft caramels, that would travel well, and this recipe from Everybody Likes Sandwiches was perfect.
After one disaster, I finally got it right.

So I think you should face your candy fears and try this recipe. It's not that hard, promise! And it's totally rewarding. You'll definitely feel like Susie Housewife after making these.

Salted Caramels.
From Everybody Likes Sandwiches.

1 cup thin cream
5 tbs butter, diced
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/4 cup glucose syrup
1/4 cup water

Lightly grease some baking paper and line a square 23×23cm dish.
In a small saucepan, bring cream, butter, and salt to a boil. Set aside.
In a large saucepan, boil water, glucose and sugar, whisking until sugar is dissolved. Boil mixture (don’t stir!) until a deep caramel colour is reached, about 150C (300F). It the caramel isn't quite dark enough, you can cook it higher than this temperature.
Very slowly pour in cream mix (it will bubble up), stirring frequently over a rapid boil until caramel reaches around 120C (250F) on thermometer, about 10 minutes.
Pour into baking dish and cool for at least 2 hours. Cut into pieces and wrap in waxed paper.