Sea Salt Caramels

Ingredients

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• ¾ cup Karo light corn syrup
• 1 cup evaporated milk (note: this is NOT a full can)
• 1 pint (2 cups) heavy whipping cream
• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1 tsp. sea salt
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Instructions

1. First calibrate your thermometer by placing in boiling water for 10 minutes. It should read 212°. If it doesn't, adjust your goal temperature for this recipe based on how many degrees you are off. For instance, my thermometer always registers 210°, so I cook my caramel until it reaches 246° instead of 248° like the recipe calls for.
2. Line a jelly roll pan (11"x15") with parchment paper and lightly spray or butter the sides where the parchment paper doesn't cover.
3. In a large pot, combine the sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup, evaporated milk, whipping cream, butter, and sea salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula. I cook over the largest burner on my gas stove on a heat setting of 4. Be sure that you are constantly scraping the sides, edges, and bottom of the pan, and do not leave unattended for more than a couple of seconds.
4. Continue stirring, monitoring the temperature with a candy thermometer, until thermometer reaches 248°. The temperature reading will probably bounce up and down a bit, so I recommend stopping once you get three readings of 248°. On my gas stove, this takes me about 45 minutes; on my electric stove, this took closer to an hour.
5. When it reaches 248°, remove immediately from heat, remove the candy thermometer, and stir in the vanilla extract.
6. Immediately pour out the caramel into the lined jelly roll pan. Spread evenly with your spatula.
7. Wait 10-15 minutes, then sprinkle the surface of the caramels with large flake sea salt to your liking. If you sprinkle too soon, the salt just soaks in, too late, and it has trouble sticking to the surface.
8. When cooled completely, it is easy to lift out the parchment paper with the whole slab of caramel on it and place on a cutting board. I recommend using a sharp pizza cutter to cut into square or rectangle caramels. I usually do rectangles that are 1" x 2" and can get about 100 caramels, leaving us the edges to snack on.
9. Store at room temperature. If you allow these to chill or freeze, they will harden.

Notes