Homemade Caramels

Every year, growing up, my family made homemade caramels during the Christmas season. We only made them during the holiday season and it was something we all looked forward to. We would make at least one, usually two batches a year, and always gave them out to people and enjoyed our fair share ourselves.

Since we've been married I've made it every year too and now it's fun to have the boys help me stir it. It does require quite a bit of stirring - but in my adult years it doesn't seem quite as long. hehehe

Some of you asked for the recipe so here it is. It's amazing!!!!! you have to make it.

Homemade Caramels

1 cup of Butter

2 cups of white sugar

2 cups of light corn syrup

2 cans of sweetened condensed milk

1/2 cup of flour

1 tsp of vanilla

Melt the butter, then add the sugar and corn syrup. Bring to a boil and boil for 5 minutes over medium heat. 

Add 1 and half cans of the sweetened conds. milk. Mix the flour into the other half can of cond. milk then add also. 

Boil that until it reaches 240 degrees. This is always tricky. We never had a thermometer so the test we used - drizzle a little bit into a cup of cold water. If it forms a medium hard ball once it's cooled in the water it is ready. This is the only tricky part of the process. If it cooks too long the caramels will be very hard. And if you don't cook it long enough it will be too chewy to eat. So it's a skill getting the caramel just right. :)

Turn off heat when reaches 240 degrees and add the tsp of vanilla in. Stir thoroughly then pour out into a regular size cookie sheet that is heavily greased (make sure to grease it well b/c the caramels will stick to it)

It's fun to make b/c it's always a guessing game whether it's ready or not and hoping that it will turn out. I think most years growing up we would make one batch that wasn't quite right but the second we would nail. :) Every year I've made it in my adult life I've gotten it just right - until this year. :( It was too hard and I actually made a whole new batch b/c I hope to give it away to neighbors. This was also the year I had the boys help me the most and maybe that was the issue - that's right - I'll just blame it on them. :)