Sea Salt Caramels

I had a serious sweet tooth this weekend so I decided to make some sea salt caramels. I have NEVER made any candy from scratch before but since I've been making all my baby food lately I'm gettin' pretty brave in the kitchen. I used a recipe from Barefoot Contessa but had to alter it to use grey sea salt instead of the fleur de sel. They turned out so delicious that I gave most of them away and only ended up with these two...

Recipe

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon fleur de sel, plus more for sprinkling
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract


Line the bottom of a loaf pan with parchment paper, then brush lightly with oil, allowing the paper to drape over sides of pan.


In a saucepan combine sugar, corn syrup and 1/2 cup of water and bring to a boil over medium- high heat. Continue to boil until caramel is a warm golden brown color. Don't stir - just swirl the pan to mix. Be careful not to burn it!


In the meantime, bring the cream, butter, and 1 teaspoon fleur de sel to a simmer in a small pan over medium heat. Remove from heat, set aside and keep warm.


When the caramelized sugar is the right color, slowly add the cream mixture - it will boil up violently. Stir in the vanilla with a wooden spoon and cook over medium heat for 5 to 10 minutes, until mixture reaches 248 degrees (firm ball) on a candy thermometer. Very carefully pour the mixture into the loaf pan and refrigerate until firm.


Once the caramels are cool, remove from loaf pan, sprinkle with the salt and cut into squares. Use pieces of parchment paper to wrap and twist the caramels. Store in the refrigerator or at room temperature.