Soft and Chewy Caramels

These caramels are the best! I absolutely love them, they have the perfect texture and taste. I also like to make pecan turtles with some of the caramels, and those instructions are below the recipe for the caramels.


Soft and Chewy Caramels
2 cups Sugar
1 cup Light Corn Syrup
2 cups Half-and-Half Cream, divided
1 cup Butter
1 teaspoon Vanilla
Line a 13x9 inch pan with waxed paper and butter the paper (or use a glass pan and butter that), then set aside. Put sugar, corn syrup, and 1 cup cream into a large saucepan (5 qt.) and bring to a boil over medium heat while stirring constantly. Slowly stir in remaining cream. Continue cooking over medium heat, while stirring constantly, until candy reaches hard-ball stage (250 degrees) then remove from heat immediately. Stir butter and vanilla into sugar mixture until mixed completely together (takes a few minutes) then pour caramel into buttered pan. Cool and cut into small pieces. Wrap candy in small pieces of waxed paper if desired.

Pecan Turtles
at least 8 oz semi-sweet or milk chocolate
6 oz bag Pecan halves
To make turtles, put pecans in the bottom of the buttered pan and pour caramel over them. Once caramels are cooled and cut into pieces put the pieces on waxed paper and pour melted chocolate over them. Let the chocolate set for a few hours and then the turtles will be ready to serve.

Makes about 2 pounds of candy.

English Toffee

Yummy, yummy toffee pieces

This toffee is so rich and buttery, exactly how toffee should be. I always make it around the holidays to give as a gift and for guests to snack on. Candy making during the holidays is a tradition for me, starting when I was a teenager and I would get together with a friend of mine to make different candies. I hope you enjoy making this, and the other candies I will be posting, as much as I have over the years.

A quick note on candy thermometers: I have never had the best of luck with them and prefer to check my candy the old fashioned way, by dropping it in water and observing what stage it is in. Usually I use a candy thermometer but I also check the candy the old way. To do this you should drop a little of the candy mixture into cold water and see what it feels and looks like when to you take it out of the water with your fingers. If it is at the hard crack stage it should form strings (or small blobs, it doesn't always form strings in my experience) when it gets into the water and it should be hard to the touch; Also, when you taste it it should be brittle and not stick to your teeth (i.e. it shouldn't be chewy at all). If you want to know how to tell the other stages you can search online, but any older cookbook should also have that information.

Enjoy your candy making!

English Toffee (From Taste of Home Magazine)
2 cups Butter and a little additional butter for the pan
2 cups Sugar
1 cup Pecans or Almonds (sliced or crushed)
3/4 cup Milk Chocolate Chips

toffee when it first started boiling

Butter a 15x10 inch pan and set aside. In a medium sized saucepan over medium-low heat bring butter and sugar to a boil while stirring constantly. Once mixture is boiling, cover and cook for 2-3 minutes. Uncover and begin stirring again until mixture reaches 300 degrees (hard-crack stage) and turns golden brown. When the toffee gets close to this point it will have cooked down a far amount and will resemble a very thick syrup and it will pull away from the sides of the pan.

Pour the mixture into the buttered 15x10 inch pan and spread out evenly. Sprinkle nuts immediately over the toffee and press in with you fingers then sprinkle the chocolate chips on top. Once chips have softened you may spread them around a bit if you wish.

Let toffee cool in the refrigerator for about 2 hours then break into pieces.

This recipe makes about 2 1/2 pounds of candy.