Homemade Salted Caramels

I was browsing recipes one morning thinking about how to use up the heavy cream that I had at home when I came across this recipe for Salted Caramels. I love the idea of chewy homemade caramels free of High Fructose Corn Syrup and nasty preservatives plus I had all the ingredients at home.

Homemade Salted Caramels

This is a combination of recipes from Martha Stewart and Gourmet and originally called for corn syrup which I replaced with mild agave nectar with no problems. I also taped my parchment paper to the glass dish to keep it in place which made my life a whole lot easier. They came out soft chewy and delicious and they wrapped up so nicely in parchment paper. Adding a little vanilla probably wouldn't hurt either. Makes about 45 little candies but you can easily double it..I tripled it and then made one more batch to have plenty to give you.

Adapted from Sarah at The Domestic District

1 cup heavy cream

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1 teaspoon fleur de sel

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/4 cup light agave syrup (also works with half agave half honey but you will taste the honey just a bit)

1/4 cup water

Line an 8×8″ glass baking dish with parchment and grease really well with butter.

Bring cream, butter and salt to a boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a medium saucepan, bring sugar, agave and water to a boil, stirring just until the sugar is dissolved. Then continue boiling without stirring until the mixture is a light golden color and a candy thermometer reaches 250 degrees. Don’t worry how long this takes – some recipes say it takes 10 minutes and others say up to 45 minutes. The important thing is that it reaches 250 degrees and is a light golden caramel color.

When this happens, carefully stir in the butter/cream mixture. The caramel will bubble up, so be careful. Stir constantly and continue to cook until the mixture reaches 248 degrees.

Then pour into the prepared baking dish and let cool at least 2 hours (LF note: I probably let it go more like 3 or 4. It's easier to slice that way). Sprinkle the top of the caramels with a generous amount of nice sea salt. When the mixture has set, cut into pieces and wrap in parchment paper. (LF note: try to to handle the caramels to much when cutting a wrapping since the body heat from your hands will soften them).