Crack....aka Salted Caramels

Well...its that time of year when we all eat sooo much, I am starting to see cookies, candies, chocolates, cakes, pies, cupcakes....Its just that time of year....so I thought I would get into the spirit...I was making some caramel apples as a test for an event I am catering next month and when I was finished with the test...I had a pot full of caramel left....and I was trying to figure out...what I would do with it....and I decided...Well, I'll pour it out into a pan and sprinkle some sea salt on it and turn it into chewy salted caramel candies...and thats exactly what I did.

They were a BIG hit in the office. So you can give this a try and I promise EVERYONE will love it.
(BTW, the title is Crack because I actually don't like caramels....but if you put some salt in it...I apparently am ADDICTED to it :P)

Ingredients: 


1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temp
2 cups brown sugar, packed
1 cup light corn syrup
1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp Sea salt (I use pink Himalayan sea salt…I think the actual fleur de sel might be even better)

Directions: 

1. In a saucepan combine the butter, brown sugar, corn syrup, condensed milk. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. 
2. Cook and stir until the candy thermometer hits 244 (this is the temp for the chewy candies, but if you want it slightly harder, let it go to 248). 
3. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla and 2 pinches of sea salt.
4. To make the candy, I covered a rimmed rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and then buttered up the foil (you have to make sure you do a really thorough job with this or the candy will be forever stuck to the foil lols)
5. Pour the caramel onto the baking sheet
6. Then before it set, I sprinkled it with the salt (ok…so I actually forgot to do it before it set, since this was a last minute addition to what I was making, but next time, I’d sprinkle the salt on top so that by the time it set, the salt would be more trapped in the caramel rather than just sitting right on top)….if you don’t like the caramel right on top, you can mix it in….for a batch this size, I would put in 1 tsp and a little to sprinkle on top
7. Let the caramel cool for about 4-5 hours. It will solidify in shape, but still be soft enough to cut
8. Peel it from the buttered foil.
9. Cut into strips about 3/4 inch wide, then cut into squares. (I used a pizza cutter to cut the pieces out)
10. Enjoy....they are pretty irresistible....you probably cant just have one :P