Salted Caramel Party Favors

As promised, here  are the details on the best caramels ever. Seriously, these were amazing.  

caramels2

I found the recipe and a great how-to video at The Inspired Taste.  I highly recommend reading their entire post and watching the video they made.  I will add a couple other tips:  whatever you do, don’t use wax paper, and don’t bother spending additional money to get a digital candy thermometer (I bought one at Sur la table, and the stupid thing blacked out when it hit 250 degrees.  The first batch of caramel was a sticky burnt mess because of that fancy thermometer).  

Each batch I cooked made about 30 caramels…

caramels1It definitely helped to put the blocks in the fridge for a bit before cutting.  

caramels5After cutting, I wrapped each one in pretty parchment paper…

caramel3Then, after lots of cooking, cooling, cutting, and twisting, I ended up with a huge pile of these tasty treats…

caramels4

Each guest received two caramels in a little decorative box. I originally bought bags at a party store, but I didn’t exactly love them.  Shortly after buying the bags from the party store I found some plain white boxes at Dollar Tree.  I knew I could decorate them and end up with a cuter box than the original (and less expensive:  bonus).  So, I punched out about 90 crosses using a decorative punch I bought at Hobby Lobby (Oh, FYI, don’t bother looking for anything with crosses on it at JoAnn because apparently they don’t carry anything like that.  I am not sure why I didn’t start at Hobby Lobby, but now I know to go there first for anything religious).  I added the crosses to the bags with some think foam stickers, and tied a ribbon on each.  Viola! Simple and delicious Salted Caramel Party Favors:

baptism centerpiece

(which apparently in all the chaos I did not snap a clear photo of!).  

Have you attempted making caramel before?  How many tries did it take for you to get it right?  Have you made another other types of candy?  

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