What could be better than making and eating caramels? I'll tell you...making and eating caramels with friends! My good friend Lori makes wonderful caramels....and she offered to teach Stephanie and me her secrets so we took her up on it! This is Stephanie's Christmas tree - isn't it beautiful? She pointed out all of her favorite ornaments - a lot of them handmade. I love popcorn on a tree - we never have it on ours though, probably because when I sit down with a bowl of popcorn to string I soon lose interest and just eat it.
Back to caramels.....the best part of making them with friends is that when your arm gets tired from stirring, you can pass the spoon off to them!
When I read Lori's caramel recipe to my mom, she said it sounded a lot like hers...so she went and got her recipe and lo and behold, it was exactly the same as Lori's! I have since discovered that this is a very old caramel recipe, the oldest cookbook I have, The Literary Guild of Arkansas's Cookbook, from 1929, has this exact same recipe in it! And this recipe has been around for so long because it's so good...creamy, chewy, caramel-ly...you need to make these today, and for Christmas and for every other holiday or when you need a nice gift to impress someone...they are that good!
Caramels - from Lori and her Mom and my Mom and her Mom and her mom, etc., etc.!
1 cup karo syrup
2 cups brown sugar
2 sticks butter
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla **
1 cup chopped pecans, optional - but I added them
Butter sides and bottom of a 9xs13 glass baking dish. Combine sugar, karo syrup and butter. Heat in a good, heavy-bottomed pan over medium heat until sugar dissolves, stirring constantly. Add sweetened condensed milk slowly, stirring until well blended, Continue to stir, constantly, until mixture is just beyond the soft- ball stage. If you are using a candy thermometer then right about 240 degrees, (if you want a chewier caramel then cook till about 242 degrees, at 240 degrees you'll have a nice soft caramel.) If you are using the cold water method, then make sure the caramel holds its shape when out of water and is somewhat firm. (Put about 1/2 cup of cold water into a glass and drop a bit or caramel in it. If the caramel can be shaped into a ball and it holds its shape out of water, then it's done.) Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and pecans, if using. Pour into buttered 9" x 13" pan. Let cool completely and then cut into pieces and wrap in pieces of waxed paper, twisting the ends to secure.
**We did a little taste test with the different vanilla's we had - and what a difference there was!
We all agreed that the one pictured on the far left, Xilkan, was the best - it had such a wonderful aroma and it smelled like vanilla should smell. Unfortunately it is from Mexico and it is not available for shipment to any U.S. address....but the next time someone you know goes to Mexico have them bring you back a bottle.....or a case....or a VAT!
The Pure Vanilla made by McCormick smelled medicinal, as did the Frontier brand and the Kirkland brand that we tried. The McCormick Imitation Vanilla smelled fine - not as good as the Mexican Vanilla but better than the real stuff!
We did find a little Mexican grocery market yesterday and they carried a brand called Molina and it smelled almost as good as the Xilkan brand - and it was a fraction of the cost of Real Vanilla from Safeway! Go figure!
It's not Consumer Reports.....but this consumer reports that she won't be buying REAL VANILLA any time soon!
