Old Fashioned Caramels

Years ago, all the women in my family each got a book for Christmas entitled "Sleigh Bells and Sugarplums" by Frances A Gillette & Daughters. It's a book that is full of old stories, poems and recipes. Although I've cracked it open many times, this is the first time I've ever tried one of the recipes and, after some adjustments, have decided it was a good choice.

I've loved homemade caramels for years now. The first I remember eating was made by Sandy Kestner and now I'm hooked. This batch will most likely be gone in the next day or two...

I made two batches of caramels - the first had a few issues. It turned out too hard for my liking and I thought I'd be smart by layering waxed paper in the bottom of the pan and buttering that. Didn't work so well. the paper was fused to the caramels. I'm just glad I did a second batch - it would have bugged me that I couldn't pull off a decent caramel. (More of my issues shining through!)

My disaster with the waxed paper

Here's the recipe with my adjustments in parentheses:

Sprinkle on bottom of buttered 9x13" pan:

1/2 cup chopped nuts (I don't like nuts so I left them out. I also used an 8x11" pan - the 9x13" was too big...)

Put in saucepan (be sure to use a large enough pan - the mixture bubbles up to 4 or 5 times it's original size):

2 cups sugar

1 cup light corn syrup

1 cup margarine - don't use butter - it can burn

1 cup half & half or evaporated milk (I used half & half)

Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. (Be patient and don't turn up the heat. This whole process takes about an hour, so be sure to give yourself plenty of time)

Then gradually stir in 1 cup more half & half or canned milk. Continue to stir as mixture thickens and cook to 250 degrees on candy thermometer. (This is where the chewiness and hardness comes in. 250 was too hot and made the caramels more like a soft toffee than a caramel, so with the second batch, I only brought it to 235, which is perfect - for me...nice and chewy)

This was at about 200 degrees...close to foaming out of the pan!

This was closer to 225 degrees - getting there!

Remove from heat and pour over nuts in pan (once again, no nuts for me - yuck!).

Once the caramel has cooled, cut into squares and wrap in waxed paper.

My batch, the one I could actually eat, yielded about 90 caramels. Plenty for a few days, right? I shared with co-workers and everyone gave them high marks, although you can't be too sure they weren't just being nice :)

This one is definitely going to be added to my Christmas goodies!

Sludge Cups

This idea came from a Halloween book that I have and it looked fun and tastey so I thought I'd give it a try.

The sludge cups are really easy to make. You prepare one kind of Jello, following the directions on the box, and pour the Jello, dividing it evenly, into 6 - 6 oz cups. I had 10 oz cups available, so whatever you have works, but you want them to be clear. While the Jello is still liquid, the book tells you to put gummy worms, bugs or whatever other candies you might want in. Then you wait for that kind of Jello to set before repeating the process with a different kind of Jello.

The different colors are fun, and I kind-of mulched the top layer of Jello in the cup on the left to make it look more "scary", but what's not fun is eating the sludge cups.

Don't get me wrong. I'm sure kids would get a kick out of these and not have any problems - kids'll eat anything. This is the problem I had with eating the cups:

Jello - Good.

Gummy Worms - Good.

Gummy Worms in Jello - Nasty Crap.

The gummy worms were magically transformed during this whole process. Sorry Beth - I hadn't tried one before I made you eat one. The gummies take on a strange taste and an even stranger texture. Gross.

So. My advice is if you want to make these (cause they really are fun...) do it without the gummies. Or, just plan on kids eating them and save yourself from having to eat the rest of the contents in your fridge in order to remove the nasty taste in your mouth.