Make caramels!
People, I am up to my elbows in sugar and butter and heavy cream. I recently introduced a line of confections at the bakery, and I have been on one long sugar high ever since. My caramels have been especially popular lately - to keep up with the demand most days of the week I'm making 60 or so dozen of the individually wrapped treats...and eating just a few less than that.
The Oregonian recently published my basic caramel recipe - these little delights are perfect if you're doing some last minute goody creation (hint: you could also tuck the recipe away for Valentine's Day) or simply want to have some top-notch candy on hand for Santa.
Here's a link to the recipe, complete with some great step by step photography showing you all the stages of cooking sugar.
If I were you, I'd follow the variation for Sea Salt Caramels. I thought the salted caramel trend was waning, but apparently not. These are hands down our most popular caramel this year...people are nuts for salt with their caramel! It doesn't hurt that we use quality sea salt harvested on our very own Oregon coast. (But you could use any good sea salt (Maldon) - variation information can be found at the end of the recipe.)
My hands! A bowl of caramels!
