Easy Gift- Caramel Treats

Over the weekend I made a batch of salted caramel and dark chocolate popcorn and ended up with way too much caramel. What a terrible problem to have. So I decided to pour it on a piece of wax paper and cool it in the fridge to decide what to do with it later.

The popcorn was for my mom for mother's day, and so I decided the caramel was rightfully hers, too. The next day it was nice and hard, so I cut off a piece and tried it: it was the most delicious caramel ever...and I'm not a big fan of caramel candies. It melts in your mouth and doesn't stick to your teeth like others I've tried. Here is the recipe I used:

1 stick of butter (half cup)
1 cup of brown sugar (lightly packed)
1/4 cup of corn syrup
1/4 teas. vanilla
1/4 teas. baking soda

Melt the butter over medium heat with the brown sugar and corn syrup. Let it bubble and then gently boil for a couple of minutes...when it starts to become brown in color take it off the heat and add the vanilla and baking soda. Stir vigorously as it turns a light creamy brown color and pour into a baking dish lined with wax paper (or over popcorn). Let it cool on the counter and then put into the fridge for an hour or overnight...whatever time you have.

Cut into small squares. I cut the wax paper it was sitting on into strips to cover them. The paper sticks if you just press gently with your thumb. Delicious! I only used about 1/3 of the caramel in the recipe for the actual squares, so I would expect the whole shebang makes a ton of candies...around 50? Enjoy!

You can see I got a little popcorn in mine by accident...a delicious mistake!

                           

Also, here's my silly pup on mother's day enjoying the breeze from the window