Salted Caramels In My Cup

I haven't totally went off the deep end.  I may get there eventually however.  But not today.  Today I have decided to forgo the workout and sit down with my nice cup o caramels (or carmels depending on how you pronounce it).

I get lot's of compliments on how crafty I am.  I have a hard time with compliments and it's hard for me to just smile and say thank you and mean it.  It's a personal issue that I work on.  I mention that because for everything that I do well there are four projects hiding most likely in the garage that people will never see.

My salted carmelly goodness happens to be one of those this week.

I followed this recipe.  I decided to try and pull this off before the mad dinner rush.  The instructions however say that there is only 24 minutes of cooking time.  It lies.

Good Eat's Salty Caramels by Alton Brown

I have successfully pulled this recipe off in the past.  It was very tasty and well received.  The last two batches I have attempted have ended in culinary heart break.  The first batch was full of Mommy interruptions and the syrup got burned beyond recognition.  The second batch was 45 minutes in and not reaching it's thermal destination.  I pulled it at 225*.  I figured it was my good old fashioned thermometer messing with me.  I was wrong.  I went to cut into what looked to be a perfect batch of caramels only to be greeted by oooooey gooooey caramels and not firm chewies.  Of course Hubs had to add salt to the wounds by mentioning that was a big phat 0 for 2.

Ouch.

Culinary Confidence took a direct hit.

After committing 45 minutes to the batch I couldn't throw it out.  It's delicious.  Just not the texture I was looking for.  I follow the directions to the letter except for I cut the soy in half and add a tsp of Vanilla.  It's at this stage where it's too thick to be a sauce and too thin to be a candy.

It is however pretty darn tasty on the edge of a spoon.

I guess it's all about perspective.