Sweet Tooth Sundays-Homemade Sea Salt Caramels

In this week's Sweet Tooth Sunday, I took on the dreaded CARAMEL! Oooooooo!

My attempt at caramels is adapted from this recipe here.

Sea Salt Caramels
2 cups sugar
1 ½ cups light corn syrup
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons sea salt

*Butter the sides of a 9x13 pan and set it aside.
*In a medium sauce pan, combine sugar, corn syrup, 1/2 of the can of sweetened condensed milk, and butter over medium-low heat. Stir until the butter and sugar is melted and bring to a boil (warning: this takes at least 20 minutes!).
*Once it starts boiling, add the remaining sweetened condensed milk.
*Let it return to a boil and do NOT stir. Let it get to the firm ball stage on a candy thermometer (248 degrees Fahrenheit).

*Remove the sauce pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla and sea salt.
*Carefully pour the mixture into the buttered pan (don't scrape the sides of the saucepan) and let cool completely
*Cut into squares and wrap in wax paper.

I think I did pretty good at my first shot at caramels. I forgot that my candy thermometer was off by 2 degrees, so they cooked a little longer than they were supposed to. They were more like Sugar Daddies than normal caramels. But, all-in-all, a success!