Holiday Treats

Christmas is my favorite time of year! I could spend an entire blog dedicated to the reasons why I love Christmas (the smell of the pine needles mixed with subtle cinnamon aromas from my mom’s favorite holiday candles, the visual stimulus of the beautifully wrapped gifts under the trees, my huge clan of siblings running out on Christmas morning to quickly unveil their gifts). However, over the last three years I have created a new and exciting (and just a little silly) reason to love the holidays.

Those of you who know me have probably by now figured out one very obvious and sometimes surprising personality trait. I love good food! It is a good thing I enjoy running and working out or else I would most definitely be nearing about 300 pounds with the way I can put down food. It is a running joke in my office to try to see who can out-eat me at company events. And of all the wonderful tastes and flavors, the one that tempts me the most are sweets. What better time of year than the holidays to give in to this wonderful little desire? I love to indulge in the richest and most decadent flavors that seem to come hand-in-hand with the holidays.

Three years ago I decided to try to share this joy of holiday treats with as many loved ones as possible. I decided I would make a batch of homemade caramels and homemade fudge and send them to friends and family in cute little holiday containers. Well, that first year ended up being quite a disaster. I wasn’t aware that caramels are very sensitive candies and that if you don’t cook them long enough they end up too soft and if you cook them too long they become brittle. My batch was much much too soft and they were nearly impossible to wrap in wax paper. The batch of fudge did not have much more of a success story. I had lined the glass pan with butter to prevent the fudge from sticking. However, when I went to cut the fudge out of the glass pan, it had a weird, thick, white film on the outer edge of the fudge. One consequence of putting too much butter on the pan. I was far too embarrassed to actually give these treats to people, so they ended up in a huge metal bowl on top of my fridge. Slowly but surely (and with the help of my seven roommates) the candies disappeared over the next few weeks. Although I am sure my roommates enjoyed the candies, they never made it to the hands and mouths of those they were intended. I vowed that the next year I would put more thought and preparation into my holiday candies.

Last year, I decided to reach out to my grandma. She had always made wonderful caramels each year and was one of my favorite memories of visiting her house during the holidays. She sent me her tried-and-true recipe for caramels…they turned out great! Last year I also decided to add a few additional goodies to my “treat bag” that I was handing out to friends. I included fudge (with a new and improved recipe this year), divinity, nut brittle, and gingerbread. It was a huge hit!! I individually wrapped the candies, put them in cute decorated holiday paper bags and topped the bags with holiday tissue paper. I was dubbed the “Martha Stewart” of the office as everyone chowed down on the goodies.

This year I have made it a goal to create the best holiday treats yet! In my pursuit of the greatest holiday candies and treats I came up with an idea: I will post my recipe for caramels. If anyone has any great recipes that you think I should add to the mix then let me know! Post it on here and I will promise to add it to my collection of treats that I hand out this year.

Grandma Hatch’s Homemade Caramel Recipe
1 cup margarine or butter (don’t use corn-oil margarine. It will make your caramels too soft).
1 16-ounce package (2 ¼ cups) packed brown sugar
2 cups light cream
1 cup light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla

Line an 8x8x2 or 9x9x2 inch baking pan with foil, extending foil over edges of pan. Butter the foil (or just spray it with cooking spray), set aside.

In a heavy and large pan, melt the butter over low heat. Add brown sugar, cream, and corn syrup; mix well. Cook and stir over medium-high heat to boiling. Clip a candy thermometer to the side of the pan. NOTE: Make sure that you do not leave the bottom of the thermometer touching the bottom of the pan as it will read inaccurately. Cook and stir mixture over medium heat to 248 degrees, firm-ball stage. This will take a while, about 45-60 minutes to do so. The temperature will probably linger at 225 for a while, that is normal, just keep stirring. You must continue stirring the entire time!

Remove the saucepan from heat; remove thermometer. Stir in vanilla. Immediately pour caramel mixture into the prepared pan. When caramel mixture is firm, us foil to lift it out of the pan. Use a buttered knife to cut into 1-inch squares. Wrap in caramel in wax paper and twist the ends of the wax paper around the caramel. Makes about 2 pounds (64 servings). Sometimes you can find wax paper with holiday prints, and that adds a nice touch when you are wrapping the caramels.

I hope you all enjoy this recipe as much as I do!!