Chocolate-Dipped Caramels

Chocolate Dipped Caramels

These are great.  I want to eat them all.  It's late, and I just wanted to complete this post.  I'll write more another day. 

Chocolate-Dipped Nut Caramels

Ingredients

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 3/4 cup light corn syrup
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ cup light brown sugar
• ½ cup butter
• ¼ tsp coarse salt
• 1 cup walnuts, pecans, almonds, or macadamia nuts toasted
• seeds scraped from a 1-inch segment of vanilla bean pod
• 9 ounces of good milk chocolate, tempered (I like to use Dove Milk Chocolate) 

Instructions

1. Line an 8 x 8 inch baking dish with non-stick aluminum foil.  Set aside.

2. In a large heavy saucepan, combine cream, corn syrup, sugar, brown sugar, butter, and salt.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring often.  Once it comes to a boil, cook without stirring until mixture reaches 240°F.  Remove pan from heat.  Add nuts and vanilla seeds, stirring well to combine.  Pour into prepared dish.  Allow to cool for 1-2 hours.

3. Using foil as handles, lift caramel from dish.  Remove foil, and place caramel on a cutting board. Cut into 1-inch squares. (I like to use a pizza cutter and a plastic quilting ruler as a guide to get perfect squares.)

4. Line a flat cookie sheet with wax paper or parchment paper.  Melt chocolate over double boiler, and temper it.  Drop 3-4 caramel cubes into the chocolate at a time, and remove with two forks, tapping one fork on the other to remove excess chocolate.  Place carefully on prepared cookie sheet.  When all caramels are coated, set aside and allow chocolate to firm up at room temperature.

Makes 64 caramels.