Homemade Caramel

I made caramel candy this weekend. Initially I was pretty scared it would not turn out since candy-making can be finicky & I basically have no experience. Plus, our house has been a little humid & that worried me too. Although my candy didn't harden up quite as much as I would like, I think a little time in the fridge will do the trick. I personally think the texture is perfect for candy eaten alone - just the right amount of chewy, but since I've never had homemade caramel before, I have nothing for comparison. Other than having caramel in candy & cookies, the only other caramel I know is from Kraft, which has a lot of nasty looking stuff listed in the ingredients. The candy is a bit soft, which makes for difficult clean cutting, so that seems to be a bit of a challenge. I plan on using this candy in some cashew-caramel cherry cookies. They're going into cookies - how bad could that be? Plus they taste fantastically delicious alone. Many things considered, maybe next time I need to allow the candy to get back to 250F instead of 244F after adding the butter & cream mixture. Plus, according to Martha's recipe, every step took a bit of time longer than it took my process, maybe I needed to lower the temperature & give the candy more time to cook? *Shrug* I have too much to learn about candy making! I have too much to learn, period.

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Homemade Golden Caramel
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk

1/4 cup H2O
1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt

1/2 stick of butter (4 tblspns), cut into pieces
1 tsp vanilla extract

• Line a half sheet pan with parchment paper. Set aside in a place where it can sit for 24 hours without being moved. (For thicker candy, line a smaller pan as candy does spread.)
  
• In a small saucepan, combine heavy cream + condensed milk. Cook slowly on low until warm, be careful not to bring to a boil.
• Meanwhile, in a heavy 6 - 8 quart pan (I used 2 quart), combine H2O, corn syrup, sugar & salt. Clip a candy thermometer to the pan. Over high heat, with a wooden spoon, stir mixture until sugar is dissolved ~4 - 12 minutes. Brush down the sides with a pastry brush dipped in water to remove sugar crystals.
• Once sugar is dissolved, stop stirring, reduce heat to medium, bring to a boil & without stirring, continue cooking until temperature reaches 250F (hard-ball stage), ~45 - 60 minutes (took me ~12 - 15 minutes).
• Keep an eye on cream mixture & make sure it's warm, but not boiling.
• When sugar mixture reaches 250F, while stirring, add butter pieces & SLOWLY add warmed cream mixture, be careful as this will bubble up & be extremely hot. Keep mixture boiling at all times.
• Stirring constantly, cook over medium heat until mixture reaches 244F (firm-ball stage), ~55 - 75 minutes (took me ~18 - 20 minutes).
• Stir in vanilla extract.
• Immediately pour into prepared pan without scraping pot.
• Let stand uncovered at room temperature, without moving, for 24 hours. (I tented mine with some parchment paper.) **To clean saucepan, fill the pot with H2O & bring to a boil, the caramel will dissolve & come off for easy cleaning.**
  
• Cut into pieces or desired shapes & wrap in cellophane or wax paper. (Pop in fridge for a few minutes before cutting to harden candy slightly if necessary.)