Classic Caramel Recipe

This is adapted from Joy of Cooking.

1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup corn syrup
1 cup butter
2 cups cream
1 tsp vanilla

Heat sugar, corn syrup, butter, and 1 cup of the cream in a medium saucepan. Stir continuously until caramel reaches temperature of 244 degrees F. Remove from heat.

Stir in the remaining one cup of cream very gradually. Put back on the stove and heat again until temp reaches 244. Add vanilla (careful, it will sizzle a bit!).

Use for whatever you like at this point--caramel popcorn, caramel nut squares, caramel apples, etc.

I poured it into a buttered pyrex pan and then stirred pecans into it. Cut into square when cool. YUM. Caramel is basically the best ever.

Scotcheroos

I made these last night for some friends who came over for games. They turned out AWFUL, so I wanted to post a couple warnings (mainly for myself to remember) that will help you with this recipe. Normally these are delicious. The recipe comes from allrecipes.com.

• 1 cup Karo® Light Corn Syrup
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 6 cups crispy rice cereal
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup butterscotch chips

1. Cook corn syrup and sugar together in a large pan over medium heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Bring mixture to a boil. Remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter; mix well. Add cereal; stir until evenly coated.
2. Pour into greased 13x9-inch pan and pat into place.
3. Melt chocolate and butterscotch chips together in saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly. Spread over cereal.
4. Cool at least 45 minutes, or until firm. Cut into bars.

Here are my notes of warning:

#1) As soon as the sugar mixture boils, REMOVE FROM HEAT. Don't let it cook a single minute--that will make your scotcheroos super hard! You may even break your tooth!

#2) Don't use expired butterscotch chips. They are gross!!! (I didn't notice until it was too late.)

#3) Use high quality chocolate chips! Nothing cheap! Cheap is nasty!

#4) Grease your pan with butter, not PAM!

#5) Use 1 pack of chocolate chips and 1 pack of butterscotch chips. You won't regret it!