OuR cHrIsTmAs CaRaMeLs!

1 cup butter (no subs!)

2 1/2 cups packed brown sugar

1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk

1 cup light corn syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla

Heat butter on low.

Add everything except the vanilla, cook and stir over medium-high heat to boiling.

Carefully clip on candy thermometer, make sure it's not touching the bottom of the pan.

Cook and stir until thermometer hits firm-ball stage (248 degrees...about 15-20 minutes.)

Remove from heat and add vanilla.

Poor into prebuttered pan...you can line w/ foil.

When cooled cut and wrap.

***This year I found cellophane square wrappers at Orson Gygi! So worth it! But, normally

I have always wrapped them in wax paper.

***Here's the trick! The biggest thing is to calibrate your candy thermometer. To do this you boil your therm. in water for a few minutes. If the therm registers above or below 212 degrees you add or subtract the same difference in degrees from the recipe temperature. For example my therm. registered @ 200 D. So I subtracted 12 degrees from the caramel recipe and brought the temp to 236 degrees instead of 248. This makes the difference between soft and chewy caramels and hard as rock, chip your teeth caramels!