Since getting my candy/jelly thermometer from Amazon.com recently I have learned a new and entirely dangerous skill: making caramels for Christmas gifts.
I know they are dangerous because:
- Somebody had to scrape out all candy that stuck to the saucepan, right?
- I couldn’t in good conscience give a gift without making sure it tasted OK.
These are much better than OK. They’re incredibly rich, more like buttery toffee than Kraft caramels. I sprinkled sea salt on half of them. Frugal sea salt, from a bottle left behind by a departing tenant back when I still managed the building.
The other ingredients – butter, brown sugar, corn syrup and sweetened condensed milk – were all purchased on sale and with coupons. The pieces were wrapped in wax paper from a box I bought for 50 cents from a dollar-store clearance bin (yes, really).
The total cost was $5.18 for two and a half pounds of candy. I did have to pay for postage – just as I did for my homemade jams – but this is still a pretty cheap gift.
It’s also a special gift. Most people don’t make their own jam or candy and thus are delighted when they receive such things as presents. If they only knew that all I really did was boil a few ingredients for 15 or 20 minutes.
I added two ounces of unsweetened chocolate to the second batch of caramels. The result is exactly like eating chocolate butter. Maybe I should stop cooking future batches before they set, and gift it in half-pint jars. Wouldn’t that be fun to eat on really good bread? Like Nutella without the hazelnuts? (Because hazelnuts are fattening.)
Wool socks and candy
Usually I give homemade jams as holiday gifts. But I was gone pretty much the whole summer and missed the chance to pick, glean or buy local fruits. Thus I decided to send away for a candy thermometer and try my hand at homemade sweets.
Yes, candy thermometers are available in nearby stores but this one was free thanks to Amazon gift cards that I won on Swagbucks – yet another reason you should sign up for that rewards site.
To do so with my referral code (thanks!), go to the Swagbucks widget in the bottom right corner on this page and click on “sign up.” When you’re asked if you have any promotional codes, try this one: RewardsChat10 (case-sensitive). It may or may not give you an extra 100 points right off the bat, for a grand total of 130. I don’t know if the code is still good – it was given to me last week – but it’s worth a shot.
Then use your Swagbucks powers for good. I was able to get several holiday gifts for free and also buy a few things for myself, such as wool socks for my trip to Alaska and also this new toy, the candy thermometer. In the future a whole lot of folks are going to get homemade sweets for the holidays, if only so that I can lick the pan. Nom.
Anybody else here planning to do edible holiday gifts? What kinds?
Ooooh nummy!
One year we made holiday breads for everyone. That was really popular.
This year probably not so much with the food. I’m currently having an on-off relationship with food for various reasons, which, if history is to be a guide (and things continue), is going to be completely off come December.
I can’t decide which I like better, the salted or unsalted, the plain or the chocolate. Then I realized I shouldn’t play favorites because it’s unkind.
Now, I want to bake…..aaack! One year my sil gave us a platter of homemade candy, apologizing for the lack of a gift because they were broke. I assured her very sincerely that the huge platter of candy was better than gifts since I don’t make homemade candy. She seemed to believe me and my children were very vocal, saying the same thing as they dove for the candy. SIL seemed pleased rather than dejected like she looked as she apologized.
YUM! My mouth is watering.
In the past we have made truffles, cookies and fudge as gifts. A friend of mine has made homemade Kahlua, although that has to be planned and started earlier on. That stuff is awesome!
I got my hands on some wax cappings fresh from a friend’s beehive, and I’m learning how to turn it into gorgeous beeswax. I’m going to combine it with mineral oil to make a conditioning lotion for wood (wooden spoons and cutting boards mostly). I’ve got pics of the wax works on my blog but I can’t post about the final bit because my mom reads my blog and she’s a recipient!
It isn’t totally frugal – it cost me ~$10 for the pot I used to work with the wax (you can’t use pans you want to use for food), I have to buy more mineral oil, and it will cost me another $1 or so per jar for packaging; if I print labels that will cost a little too, but all in all the presents should be under $5 each. I think.
@Bethh: Well, you only had to buy the pot once and you can use it multiple times.
I wanted a pot I could use to melt paraffin to put on top of jams, but I didn’t want to pay for it. Since I was in no hurry, I watched the “free” boxes at yard sales and yep, I found one.
Haven’t used it yet, but next year I may start paraffin-ing the ones I plan to keep for myself. I’ll still seal the ones I give as gifts.
Thanks for reading, and for leaving a comment.
We make caramels every year for Christmas and use them for gifts. It has become a tradition. People look forward to them. They are to die for. But they are a lot of work. 45 minutes of cooking to get to 238 degrees (trial and error – this is best). Also all the wrapping of the pieces. That’s why we only do it once per year. So far we only do the plain vanilla ones. Haven’t tried salt on them. Also I don’t find the ingredients that cheap – but we do get lots of pieces. After Christmas I buy lots of small gift bags and use these next year for the caramels.
My husband works for a Tree company and does a lot of clean up for ornamental fruit trees. So he can glean all the apples he wannts .We do homemade Apple Butter and Cider from the gleaned apples. Also do the spiced tea mix and soup in a jar if we can.
When melting wax a pot is not necessary. You c an create a double boiler using a canning jar in a pot of water. The unused wax stays in the jar (cover it) until you need it again. This year one of the homemade gifts I am giving is real vanilla. The beans can be re used a number of times which reduces the cost of the gift quite a bit. I started it in October which makes it ready to use by Christmas. I also packaged up my herbs to add to the gift box for my cooker girl friends. I would be interested in the caramel recipe if you’re in a sharing mood.
@Lynn: Thanks for the tip on wax in jars. I was going to use the pot as a double boiler and then remove when the wax when it was semi-solid.
The caramel recipe is above. And the more I think about finely chopped peanuts on the caramel, the more I think it would taste like a Squirrel Nut Zipper. 😛
I’ve decided to make a batch of them for my church’s annual rummage sale, the delightfully named Superfluity. There’s a bake sale at the same time. I calculate that one batch of caramels, wrapped individually, could bring a lot more than if I were to donate a single cake or pie.
I see there are 2 Lynns here. LOL
I used the Swagbucks code on Monday night (11/14). As of then, it was still working. Thanks for sharing it!
@Jessica: Thanks for letting me know — and for joining. I recommend checking the “ways to earn” section on the Swagbucks landing page (down at the bottom). Also, get in the habit of checking the Swagbucks Facebook page throughout the day, and when you see fans writing “thanks for the code!” start looking for it: on the Swagbucks widget, the Twitter page or the blog. Often people leave a hint as to where the code can be found. When I find one I try to hint at it on my own Facebook page.
Okay, you’ve just made me really really hungry. Perhaps you could set up a side business selling these caramels to loyal readers? 🙂
Chocolate covered marshmallows. I get the melting chocolate at the craft store with a half off coupon. Melt it in a bowl, (in the wave)then dip the marshmallows in and roll them around. To get them out, pick at them lightly with a toothpick and place them on wax paper. You can decorate with crushed nuts, etc. Really good.
@Carol: The same cookbook has a recipe for marshmallows. Boy, that would be fancy: homemade marshmallows dipped in chocolate.
Of course, you might be setting a dangerous precedent, i.e., your friends would expect such treatment every year.
Would you consider sharing you recpie for those caramels? !?!
Oh, Donna. Once again you inspire me.
I have dozens and dozens of magazine pages with Christmas candy recipes that I’ve been saving over the years because “this is the year I’m going to make them”.
This could be my Christmas of self-loathing, after I cook all this great sounding stuff and eat most of it myself.
Sea salt and caramels – please share your recipe!
@ImJuniperNow: The recipe is above and as you will see it’s pretty easy. Incidentally, it came from a 1960s-era Better Homes and Gardens cookbook (the red and white one) that I got for 50 cents at a rummage sale.
I forgot to add that you can dip individual pieces into sea salt before wrapping. Or maybe kosher salt? I buy kosher salt at the dollar store. Maybe your dollar store has sea salt. Mmmmm, salty sweet…
I made caramels last year, and while they were tasty (you HAVE to try out your own goods), I also got a 2nd degree burn while making them…the spatula flew out of my hand and touched my other hand, and it turns out that the sugary mix is really really really hot and sticky, and when you pull it off, skin comes with it. Luckily, the caramel mix was unharmed, but I’ve been leery ever since. I stick to trying different sugar cookie recipes, homemade vanilla, orange slice cookies, peanut brittle (again, being VERY careful), and fudge. I love fudge. I can’t ever get it as great as my mom did, but I love to try.
@Melinda: Ouch! That sounds terribly painful.
I think it was Real Simple that had an article about making last-minute sugar cookies as a Christmas gift. It involved slice-and-bake dough but prettied up with things like a single whole almond pressed into the middles and Sugar in the Raw crystals sprinkled on top, or cookies that were baked and then dipped halfway into melted dark chocolate. They look a lot fancier than they actually are. Of course, this could be done with your homemade dough, too.
Ohhh, Donna, I drooled on my keyboard! Please, oh please share the recipe!
@Gail: This is criminally easy.
Melt 1 cup butter
Add 1 pound light brown sugar
Stir in 1 cup light corn syrup
Slowly stir in 1 can sweetened condensed milk
If you want chocolate caramels, add 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
Cook to 245 degrees. Pour into well-buttered pan and allow to cool. Cut into pieces, the size of which should be dictated by your conscience.
I’m thinking about sprinkling finely chopped peanuts on top of the next batch, before it cools. Or stirring the nuts in before pouring into the pan.
OK, now I’m drooling on the keyboard.
I was thinking maybe of bath salts. I’m in a handmade funk.
In past years, I’ve made dehydrated apple chips. Using a mandoline, slice apples (organic, ideally, since I leave the skins on) into a bowl of water + lemon juice. (You don’t even have to core them! Each slice is so thin that the cores can be eaten, and they make a pretty star shape too.) I have a Nesco dehydrator that I think cost about $30 several years ago, plus some extra trays. I package them in festive cellophane bags from the dollar store.
This is off topic, Donna, but how are you doing? I hope you’re taking some time for rest and relaxation after all the travelling you’ve done recently, especially as we’re all headed quickly to the holiday season, and all its busyness.
@Christine: I’ll be chilling in Alaska for the holiday season. Although there are lots of people here I’d like to see, I’ve figured out a way to keep from overdoing it: I don’t rent a car. If I can’t pick up and go at a moment’s notice, then it’s harder to do the kind of run-run-run visiting that I do when I have wheels.
Feeling better slowly, thanks. It’s hard to remember that I’m supposed to be doing less, not more, and I’ve struggled with the “I should be all better after a couple of weeks” attitude. The fatigue was six years in the making. It’s probably not going away as quickly as I’d like.
Thanks for your concern, and thanks for reading.
I made a few batches of jam and many batches of pickles this year that I plan to give as gifts. My mother, sister, and I try to get together every year for a day long candy making session. We make turtles from scratch which involves making homemade caramel and then putting the turtles together (pecans topped with homemade caramel and dipped in chocolate). We use my grandmother’s caramel recipe which calls for butter, salt, vanilla, corn syrup, and whipping cream. The worst part about making this caramel is the constant stirring required, but the result is amazing. At the end of the day we split up the completed turtles so we can give them out as gifts. Of course quality assurance is required so we have to taste a few, too. 😉
I make a No-bake fudge like candy and chocolate gooey butter cookies! These have always gone over well. . .
I make caramels too–for coffee lovers, there’s a great and easy recipe on 101 cookbooks blog. I leave out the walnuts for simplicity. I’ve also make a walnut & sea salt caramel from martha stewart that turns out great. I make cashew brittle from an epicurious recipe each year for my dad. Plus, I make a few special cookies this time of year, and I co-host a cookie exchange with like-minded bakers–those cookies are my gift to myself! For a couple of friends, I send my canned cranberry-applesauce, chili base (canned using a Mrs. Wages mix) and bean soup mix (different kinds of dried beans in jar, with spices mixed in nice tin).
My husband and I have earned a reputation with his family as the holiday sweets patrol. It’s a pretty nice setup: my mother-in-law makes sure she has all the supplies on hand, and when we visit before Christmas we take over her kitchen for an afternoon. I make my family’s peanut butter fudge recipe (super delicious, and super easy) and my husband makes his family’s ancestral almond Christmas pastry. The only cost to us is effort, and every year the in-laws act like it’s magic. And the smell of that kitchen at the end of the day is just wonderful. The only sort-of downside is hovering brothers-in-law who try to “help” by sampling all the fudge, but I have good wrist technique with a wooden spoon…
My husband makes a wonderful cranberry nut bread. Yum!
for years i made hard tack candy. at first, the old-fashioned way – spreading the hot gooey mess out on a cookie sheet and cutting it before it got too hard. then i found some wonderful molds! did that for a while. then people just stopped enjoying pure sugar in the shape of little christmas trees. the past few years, in addition to baking my usual assortment of cookies, i’ve been covering things in chocolate… pretzel rods, coconut, peanut butter-filled pretzels, mini oreos, etc. sooo yummy! last year i tried candied pecans for the first time. my mom said my dad couldn’t stop talking about them!
I makes my late grandmother’s banana-nut bread. I’m the only one in the family she ever allowed to use the recipe. She got it from a newspaper article when she was a newlywed in the 20’s.
I hate baking or making gifts but I did find this really easy recipe for Fudge Crinkles. It makes around 80-90 cookies in one batch and they are a decent size too. They do take a long time though, so be prepared.
http://www.food.com/recipe/Fudge-Crinkles-A-Great-4-Ingredient-Cake-Mix-Cookie-32614
This time of year we buy a tub of chocolate chip cookie dough from Sam’s Club. When I bake the cookies, a minty variation is very easy. As soon as you take the cookies out of the oven to cool, place an unwrapped Andes mint on top. In a minute it will be soft from the heat of the cookie. Swirl it with the back of a spoon and it will harden. They look great and allow me to cheaply jazz up my cookie batches.
Another easy treat we sometimes make is to slather peanut butter between two Ritz crackers, then dip them into melted white chocolate. Sweet and salty heaven with those.
ooohhhhh yum!!!!!!! that sounds so gorgeous.
My mother used to make THE most killer fudge. She could tell when it was ready by eyeballing it…she knew what the “soft-ball stage” and those actually were. I never could figure it out, and can’t even make fudge with a thermometer.
This year I’ll probl’y give some of the olives I’m curing to friends & relatives. Maybe… 😉
Donna, Try making homemade carmel wrapped marshmallows. The coffee shop sells them here for 85 cents each. They are SOOOOOOO good. I think WIlliam Sonoma sells them in their holiday catalog, of course for some ridiculous amount. Recipes can be found easily online.
@Christy: I was looking at a marshmallow recipe in the same cookbook. I’m told that homemade ones aren’t in the same food group with the commercial marshmallows. They would probably be good dipped in chocolate, too.
I always make butter toffee with almonds & chocolate on top (the recipe might be from that same red and white cookbook, even). Last year and this year I had requests for “puppy chow” – chex cereal with chocolate, peanut butter, and powdered sugar on it. It’s nice because the 6 year old can help.
Your caramels look divine – I wonder how hard it would be to make them into turtles? I’m thinking about making maple syrup toffees this year, too, if I can work out the recipe.
@Rosa: I was thinking of adding finely chopped peanuts, to see if they’d taste like Squirrel Nut Zippers.
Since you cut the caramels into pieces, it shouldn’t be hard to flatten them slightly, stick in some nuts and then dip them in chocolate. [[drools slightly at the thought]] Or to dip the tops of un-flattened caramels into chocolate and sprinkle sea salt on top of that. Or, actually, to do whatever you wanted to them.
My teeth are starting to hurt.
Thanks for reading, and for leaving such a dangerous comment. 🙂