Such A Sweet Season

One of the things that I enjoy during the Christmas season is making sweet things that I would NEVER make the rest of the year. For some reason, I unreasonably think that calories don't count during December--just like I believe that there are no calories in uncooked cookie dough! It's the oven that activates them (Isn't it nice to be able to delude oneself so completely?)
Anyway, one of the things that I've made the last few years is caramels. Yum, Yum. They are somewhat tedious to make but, boy, do they taste good when they're finished. After measuring all the ingredients, the cooking process itself is about 2 1/2 hours--with about an hour or an hour and a half of it standing and stirring constantly.
After it reaches temperature, you pour it out into a pan. The bad part is that you can't scrape the pot to get all of it into the pan. The good part is that you then HAVE to eat what's left in the pot so as not to waste it! It then sets for about 24 hours before you cut it into pieces.
And this is where my husband comes in. He's the muscle to do the cutting. You have to spray the counter with a vegetable spray as everything is a bit sticky. And if you cut and then don't wrap almost immediately, everything kind of sticks back together. Finally, you wrap and wrap and wrap--with parchment paper that you've cut into smallish-sized pieces. and THEN you end up with a huge bowl of the best pieces of chewy candy that you will ever put into your mouth. ****One note of warning however. Two friends came over on Tuesday to make a batch together and she ended up at the dentist that afternoon after helping to "clean" out the cook pot! Care with chewing for those who have somewhat loose dental work is absolutely required.
For those who still want to make caramels after reading this description, here is the recipe. If y ou double-click it, it should be legible. For a clearer copy, it can be found on Martha Stewart's website under the name Golden Caramels. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do.