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Caramel.

I was at my friends house the other day and saw this gorgeously cut up cubed caramels.  I thought to myself, "I should make those, mmmmm, and dip them in chocolate."

On the way home I bought some heavy whipping cream, called my mom for advice and got to it.  

I've always heard that candy making is a tough business, but hoped it would just happen to work perfectly for me.  ha ha. ha hahaha.  

Burned caramel.  Make that burned toffee.

Let's try that again.  

I had to pick Isaac up from a friends house, or I wouldn't have gone out in the snow (4+ inches on top of the 17" from last week).  I dragged/drug him to Rainbow foods and bought my second set of cream.  At least it was on sale for $2.  

So I called my Mom and found out that you should never use a stainless steal pan for making candy because it gets hot spots.  Okie dokie then.

After I (supposedly) got the kiddos in bed, I set out on making caramel round #2.  

See where this is going?

Oh my goodness!  It didn't burn!  The color was a rich....caramel color and looked fantastic!  Got the temperature up to soft ball and everything.  I'm such a big girl!  It only took two tries and I'm awesome.  I can't wait to dip these babies in some chocolate!

haha. hahahahaha.

Next morning, my caramel, upon inspection is toffee yet again, but at least not burned.

I called my mom feeling like a huge disappointment, but she had a remedy.

Once I get the caramel out of the pan, warm it back up with 1/2 cup milk until it gets to soft ball.  Oh wait a minute.  What is this about your thermometer?  

We do a boiling water test and find out that my two thermometers read waayyyy different.  So, I learned another lesson:   do not trust thermometers.

I set out to fix my second batch, which was nice because I had forgotten to put in vanilla and salt :)

I thought it would be interesting to use both of my thermometers to see what the difference was.  Twenty to 30 degrees.  That's why I had toffee.  

So now, I have soft caramels waiting to be cut and dipped.  

This story might not be over since I haven't even tasted the stuff yet.

Anyone have some more advice or fun stories to share?

**Update**

After I finally got the caramel out of the pan, I had a taste and it was yummy.
I dipped all of it tonight, as you can see.
My lovely little army of caramels.