Caramel Chews--A Great Gift

If you are like me, along with cookbooks and recipe boxes that hold favorite recipe cards, you have many loose sheets of 8 1/2" x 11" paper that hold recipes that you have printed off of the internet (and maybe even some of mine from this blog!). A couple years ago I found a great three-ring binder made just for these papers. It has a stand in the back that I can pop out when I am using one of the recipes. I purchased some tabs that I could write on to separate my recipes into categories. I purchased my binder at Wal-Mart but you can probably find them at any store that sells scapbooking materials. I found a recipe binder at Big Lots the other day for $4. I highly recommend one if you're a recipe collector.

As I was going through my binder today trying to find an idea for something to take to our church bake sale this Sunday, I came across a recipe I printed off August 9, 1999. It is definitely a keeper and my chosen recipe for the sale. It is for Katie Brown's Carmel Chews. They are relatively easy to make, they are chewy, DELICIOUS, and they make a pan full! I can easily have two or three bags to offer for the auction and maybe even send some to a homesick niece at college. As Ina Garten says, "Who wouldn't like that?"

If you have a gift to make, an item to make for a bake sale, or someone who would just appreciate a homemade candy, try these. It is a little tedious wrapping each caramel but trust, me--it's worth every minute. Print the recipe off--and buy yourself a binder. You'll want to keep this one!

Caramel Chews

1 c. butter
2 c. sugar
1 c. light corn syrup
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 t. vanilla
2 c. broken walnuts, pecans, almonds or peanuts

Slice butter into pieces and melt in saucepan. Add sugar, corn syrup and sweetened condensed milk. Stir constantly and cook until it reaches 240 degrees on a candy thermometer. Mixture will turn a golden color. Remove from heat and add nuts; stir in vanilla.
Pour into lightly greased jelly roll size pan. (Using butter to grease your pan will give the chews more flavor and allow them to slip out of the pan easily.) Let cool and harden at room temperature for 2-3 hours. They are ready to cut when you press down on them and it doesn't leave a mark.
Cut waxed paper into squares. Use a flexible spatula to cut out chews in approximately 1" x 2" pieces. Wrap in waxed paper by rolling it and twisting the ends.

Click here for a printable version of this recipe.