I've been on something of a sugar binge, and nothing will do but for me to teach myself how to make the caramels I want. The first time I tried to make caramels, I used this recipe from 101Cookbooks, and they mostly came out okay-ish, but either due to the extremely high temperatures inside my apartment (that place was a sauna) or some other deficiency, they tended to melt at room temperature. My next try was these orange-scented caramels from the Craftzine blog, which came out like rocks. Hard sticky ones. My dad lost a crown to those suckers.

However, a little help from Google brought me to this recipe, from about.com of all places, and I have found my happy caramel place, where the caramels are perfect and wonderful (and don't need corn syrup).

Time: ~30 mins to make, ~2hrs or so to cool
Cheapness: not bad.
Difficulty: pay attention and be bold
Meal: dessert
Servings: not enough for your entire Christmas gift list, but enough for that small party you are going to.


( Recipe, with my modifications noted )