Salted Butter Caramels

For a whole list of reasons, I had a hard time getting my act together for Valentine's Day this year. One thing led to another, and there I was on Valentine's Day without a gift for my Valentine. Luckily, he is a good sport, so he didn't mind when I finally presented him with a tiny box of homemade salted butter caramels well over a week later.

The recipe is from my new favorite cookbook, Short and Sweet, the Best of Home Baking by Dan Lepard, which I received for my birthday, and was surprisingly easy to put together. It involved nothing more than pantry ingredients and a candy thermometer, and a lot of concentration in the kitchen (sugar boils at an amazingly hot temperature, so you need to work fast and be absolutely free of distraction).

Anyway, here they are with a sprinkling of Valentine hearts, and after eating 14 of them (well, you have to test, don't you?) I can testify to their deliciousness. Have a go! You won't regret it.