Chocolate Drizzled Salted Caramels

I have 3 words for you - caramel, chocolate, salt.

It doesn't get much better than that.

Salted caramel is all the rage right now. Have you tried it? It is very tasty. I admit at first I thought it was just plain weird. I mean, you don't put salt on your chocolate! That's blasphemy.

Turns out, it's actually not.

Turns out sprinkling chocolate and caramel with sea salt is a brilliant idea.

Turns out I have a new favorite candy.

Chocolate Drizzled Salted Caramels

Ingredients

1 lb pecans, chopped

1 1/2 cups light corn syrup

1 cup butter

1 cup sweetened condensed milk

(I used the whole can of Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk - which is more like 1 1/3 cups)

1/4 tsp sea salt

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1 cup dark chocolate chips

1 cup milk chocolate chips

sea salt for sprinkling

Directions

Spread chopped pecans onto a well greased cookie tray. Combine corn syrup, butter, sweetened condensed milk, brown sugar and 1/4 tsp sea salt in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring constantly. Continue to boil over medium - low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture reaches medium hard stage (~250 degrees). This takes about 15 - 20 minutes. (I don't use a candy thermometer - I use a glass of water filled with ice cold water. When you drop a little of the boiling mixture into the water - off your spoon - it should form a ball that is fairly firm but that you can still squish easily in your fingers. Be careful not to touch the caramel until it has cooled in the ice water.)

Pour over pecans and let cool.

Using a large flipper, loosen caramel from pan. Line counter with plastic wrap and invert caramel onto counter. Using a sharp knife cut caramel into pieces.

*if you cooked your caramel too long and it is too hard to cut, simply smash with a  hammer/meat mallet and don't worry about the pieces being even.

Melt both chocolates separately and drizzle over caramel pieces. Sprinkle with a little more of the sea salt.

I used to make these all the time a few years ago - they are also known as "turtles" if you don't add the salt. I cooked them a little less so they were chewier and then dipped the entire thing in chocolate so they were more "turtle-y". I don't know which way I like better.

I think because putting salt on caramel is the cool thing to do right now, I will choose the "new and improved" way. When we revert back to the old school way of thinking, where salt is weird again, I will go back to my original turtles.