Dawn’s Famous Caramels

I’ll bet you’re admiring my wrappers. While wax paper makes a fine candy wrapper, I personally don’t think it’s the best for caramels. Especially soft caramels like mine. Even though it’s coated in wax, the caramels still stick to it. That’s not okay with me. I want all of that caramel-y deliciousness in my mouth, not on the wrapper.

The wrappers I love to use are these clear cellophane ones. Nothing sticks to them. At all. And not only that, but they look better in my opinion. You can see exactly what’s inside.

When I worked on the front floor of Kitchen Kneads, I would highly recommend these wrappers to any and all looking for something to contain their homemade candies. But the one question I always got asked was, “Do the ends stay twisted?” My answer was and still is a resounding “Yes!” They really do stay twisted up. I’ve been using these for 10 years and I’ve never had a problem with them coming undone.

So, these cellophane wrappers don’t stick, they make your handmade candies look amazing, and they stay twisted. What’s more to love? Oh, right. The caramels inside. (wink)

Now let’s talk a little bit about candy making.

Candy recipes are greatly affected by altitude. I developed this recipe at about 4,300 feet in Ogden Utah. The general rule of thumb is to decrease the temperature that your candy cooks to for every 1,000 feet you are above sea level. You may need to adjust this recipe according to your altitude. So, if you live at sea level you may want to increase your final cooking temperature to 233 degrees F. Or if you live in Denver with an altitude of about 5,200 feet, you’ll want to decrease your temperature to 223 degrees F.