Each year I tell myself that I will cut back on the Christmas baking and candy making, but I find myself purchasing ingredients to make some of our favorites. I will make krumkake with my neighbor who has an electric double krumkake iron and it goes pretty fast with two people doing this while sipping hot tea or with a little wine even better. I used to make rosettes too, but I have not made them for several years as the house smells like grease for days afterwards. I always used lard to fry them, but have never tried to make them with oil; maybe oil would not have the odor?? The caramel recipe is from my sister-in-law who shared this with me several years ago; my thoughts are on her as she passed away this past summer. These are so good; be sure to use butter and not margarine in this recipe. It is time consuming to cut and wrap them individually with waxed paper, but they are worth the effort.

Easy Caramels

1 Cup butter

2 1/4 Cups brown sugar

Dash of salt

1 Cup corn syrup

1 Can sweetened condensed milk

1 Teaspoon vanilla

Melt butter in a 3 quart pan, add sugar and salt. Stir to combine and blend in corn syrup. Gradually add sweetened condensed milk. Cook and stir constantly over medium heat to 245 degrees on candy thermometer or soft ball stage. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla; pour into a 9 inch pan which has been generously buttered. Cool, cut into squares and wrap. For variation; two squares of unsweetened chocolate can be added after the milk.

Questions or comments:

marlisz@aol.com