cooking brown sugar

ahh....this looks like I'm a trained barista mastering latte art...but I'm not

This is brown sugar beginning the conversion into delicious butterscotch caramels.  The recipe is from "Brittles, Barks, & Bonbons" by Charity Ferreria (page 77).

I cooked this mixture to 250 degrees F; the caramels cut beautifully.  For those of you who, like me, fear sugar/caramel, I encourage you to just jump in and melt some sugar.  I've experienced more successes than failures.  Once the fear of melting sugar passes, there are endless possibilities.

Spun sugar, here I come!

very early boiling stage:

a few minutes later:

they cut SO much easier at room temperature rather than immediately out of the refrigerator:

beautiful ... just beautiful

wrapped and ready to share (wax paper squares are so much easier to wrap than parchment paper)

unwrap and enjoy!

photograph and consume: