Vanilla Bean & Sea Salt Amish Caramels

Butter an 8x8 or 9x9 square baking pan. Set aside.

To a dutch oven over medium-high heat, add the sugar, 1/4c of the evaporated milk, corn syrup, and butter. Whisk continually and bring mixture up to a boil.

Stirring with one hand, slowly pour in the remainder of the milk, keeping the mixture at a boil as you add.

Continue stirring and boiling until the mixture reads 235 on a candy thermometer or reaches soft ball stage. *If you do not have a candy thermometer, you can test soft ball stage by dropping a small amount of the caramel into a cup of very cold water. If it forms a soft ball, you're there.

Stir in vanilla bean paste and pour caramel into buttered pan. Set pan on a cooling rack to cool completely. Sprinkle with sea salt.

When cool (you can give them a quick trip to the refrigerator to firm them up and make them easier to work with), cut your caramels into the size you desire by pressing down firmly with a knife. Avoid making a sawing motion, which will deform your caramels and cause the knife to stick.

Cut wax paper into rectangles appropriate to the size of your candies. Pull the caramels from the pan (they will stretch and you can simply reshape them however you like) and place them onto the wax papers. Wrap and repeat.