CopyCat of See's Scotch Kisses

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    If you know me, you know that my favorite candies are See's Candies.  They are  a family favorite, inherited from my mother.  In a side by side comparison, I can pick out a See's Chocolate every time as the best tasting, textured and most delicious of any chocolate that I've ever had, (and I've had a lot of chocolates!)  I once wrote a poem about their Bordeaux chocolate that won $50 in a See's sponsored contest!  I got so excited about it that my son thought I had won a house! 
    I digress...
    While I adore their chocolate, there is one tidbit that See's makes that I always have to get one or two of when I visit their store.  And that is the Scotch Kiss!  Soft, marshmallowy goodness wrapped in caramel.  I have often thought that it probably wouldn't be that hard to make on my own.  I finally decided to give these little treats a try! 

     In the past, I have also tried to duplicate See's Butterscotch Squares.   They are right up there with the Bordeaux for me.  I have to give a disclaimer here that I would rather just buy a box of See's Candy with any of these goodies  filling it up than make them myself, but it is expensive chocolate, so sometimes making some yourself is a good option, especially if you are going to be sharing with lots of people.  Sharing See's Candy can be a very difficult thing to do. 

     To make Scotch Kisses, you will begin by snipping large marshmallows in half and setting them on a tray.  I sprinkled my tray with powdered sugar to help them to not stick. 
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     Next, you will make your caramel to dip them in.  Some recipes that I've seen suggest simply melting caramel candies.  I preferred the idea of making my own caramel because:

1. No unwrapping of a billion caramels
2. More control over the softness or stiffness of the caramel

     I had never made caramel before, but as is my way, I tweaked a recipe that I found to use the ingredients that I had on hand and I cooked it until it was just below soft ball stage.  I used both a candy thermometer and the cold water test just to be sure to get the right consistency.  Now that they are finished, I think I may do it even a little bit softer that I did this time, to make them even more like See's.

     For the caramel, you will need: 

• heavy cream
• light corn syrup
• sugar 
• salt

Easy peasy, right?  The nice thing about this recipe is you don't need caramelize the sugar first, just mix everything together and start cooking and stirring!  I was afraid at first that it wasn't going to change color, but it turned out beautiful in the end.

     When I dipped my marshmallows, I purposely left a bit of the marshmallow showing because when you get them at See's, you can see marshmallow and caramel marbled together. 
      One big mistake that I made was to place the caramel dipped candies on waxed paper after.  Argh!  That was so hard to peel them off of when I went to wrap them!  My advice is simply to butter a baking sheet to place them on.
       By the time I had dipped all of the marshmallows, the ones at the beginning were ready and cool enough to wrap.  So, I pried them off of that waxed paper and wrapped them in new pieces of waxed paper that I had cut that were 5" x 6" large.  I rolled them tightly in the waxed paper and twisted both ends. 

This recipe made about 40-42 kisses! Plenty to share!

     Overall, I was fairly happy with the outcome of this recipe.  Although, I may still prefer to buy them from See's, these made me happy and my grandkids liked them, too.  Here is the recipe!  Click the card to print it! 
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     Question:  Do you know what it means to cook candy to a soft ball stage, or hard ball or hard crack, etc?  Would that be a good topic for us to cover on our "What Does That Mean?" video series?  Comment below! (Have you seen our "What Does That Mean?" video series?)  Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or TikTok to see our videos that explain some of the simple terms in cooking that you may not understand. Thanks! 

I used this old fashioned type of candy thermometer.

But, this new digital kind is a good option!