The week before Thanksgiving, I made a trip to The Head Nut, the spice wonderland of The Reading Terminal. I was able to purchase everything I needed for my recipes — and then some — and bragged to my husband about how little I spent for how much I came home with.

He saw things a little differently, however, when he noticed that a major chunk of my bill was for a fancy, yet large, bottle of maple syrup from Vermont. After explaining to him that it was well worth it — you know, for “the good stuff” — he countered that we didn’t need that much maple syrup. Since then, it’s been my quest to prove him wrong. Aside from using it in a brine and glaze for smoked salmon that weekend, I’ve since been making pancakes and waffles more often and used it on roasted sweet potatoes and carrots.

I think I finally got my point across with homemade maple caramels, another recipe that’s an option for a homemade holiday gift.

Salted Maple Caramels

1 cup heavy cream

5 Tbsp. unsalted butter

1 tsp. Fleur de sel (sea salt), plus extra for sprinkling

1 ½ cups sugar

¼ cup maple syrup

¼ cup water

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Line an 8-inch square pan with buttered parchment paper. In a small saucepan, boil cream, butter and salt, then remove from the heat. In a medium saucepan, boil sugar, maple syrup and water, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Continue to boil, but do not stir, until the mixture reaches an amber color, approximately 5 more minutes. Stir in cream mixture slowly and carefully (use caution, as the mixture will bubble). Add the vanilla and continue stirring occasionally until the temperature reaches 248 degrees on a candy thermometer. Pour the mixture into the parchment lined pan. After about 30 minutes, when the caramel has cooled somewhat but is still rather soft and sticky on the surface, sprinkle with Fleur de sel. Continue to cool, for another hour and a half, until the salt has set into the caramel and the caramel has firmed up. Remove caramel from the pan, peel off parchment and cut into squares.