Salted Chocolate-Dipped Caramels

From the NY Times

• Ready In: 1 hr
• Yields: 128 candies

Ingredients

•  vegetable oil
• 1 1⁄3 cups heavy cream
• 2  cups sugar
• 1⁄2 cup light corn syrup
• 1⁄3 cup honey
• 6  tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed
• 1  teaspoon vanilla bean paste or 1  teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3  teaspoons fleur de sel or 3  teaspoons sea salt
• 1 1⁄2 lbs bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

Directions

1. Line an 8-by-8-inch baking pan with aluminum foil that extends over the sides. Grease the foil with vegetable oil. In a heavy 4-quart saucepan, bring the cream to a boil. Add the sugar, corn syrup and honey and stir constantly with a wooden spoon until the mixture comes to a boil. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture reaches 257 degrees on a candy thermometer, 15 to 30 minutes.
2. Remove the pan from the heat and, with oven mitts on, stir in the butter, vanilla and 2 teaspoons salt. Pour into the prepared pan and let cool. (If you are not coating them in chocolate, let cool slightly and sprinkle with the remaining salt.) When completely cool, coat a cutting board and the blade of a large chef’s knife with vegetable oil. Invert the caramel onto the cutting board; peel off the foil and invert again. Cut the caramel into 8 1-inch-wide strips; then cut each strip into 1/2-inch pieces.
3. To coat with chocolate, melt the chocolate in a double boiler set over simmering water (temper it if you want the coating to have polish). Using a fork to hold the caramel pieces, dip them one at a time into the chocolate and set them on a rack to cool. After dipping 4 caramels, sprinkle each with a little of the remaining sea salt. Transfer to parchment paper to set up and cool. Makes 128 caramels.