The Best Homemade Caramels
User Reviews
4.9
The Best Homemade Caramels
Description
The Best Homemade Caramels recipe guides you through heating a sugar and corn syrup mixture carefully with water, avoiding stirring while bringing it to a boil to ensure even cooking and prevent sugar crystallization. Warmed cream and butter are added at the right caramelization temperature, along with salt and vanilla extract, to create a rich caramel base. The use of a candy thermometer enables precise temperature control crucial to achieving the chewy yet tender texture characteristic of classic caramels.
Once prepared, the caramel mixture is poured into a properly buttered or parchment-lined pan to cool and set before cutting into squares for serving. The recipe includes options for vanilla bean infusion, and accounts for altitude adjustments to perfect the final temperature. It can be doubled for larger batches if desired.
This homemade caramel can be gifted, used as a sweet snack, or incorporated in other desserts requiring chewy caramel pieces. The attention to temperature and technique makes this recipe a dependable method for producing traditional rich caramels with a silky chew.
Notes highlight that baking pan preparation affects ease of caramel removal and cutting, and that cooking times and temperatures may need to be adjusted based on stove type and altitude to achieve ideal consistency.
Ingredients
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 2 ½ cups granulated sugar
- ½ cup light corn syrup
- ½ cup water
- 6 tablespoons butter cut into tablespoon-size pieces
- ¼ teaspoon coarse kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract see note
Instructions
- Butter the bottoms and sides (get into the corners, too!) of a 9X9-inch square baking pan. (Alternately, you can line with parchment and butter the parchment - this may make it easier to pull the slab of caramels out of the pan after they have cooled in order to cut and wrap them.) Set aside.
- Heat the cream in a saucepan or in the microwave until steaming. Keep warm.
- For the caramels, in a large, heavy-bottomed pot (at least 5- or 6-quarts), stir together the sugar, corn syrup, and water, taking care to not splash the mixture up the sides of the pot.Clip a candy thermometer onto the side of the pan.
- Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat WITHOUT STIRRING or moving the pan. As it begins to boil, fill a cup with water and use a pastry brush to wash down the sides of the pan so there are no granules of sugar sticking to the sides of the pan (you probably won't need to repeat this after the sides have been well-cleaned). This prevents the caramel mixture from crystallizing in later steps.
- Cook until the boiling sugar mixture registers 325 degrees F on the thermometer, about 15-20 minutes (for darker but still chewy caramels, continue cooking the sugar mixture - I've gone as high as 345 for super intense, dark caramels; beware the next step will cause much more steaming and bubbling the higher you cook this initial sugar mixture).
- Slowly and carefully pour the warm cream into the caramel. It will bubble and produce a lot of steam! Add the butter and salt. The mixture will bubble high during this step but will go down after a few minutes.
- Begin stirring the caramel with heatproof rubber spatula with a flat top (a flat edge does better at preventing the caramel from burning than a rounded edge). Avoiding scraping the edges of the pan, and continue to cook, stirring constantly and slowly, until the mixture reaches 245 degrees F, about 10-15 minutes (you can go as high as 248 degrees F for a firmer, but still chewy, caramel, or take the caramel off the heat earlier for a softer caramel; 245 is perfect in my book).
- Off the heat, stir in the vanilla without scraping down the sides of the pan - scraping the bottom of the pan is fine (this would be the time to add other flavorings/color).
- Immediately pour the caramel mixture into the prepared pan.Let the caramels cool completely. I use a large, metal spatula to peel the whole slab of caramel out of the pan and onto a cutting board.
- Cut into squares using a sharp knife or bench scraper, wrap, and store in an airtight container at cool room temperature for up to two weeks.
Notes
- Prepare your pan by buttering it thoroughly or lining it with parchment and butter to help release the caramel slab after cooling.
- Adjust the cooking temperature by about 2 degrees for every 1,000 feet of elevation difference to maintain correct caramel firmness.
- This recipe can be doubled—use a larger baking pan to prevent overflow, and note that cooking time will increase.
- Using a candy thermometer is essential for monitoring precise temperature for proper caramel texture.
Nutrition Information
Show DetailsNutrition Facts
Serving: 60Caramels
Amount Per Serving
Calories kcal
% Daily Value*
| Serving | 1 Caramel | |
| Calories | 69kcal | 3% |
| Carbohydrates | 11g | 4% |
| Protein | 1g | 2% |
| Fat | 3g | 5% |
| Saturated Fat | 2g | 10% |
| Cholesterol | 11mg | 4% |
| Sodium | 16mg | 1% |
| Sugar | 11g | 22% |
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.
User Reviews
Overall Rating
4.9
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