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Buttery, soft, and chewy homemade caramel candy is the perfect treat to easily wrap in wax paper and gift to friends and family.
We love to add these homemade caramels to our neighbor treat plates along with Christmas Crack and Snowball Cookies. Everyone loves them!
Who Doesn’t Love Caramel?!
Have you ever tried a homemade caramel recipe before?
They’re one of those holiday treats that I’m always looking forward to and they are a perfect candy for filling Christmas goodie plates.
Why we love them:
- Delicious! We love the buttery, creamy taste of these soft caramels.
- Easy. While they do take time, they’re quite simple and worth the effort
- Perfect for sharing. Cut them into pieces and wrap them in wax paper to gift during the holidays.
Ingredients
- heavy whipping cream
- white sugar
- light brown sugar – packed
- salt
- butter – unsalted (but salted can work as well)
- corn syrup – Use light corn syrup (colorless and moderately sweet), or dark corn syrup (provides a bit of color as well as a sweeter slightly smoky flavor).
- evaporated milk – Do not use sweetened condensed milk.
- vanilla extract
How to Make Caramel Candy
- PREP. Line a 9×13-inch pan with parchment paper and set aside.
- COMBINE. Add heavy cream, sugars, salt, butter, corn syrup, and evaporated milk to a medium pot over medium heat.
- HEAT. Attach a candy thermometer, and while whisking constantly, cook until temperature starts to boil and reaches 250°F (about 30 minutes).
- COOL. Once the mixture reaches 250°F, remove the pot from heat and stir in the vanilla.
- Pour the mixture into the parchment lined pan and let cool completely.
- Once cool, cut caramels with a sharp knife into squares (can get about 80 large caramels) and wrap in wax paper for storage.
Pro Tip!
Spray your baking pan and line it with wax paper. This makes it easy to lift the entire block of soft caramel candy out to be cut once set.
Don’t Have a Candy Thermometer?
Use the cold water test. All you need is a bowl of ice water. When you feel the caramel is ready, use a spoon to drop a dollop of caramel into a bowl of ice water.
- Hard ball stage: The caramel should solidify enough to roll it into a ball. If it is at the soft-ball stage, it won’t hold a shape, and needs to cook longer.
- Hard crack stage: If it solidifies to hard candy and breaks when forming a ball, it has cooked too long and will have a hard texture.
Recipe Tips
- Prep. Making caramels is all about timing. Pre-measure ingredients so they are ready to go from step to step.
- Gritty caramel occurs due to undissolved sugar crystals. Stirring frequently helps the sugar dissolve in the sauce.
- Variations.
- dip in melted chocolate (white or dark)
- sprinkle sea salt on top
- adding toasted coconut to the top
- add chopped nuts on top or mix them in at the same time as the vanilla
Storing Caramels
Wrap each caramel in wax paper. Be sure to cut the wax paper big enough that you can twist the ends closed, like a tootsie roll.
- STORE. Wrapped caramels can last at room temperature for about 2 weeks. Store unwrapped caramels in an airtight container, separating each layer with wax paper.
- FREEZE homemade caramel candy for 3-6 months. When ready to eat, remove them from the freezer and allow them time to thaw before serving.
- Sharing. This recipe mixes up quite a large batch, definitely enough to share with a friend or two. Some fun gift wrap ideas include:
- Fill a small mason jar and tie a festive ribbon around the top.
- Buy and fill up a holiday tin.
- Fill a brown lunch bag, fold over the top, and tie it with raffia.
- Use festive cardstock to cut out a gift bag.
For More Candy Recipes:
Caramel Candy Recipe
Buttery, soft, and chewy homemade caramel candy is the perfect treat to easily wrap in wax paper and gift to friends and family.
Ingredients
- 1 pint heavy whipping cream
- 2 cups white sugar
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 – 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butter
- 1 cup corn syrup
- 1 cup evaporated milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Line a 12 x 15-inch rimmed pan with parchment paper and set aside.
- Add whipping cream, sugars, salt, butter, corn syrup, and evaporated milk to medium pot over medium heat.
- Attach a candy thermometer, and while whisking constantly, cook until temperature reaches 250°F (about 15 – 25 minutes).
- Once the mixture reaches 250°F, remove the pot from heat and stir in the vanilla.
- Pour the mixture into the parchment lined pan and let cool completely.
- Once cool, cut caramels into squares (can get about 80 large caramels) and wrap in wax paper for storage.
Video
Notes
- STORE. Wrapped caramels can last at room temperature for about 2 weeks. Store unwrapped caramels in an airtight container, separating each layer with wax paper.
- FREEZE homemade caramel candy for 3-6 months. When ready to eat, remove them from the freezer and allow them time to thaw before serving.
- Sharing. This recipe mixes up quite a large batch, definitely enough to share with a friend or two. Some fun gift wrap id
- Fill a small mason jar and tie a festive ribbon around the top.
- Buy and fill up a holiday tin.
- Fill a brown lunch bag, fold over the top, and tie it with raffia.
- Use festive cardstock to cut out a gift bag.
Nutrition
Serving: 1g, Calories: 87kcal, Carbohydrates: 11g, Protein: 0.4g, Fat: 5g, Saturated Fat: 3g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.2g, Monounsaturated Fat: 1g, Trans Fat: 0.1g, Cholesterol: 14mg, Sodium: 56mg, Potassium: 20mg, Sugar: 11g, Vitamin A: 166IU, Vitamin C: 0.1mg, Calcium: 16mg, Iron: 0.03mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
These are delicious. I don’t trust my candy thermometer so I used the ice water test to get it to the consistency that I wanted and it worked great! According to my thermometer (not sure how accurate), the lower end of the degree scale was better for me… 250 was my number. If I cook it any more I feel like I’m going to rip my teeth out. ha ha
9 put of ten only because I had to make them lol but they are so yummy and worth it !!!!
My daughter came home with some from a friend. I didn’t share and immediately asked for the recipe. Yum.
Takes a little more time but so worth it. Homemade caramels are the best.
These caramels used to intimidate me, but they really are SO SIMPLE to make! Perfect treat for the holidays!
We love making caramels during the holidays! They make a delicious treat to give to friends!
I couldn’t believe how easy these were to make. I have always been so intimidated, but not anymore! They were soft & chewy, just as they should be!
Can’t wait to make these. I’ve been lookinG for a caramel recipe.
Glad you found this one! They are so good! Enjoy!
Do you cook it on low until it reaches 250 degrees? Also, about how many caramels does this yeild?
Low to medium, I’d say. You don’t want it to burn. 12×15 is a big pan, so depending on how big you cut the caramels, you could get quite a few.
what do you generally grease the pan with butter or cooking spray? Thanks these look delicious.
I use cooking spray, but either of those would work 🙂 Hope you like them!