How To Make Easy Creamy Caramel Candies: these caramels are delicious, and easy to make, and the perfect gift. Serve plain, with salt for salted caramels, or dipped in chocolate.
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This easy homemade caramel candy is such a favorite. It's perfect for a special homemade treat. It's sweet and chewy, and soft and the perfect treat for any caramel lover. Wrap these soft caramels up for gift giving, sprinkle them with salt for salted caramel, or dip them in chocolate for caramel chocolates. Anyway you serve them, these homemade caramels are so delicious.
It’s Day Three of Christmas Treats Weeks, and today I’m sharing a recipe for Creamy Caramels and Chocolate Salted Caramels. You can check out all the other recipes for Christmas Treat Week at the bottom of this post.
If you are making these chewy caramels for the holidays be warned that these are so good, you might have a little trouble not eating them between now and Christmas. My family finished an entire batch in days, but this caramel recipe is so easy you can make another batch. I love this homemade candy for gift giving around the holidays, or serving guests. It's also really nice as a Valentine's Day treat too. But really any time of year, who won't love some homemade caramel?
It's a lovely party favor too. It's one of the easiest candy recipes too. So if you're a beginner at making homemade, which can be a little tricky if you're not used to using a candy thermometer, this is a great recipe to start with.
Candy Thermometer
You will need a candy thermometer for this recipe. They're inexpensive to buy, and great to have on hand. Look for them at any good kitchen store. The candy thermometer attaches to the side of your pan. Just make sure that the thermometer is not touching the bottom of the pan, which will not give you an accurate reading of your candy temperature. It's important to get the candy to the right temperature for it to set property. If it's undercooked it can be runny and if it's over cooked it will become hard.
Some people like to use the cold water test and get the caramel to the firm ball stage. To test this way you take a spoonful of the hot caramel and drop it into a cup of ice water, and then mold it into a ball with your fingers. You're looking for it to be fairly firm and make a ball.
I prefer to use a candy thermometer because I find it easier. The temperature is exact, so it takes the guesswork out of the cooking process, and is the easy way to make perfect caramel candies each time.
Both the creamy caramels and the chocolate salted caramels have the same caramel base. In fact, it’s the same caramel I made for the caramel apples yesterday. I made two batches of the apples, and each time I poured the leftover caramel into a well greased small rectangle container after I was done dipping apples. I let the caramel mixture harden overnight, and then removed it from the container and sliced into small cubes.
To wrap the creamy caramels, just cut small pieces of parchment paper or wax paper and wrap each square. You might like to tie the ends with a little twine too.
You could, of course sprinkle these with a little sea salt to make salted caramel candy too. I left these ones plain.
Packed in a little jar, these are perfect for gift giving.
Store your caramels in an airtight container, or wrapped airtight with some waxed or parchment paper, at room temperature.
Chocolate Covered Caramels
To make the Chocolate Salted Caramels dip your creamy caramels in some melted chocolate. I used semi-sweet chocolate melting wafers, that I melted in the microwave. You could also use milk chocolate or dark chocolate, whatever you like best. You can also add a little salt before they set for salted caramel chocolates.
Salted Caramel Candies
If you have some fans of sweet and salty together on your Christmas list, these are sure to be a big hit. I used Pink Salt, sea salt or Himalayan Salt would be nice too. Just sprinkle it over the caramels as they set, or sprinkle some over the chocolate before it sets.
Troubleshooting
The main problem that can occur when making your homemade caramels is around not getting the caramel mixture to the right temperature when your cooking it. Be sure that the candy thermometer is not touching the bottom of the pan. If necessary adjust the clip on the side of the thermometer so that it fits tightly and can hold the thermometer up off of the bottom of the pan.
Too Soft: If your caramel is too soft you likely didn't cook it long enough. If it doesn't reach 240 degrees F, it will not set properly and instead of being chewy, it will be too soft and not hold it's shape.
Too Hard: You also might overcook your caramel candies so that they are too hard and not soft and chewy. To fix this problem be sure to remove the caramel mixture from the heat as soon as it reaches 240 degrees F.
Gift Giving
If you have some fans of sweet and salty together on your Christmas list, these delicious caramels are sure to be a big hit. Place the caramel candies in gift boxes, or a cellophane bag, or glass jar for gift giving. Last year, these were a big hit with all my friends and family. Everyone loved their chewy texture. If you're having candy cravings this holiday season, this is the perfect caramel candy to make.
These caramel candies also make a lovely small party favor. Wrap them up in a some packaging that matches your party theme and send them home with guests for the sweetest goodie bags.
Recipe
Creamy Caramel Candy
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter
- 8 oz. brown sugar
- 7 oz. half of a 14 oz. can condensed milk
- ½ cup corn syrup
- pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Optional: salt and melted chocolate for dipping
Instructions
- To make the caramel, combine butter, brown sugar, condensed milk, corn syrup and salt in a heavy saucepan.
- Bring it to a boil over a high heat, stirring constantly until the mixture reaches 240 degrees F on a candy thermometer.
Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. - Pour into a well greased 8 x 8 pan, and let set overnight at room temperature or for a few hours in the fridge.
- Remove caramel from the pan and cut into small cubes with a sharp knife. Wrap in parchment paper squares. Or, add salt first for salted caramels. Or, dip in chocolate and then sprinkle with salt for chocolate salted caramels.
Nutrition
With homemade caramel candies, life really is a party!
More Homemade Candy Recipes
Check out all these other posts from our Christmas Treat Week:
Pecan Butter Crunch recipe here.
Homemade Caramel Corn recipe here.
Our Homemade Caramel Apples recipe here.
Homemade Coffee Marshmallows recipe here.
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