Caramels Recipe: Soft & Delectable Caramels Tutorial

Who doesn’t love caramels? I’ve got a caramels recipe that’s not only darn delicious, they WON’T stick to y’er fillings!

This caramels recipe makes the soft kind of caramels. It’s best to keep them in the fridge and take them out a few minutes before you eat them. The only reason I keep mine in the fridge is for firmness – otherwise, they will keep fine in the cupboard.

These would make perfect shower favors or wedding favors! Why not add them to your candy buffet?

Caramels Recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup butter

1 pound light brown sugar

1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

1 cup corn syrup

1 pinch salt

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Butter a 9″ x 13″ inch baking pan. Set aside.

In a heavy bottomed (make sure it is heavy bottomed or the bottom will likely burn!) saucepan over medium heat, combine butter, brown sugar, condensed milk, corn syrup and salt (in other words, everything but the vanilla!). Bring to a gentle boil, stirring CONSTANTLY. Heat to between 240 to 248 degrees or until soft ball stage (when you drop a spoonful of the mixture into a glass of very cold water it will form a ball, but flatten once removed from the cold water.) The higher you bring the temperature, the firmer the caramel will end up being. Cook for two minutes at that temp. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla. (Photo below shows how it looks just after you add the vanilla.)

Pour mixture into your buttered 9″ x 13″ inch baking pan. Let cool at room temp.

Once the caramel is cool, use a knife (I used a straight blade cutter that is often used by soapmakers) to cut caramels inside the pan. Once they are cut they will left out with a knife or spatula.

My pieces were 2.5 inches long and 1/2 inch wide. You can cut them into squares if you want.

If you cut your caramels the same size as I did, cut waxed paper into 5″ x 3.5″ squares.

Wrapping is a breeze. Simply set your caramel on one end of the waxed paper and roll. Then, twist the waxed paper towards the end of the sheet. In the photo below, you can see that the paper is twisted towards the end of the paper. Two twists should do it.

Store in the fridge or freezer. If you are using them as wedding favors, I’ve got a great little tutorial and free wedding printable so you can create cellophane favor bags just like this.