Homemade Caramels ~ An Easy and Favorite Holiday Candy Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the best thing to wrap homemade caramels in? ›

Most caramels will need a little time at room temperature in order to cut more easily. Cut in squares and wrap in waxed paper or parchment paper. Wrapped caramels can also be frozen.

If caramels are too soft, that means the temperature didn't get high enough. Again place the caramel back into a sauce pan with a couple of tablespoons of water and heat to 244°F. If you don't have a candy thermometer, you can test with a cold water test.

When you remove it from the pan, let it sit at room temp for an hour or so, then run a sharp knife around the edge and then turn out onto a cutting mat. I use an old cutting mat that I can no longer use for fabric. I use a pizza cutter to cut the caramel.

Try milk instead.

If you don't want to make a special trip to the store, you can use whole milk with an extra tablespoon of butter in place of the heavy cream. It may not be quite as thick, but it will work in a pinch!

Swirl, don't stir: While slow, deliberate stirring will help the sugar dissolve evenly, you want to stop stirring once it has fully melted.

The agitation of stirring can cause the sugar to grab on to any unmelted crystals on the sides of the pan, and crystallization, or chunks of sugar, form in your caramel and they won't melt.

For these homemade caramels you want a heavy-bottomed stainless steel pan. I recommend using a pan that does NOT have a nonstick coating. Heavy-bottomed simply means the pot or pan has a thicker base. It shouldn't be thin and tinny.

Add acid. Acid ingredients (like vinegar or lemon juice) can help prevent re-crystallization which causes caramel to become grainy. Acid physically breaks the bonds between the glucose and fructose molecules that form sucrose and ensure that it stays apart.

Start by wrapping them individually in wax paper, twisting the ends to close, then storing them on their own in an airtight container in a cool, dry area of your kitchen. This will create a waterproof seal around the candies. At room temperature, soft caramel candies will last for as long as nine months.

The results are delicious every single time. Sweetened condensed milk is the perfect base for making a wet caramel. It is basically milk that has had more than half of its water content removed before being sweetened and packed in cans.

Why does boiling condensed milk make caramel? ›

Condensed milk has very high sugar content (40 percent), and protein in the milk interact , to give this brown color on heating, and as well caramel taste.

If you want a thickener that will not alter the glossy color of the caramel, try tapioca flour (not pearls). Simply add small amount to your sauce to thicken it.

I dust mine lightly with rice flour before wrapping as that will prevent sticking for a time but if they are left for any extended period they will still stick. If you want to make sure they don't stick you can cut the Reynolds Release foil into squares and use that. It works great for sticky candy.

Pouring caramel into an ungreased pan

Make life easier by lining your pan with parchment paper and coating it with a layer of baking spray to keep the candy from sticking.

And after many batches, we settled on our beloved recipe that we still use today after six years. I began by rolling our individual caramels in cellophane (a type of plastic) wrap. Partially I used this material because it's what I was used to, it's what the chocolatier that I studied under had used.