Description
These chewy caramels are easy and a great first-candy-making experience. They also make a great gift. Wow your friends by using a fancy salt and labeling your candy so it sounds extra chic. Inspired by this recipe by Live Laugh Eat who adapted it from this recipe.
See photos and notes above for some helpful tips.
*Vegetarian*
Ingredients
Scale
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup corn syrup
- 1/2 cup butter (1 stick) cut into 1 tbsp pieces
- 1/4 tsp table salt
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- coarse salt like pink salt or fleur-de-sel for topping caramels
Instructions
- Prepare an 8×8 casserole dish with parchment paper, ensuring to cover up the sides of all 4 sides (see photo above), using 2 sheets of parchment paper criss-crossed.
- Combine the first 7 ingredients (heavy cream through table salt) in a medium pot (should be about 2 to 3 times as large as your total ingredients because the mixture will grow as you cook it). Insert candy thermometer into mixture (I believe you want to avoid allowing the tip of the thermometer from touching the bottom of the pot). Turn heat to medium high and bring to a boil, stirring frequently to ensure sugar crystals dissolve completely.
- Once mixture reaches a boil, turn heat down to medium and do not stir any further. Instead, use handle to gently swirl mixture in pot occasionally. Cook mixture until it reaches 245 degrees F (roughly 20-30 minutes, but it will depend on your stove heat and vary quite a bit). Monitor your temperature closely, especially towards the end of cooking.
- Once the mixture reaches 245 degrees F, remove the pot from heat, gently stir in the vanilla and then pour mixture into your prepared baking dish.
- Cool at room temperature for 3 hours or until set.
- Cut into small pieces (I cut mine into just under 1 inch pieces, about 2/3 inch – I eye-balled the sizes).
- Sprinkle tops of caramels with pink salt of fleur de sel. Gently press salt into the tops of the caramels.
- Place candies into individual paper cups or wrap in small pieces of wax paper.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Be sure to read the blog post and check out the photos for additional tips.
