Caramels has always been one of my absolutely favorite candies. Coat it in chocolate, and you have absolute heaven in your mouth. Recently hubby and I have been trying to cut out refined sugars, so that means I had to figure out a way to make homemade caramels without corn syrup if I wanted to be able to have a sweet treat at home. Otherwise, I might just revert to my Milky Way habit.
Homemade CaramelsCaramels are pretty easy to make. The hardest part is having a little bit of patience and timing when to turn the heat down. The thing with this yummy candy is that they go from yummy gooey sweetness to hard candy in a matter of minutes. Get it too hot, and you’ve just made your first batch of caramel hard candy (which is still super yummy by the way)
Whatever happens when you make your caramel, keep trying and enjoy them! My youngest daughter and I made these handmade caramels side by side in the kitchen. Bayla is becoming quite the sous chef. She made her own special batch of dairy free caramels, so this recipe is very easily converted to an allergy friendly candy for kids as well. (Conversions or located in the recipe)
Next time you are craving a sweet treat, roll up your sleeves and take sometime to treat yourself in the kitchen. It’s nice every once in a while to slow down and enjoy how things used to be. You might just find that you prefer your hand made goodies to the ones you buy in the stores, plus they make great gifts ideas too!
PrintHomemade Caramels
These mouthwatering caramels are a perfect sweet treat or homemade gift
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 10 mins
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Desserts
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter (use Earth Balance Soy Free Spread for allergy friendly version)
- 1 c brown sugar
- ½ c honey
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- ½ t baking soda
- ¼ t salt
- Candy Themometer
Instructions
- In a sauce pot, melt butter, honey, vanilla, and brown sugar on med. high until melted. (Stirring constanty)
- Once melted reduce heat to medium or low and cook until candy hits 215-220 F.
- Turn heat on lowest possible and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly. This will help raise the temperature to somewhere between 230-250.
- Remove from heat and add salt and baking soda. Stirring constantly.
- Quickly poor in a GREASED baking dish and allow to cool.
- Once cool, cut in small rectangles, and wrap in small squares of wax paper.
Like this recipe? Make sure to check out these other great dessert recipes:
Kahlua Marshmallow Fudge
Bailey’s Butterscotch Cookies
Drunken Snickerdoodle Cookies
Sam says
can I use white sugar instead of brown sugar for the caramel??
★★★★★
Ashley Sears says
Sam, You can but it might alter the flavor of the caramel just a bit. If you decide to do that, I would add 1/2 to 1T of molasses to the mixture if you have it.
Kaela says
How soft are your caramels and how long do you give them to set. I cooked them to 220 degrees F and it’s been over 2 hours but they are still very very liquid/gooey. I cannot cut these at all.
Ashley Sears says
Kaela, If they are still liquidy you didn’t get them hot enough. Depending how fast you raised the temperature, you might need to raise the temp up to 250-275 depending on your mixture, how fast you heated it, and the area you live in. Hope that helps 🙂
Michael L says
Can I use liquid vanilla extract? If not, what kind of vanilla do you recommend?
Also is there an order to follow when mixing in butter, honey, vanilla, and brown sugar to be melted?
Ashley Sears says
Yep, liquid vanilla is perfect. Personally I love Rodelle Vanilla. As for the order, you can mix it all together at the same time!
Liv C. says
🙂 This recipe is amazing! I used coconut oil instead of butter and it is delicious and much better for you! (Measures the same as butter)
★★★★★
Ash Sears says
Liv, So glad you loved it! I can’t wait to try it with coconut oil as a dairy-free version for y daughter!
kai says
very very good but mine is still a bit liquidy is it ok to put it in the freezer?
hope it turns out ok will definitely recommend this recipe and will make it again thanks
★★★★★
Ash Sears says
Kai, If the mixture is still a little liquidy and not hardening up, then you might not have gotten the temperature high enough. Using a candy themometer usually helps that out.
When making this recipe, the mixture can be finicky and on days I don’t want to mess with it again I tell everyone what an awesome homemade caramel sauce I made! 🙂 🙂
Human who likes to make food says
This was my first time making caramel, and it was really easy to make and tasted really good. It set pretty quickly; it was in the fridge for about an hour or two. It made about 38 caramel candies, although mine were pretty uneven in size 😂.
Anyway, they come out of the wrappers nicely, which I was happy about as some caramels that I’ve had stuck to the wrappers and I’ve had to scrape them off. I would also recommend using parchment paper instead of oil (that’s what I did) because the caramels are already pretty oily because of the butter.
In conclusion, I would recommend trying these but using parchment paper instead of oil. 😁
★★★★★
Ash Sears says
So glad you enjoyed making these. We agree and will update to use parchment paper in the future! Thanks for the tip!
joe says
What does the baking soda do in this recipe?
Ash Sears says
It helps the caramels have a softer consistency 🙂 It reactions with the acid in the recipe creating cute little air bubbles.