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I don’t think Christmas could happen without caramels. Well, at least not at my farm! I don’t mean a caramel sauce or a hard caramel candy, but instead those soft, chewy, melt-in-your-mouth caramels; the ones I really think you can only truly understand if they’re homemade. Growing up, I seemed to always know who made the “good” caramels, and I knew someday that I had to make them as well. As with many homemade candies, I think people are scared of caramels. But honestly, a thermometer makes the work easy and pretty much stress-free! Soon you can be “the one” with the good caramels!
This recipe makes one 9 x 13-inch pan, but I also explain how to vary the recipe to make unique caramels!
More Christmas Candy
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Homemade Christmas Caramels
Ingredients
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 2 ¼ cups granulated sugar
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 ¼ cups light corn syrup
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Optional toppings
- 1 cup pecans toasted and chopped
- ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate
- 3-4 tbsp flaky sea salt
Instructions
- Grease a 9 x 13-inch baking sheet pan well with vegetable oil. Line the pan with parchment paper and grease paper as well. Set aside.
- In a 4-quart heavy-bottomed saucepan, bring heavy cream, sugar, butter, and corn syrup to a boil. Continue to boil until 248°F is reached on a candy or thermometer. Swirl the pan every so often to heat evenly.2 cups heavy cream, 2 ¼ cups granulated sugar, 6 tbsp unsalted butter, 1 ¼ cups light corn syrup
- When the temperature reaches 248°F, remove from heat and stir in salt and vanilla extract. Immediately pour into prepared pan.½ tsp kosher salt, 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Cool 6-8 hours or up to 24 hours to allow caramel to set up.
- Use parchment sling to remove caramels from pan. Remove caramels from parchment and cut with a large sharp knife. The caramels are slightly sticky, so to keep the shape and keep from sticking to each other, individually wrap in parchment papers or wax paper.
For turtle caramels
- Sprinkle the pecans over hot caramel. Let cool. Drizzle over the melted semi-sweet chocolate. Let the chocolate cool before cutting.1 cup pecans, ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate
For salted caramels
- Let the caramels cool for 30 minutes, then sprinkle the flaky sea salt over the caramels. Finish cooling and cut.3-4 tbsp flaky sea salt
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Did you make this? Leave a comment below!
Love your enthusiasm for cooking. And the recipes. No have not posted before.
Love your enthusiasm for cooking. And the recipes.
Do you need to use unsalted butter or can u use regular butter. Love watching you.
Love how you explain the making of candy. Last year I made your peanut brittle. Was very good. Now I will make your caramel. I love watching you. If I am sad you make me smile. Love Angie
Just made 3 double batches of your caramels tonight. My friends and I are going to wrap all of these on Saturday while making cookies, watching Christmas movies, and maybe a few cocktails. Love this recipe!
My kids call this Christmas Crack! They can’t stop eating this. Did I mention, my kids are 37 and 43 years old! ♥️♥️♥️
Hi Kaleb,
I made the Christmas Caramels this evening and they turned out fantastic! Thank you for a great recipe. I enjoy all of your videos.
Happy Holidays!
Do you use room temperature butter and room temperature heavy cream. The first time I made them at 290 degrees they were too hard. For high altitude what temperature do you suggest? Thank you. Would like to make them as soon as you can reply.
Thank you,
Great video’s
I love watching your channel. You make EVERYTHING seem so easy. I tried your applesauce pie with caramel icing and it was a huge hit. Thank you so much for sharing your family recipes.
Also, I wanted to ask, where do you get the wrappers for the caramels?
These caramels are AMAZING! Best caramels I have had! They take some time to wrap but the taste is 100% worth it!