The Original Caramels
I call it The Original Caramels as these Homemade Caramels with heavy cream are indeed ORIGINAL. It is the Old fashioned caramel recipe with the best way of making caramels. These Caramels are chewy and real. No corn syrup or golden syrup added to this one. These caramels are dark with a toffee-like texture.
Homemade Caramels With Heavy Cream – The Original Caramels
Most of the recipes are with corn syrup. Please note, caramels were made pre-corn syrup era as well. The basic caramel recipe was cream and sugar. Its all about the temperatures and the right method of doing it. Caramels are little bite size toffee’s which are chewy and sweet. It is sugar that plays a big role with cream that brings in creamy flavors and butter that gives the caramels its glossy and smooth feel.
Ingredients for soft, buttery homemade caramels –
Sugar
This is the ingredient that defines caramels. To make caramels, we need to melt the sugar over medium heat. Personally, I use powdered sugar as it fastens the process. You need not use icing sugar but pure powdered sugar. Avoid using store bought ready made powdered sugar as they are adulterated at times. It is best if you powder it yourself in a grinder.
While caramelizing sugar, do not overwork your spatula or whisk. Let the sugar melt with minimum spatula/ whisk movement. Only once the sugar has melted will you be able to move to the next step. Make sure there are no sugar lumps.
Cream
I use fresh cream. Fresh cream is the full-fat regular cooking cream and not the pre-sweetened whipping cream used to make cream cakes. In India, popularly used is Amul Fresh Cream which is what I use as well.
Vanilla Pod for the Original Caramels
While making caramels the best flavor comes from the vanilla pod. All you need to do is slit a vanilla pod into halves and scrape what’s in there. Add both to the cream, the pod and the paste that was scraped through the inside of the pod. While the cream is cooking the real flavor of the vanilla pod enhances the cream.
If you do not have vanilla pods you can use vanilla extract or essence as per whats available. However, I’m a Vanilla pod fan, the flavor the pod has cannot be compared to the other vanilla variants in the market.
Butter
Also, butter is an essential fat that is used in this recipe. Use it at room temperature.
Other ingredients – how to make the best caramels at home
So, the recipe I have shared is the basic original caramels recipe. However, you can even add some salt to it and call it Salted Caramels or throw in some chopped walnuts, that’s your walnut caramels. Use this recipe as per your preference.
Greased Pan
One of the essential things is to line a pan with parchment paper and butter before pouring the hot caramel into it. I Used a 5-inch baking tray and lined it with the parchment paper and butter all over it. Thus, it makes sure the caramel does not stick to it after its set. Aluminum foil can also be used.
Temperatures
Temperature plays an important role while making caramels, make sure you have a thermometer all set. Thus, I have a digital one. However, you can even use a candy thermometer. If you do not have a thermometer it may be difficult to judge how soft or hard the caramel would turn.
The Original Caramels Recipe
Ingredients
250 grams of powdered sugar
85 ml fresh cream, room temperature (heavy cream)
90 grams butter, room temperature
1 Vanilla Pod
Instructions (Original Caramels)
- Line a 5 inch tin with parchment paper and grease butter all over it.
- Slit a vanilla pod into halves and scrape the inside of it. Add both, the pod and the scraped paste to the cream. Heat the cream and let the cream get infused with the flavors of the vanilla pod. Remove the vanilla pod from the mixture once the cream is well heated.
- In a heavy bottom pan, put the sugar and let it melt over medium heat. Do not stir the sugar continuously but at intervals. Once all the sugar has melted bring it to 175 to 180 degrees C. At this stage the sugar should turn darkish brown
- At the point switch off the gas and add the heated cream and whisk well until well combined. Now bring this mixture to 120 degrees C (do not whisk constantly but at intervals)
- Switch off the gas and add the butter and mix until well combined. The mixture should be smooth and glossy
- Pour this mixture into the tin lined with parchment paper and let sit at room temperature for 2 – 3 hours. Cut into cubes and wrap in parchment paper.
Note
- While cutting the caramel, brush butter onto a sharp knife. Do not press the knife straight into the caramel, it will stick to it. You want to move the knife in a backward and forward motion while cutting through the caramel with less pressure
- Do not let the sugar heat up for too long once melted, it may turn too dark which may also result in making the sugar turn bitter
- Can be stored at room temperature for 15 days but I doubt it will stay that long if you have friends and family who have a sweet tooth.
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Recipe Card – Homemade Caramels (easy recipe)
Ingredients
- 250 grams powdered sugar
- 85 ml fresh cream, room temperature (heavy cream)
- 90 grams butter, room temperature
- 1 Vanilla Pod
Instructions
- Line a 5 inch tin with parchment paper and grease butter all over it
- Slit a vanilla pod into halves and scrape the inside of it. Add both, the pod and the scraped paste to the cream. Heat the cream and let the cream get infused with the flavors of the vanilla pod. Remove the vanilla pod from the mixture once the cream is well heated
- In a heavy bottom pan, put the sugar and let it melt over medium heat. Do not stir the sugar continuously but at intervals. Once all the sugar has melted bring it to 175 to 180 degrees C. At this stage the sugar should turn darkish brown
- At the point switch off the gas and add the heated cream and whisk well until well combined. Now bring this mixture to 120 degrees C (do not whisk constantly but at intervals)
- Switch off the gas and add the butter and mix until well combined. The mixture should be smooth and glossy
- Pour this mixture into the tin lined with parchment paper and let sit at room temperature for 2 – 3 hours. Cut into cubes and wrap in parchment paper
Recipe Notes
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Nutrition Information
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Can I double this recipe? Some caramel recipes don’t recommend doubling it.
Yes.. You may double the recipe but go in for a bigger pan so the sugar is spread wide during the melting process
If readers are using store-bought powdered sugar, then they are most likely getting cornstarch into their caramels. If you wish to avoid that, use her method of making it yourself directly from sugar, or buy online those that use some other type of starch filler.
Sounds just right !!
Finally – a recipe without corn syrup! Thank you!! I actually wanted to make licorice caramels for my family at Christmas, and I’m hopeful that I can modify this recipe by adding anise extract…or other flavors. This seems like a perfect base recipe to experiment with different flavors. I’d better get started!
Thanks Gillian .. Glad to found this helpful .. Play around with flavors and lemme know how they turned out
This recipe took some trial and error but I think I finally got it. Since I’m in the US, my measuring cup doesn’t have very precise milliliter lines but I went between the 50 and 100 ml lines and it was fine. Also, I used regular white sugar and it turned out completely fine. Using a teaspoon of vanilla extract also made no difference. The important thing I needed to practice was the temperature. For me, the sugar burned before reaching the temperatures mentioned in the recipe. However, just under 280° Fahrenheit (about 138° Celsius) worked perfectly for me.
My final note is that using 50 ml of cream and 15 grams of butter made the caramel nice and hard. I poured it over popcorn and it is a really addictive, delicious caramel corn. I will continue experimenting with the amounts of cream and butter to see how they affect the texture. Thank you so much for this recipe; it’s simple and so delicious!
Thanks, Abi .. For leaving your experience out here. Love how you’ve played around with quantities and temperatures
Hi, I want to ask if we could add Amul cream or milk instead of heavy cream?
Yes .. Amul cream works.
How much salt should I add to make them salted caramels? And when should I add it?
If using salted butter just add 1/8th tsp salt. If not salted butter, you may add 1/4 tsp of salt
Is it possible to use powdered sugar with cornstarch in it?
Why do you want to use powdered sugar that has corn starch in it ?? Thats Icing sugar, and we don’t need it. Use regular granular sugar thats powdered
So the powdered sugar I got from Costco also has cornstarch in it. Is the kind your talking about in the same place in the regular store? Mine looks like caramel so far except I have some hard pieces as well like clumps. I don’t have gas though maybe that’s it?
Hi Meghean .. For the caramels I always recommend you avoid the store brought one if with cornstarch. Its best to use granular sugar and powder it yourself. Yes !! using the cornstarch one does effect the texture of the caramels
Hi… I love this recipe, and am glad I found it before I’d made more than one batch with condensed milk… thank you!
I do have one issue that’s come up in each batch from this recipe, however: After adding the butter, I find that it never completely mixes with the melted sugar and cream. After the first effort, I abandoned the wire whisk in favour of a Bamix hand mixer, but even the Bamix struggles to get this stuff to emulsify completely. I usually give up after 5-10 min of continuous mixing. The excess butter settles around the edges as the caramel cools off.
This feels like a chemistry problem, and there are a couple of additional factors to consider: The butter I am using is infused with cannabis, meaning the butter has been melted in water and cannabis has been added, the mixture simmered for a few hours, then strained and chilled to reconstitute the butter. I am guessing that this process may alter the chemical composition of the butter such that it doesn’t mix in the same way it would had it not been melted/infused/reconstituted.
Any thoughts?
Regardless, the caramel still tastes amazing, and I find it gets even better with a dusting if Himilayan pink salt over the surface of the freshly poured tray.
Hello..
Thanks for sharing your experience with my caramel recipe. Glad you liked it
However, I’ve never used the kinda butter you’ve mentioned here, so have no clue.. But I’m guessing the issue is to do with the butter itself, so maybe you should try changing that. There’s no other reason I see this going wrong
Hi…
Thanks for taking the time to reply. I may try it with some normal butter to compare.
In the meantime, one other thing I’ve noticed is that the heavier the cream, the better the recipe comes out. I bought ‘double thick’ cream, which has worked much better than ‘single cream’. As I said, it’s a delicious recipe, regardless. Thanks for sharing it.
All I have is heavy whipping cream on hand. You mention not to use sweetened cream but I was curious of the reason why. Will the caramel not turn out if I use it?
You can use unsweetened heavy whipped cream. The only reason I use unsweetened is that there’s so much sugar already added in this recipe, so we like to cut down on it
What is the sugar mixed with to melt? It seems the butter n cream are added afterwards.
You can add a few tablespoons of water to melt the sugar
Hi Alisha! Can this recipe be adjusted to work for making caramel apples? Or is it true that you have a use a corn syrup recipe for those? Thanks!
Sorry for the late reply Amanda. Just found your comment in spam. No, for caramel apples you need to cook the mixture between 234 F to 240 F. This might be too thick fo the apples
Hi, my husband and I are wanting to make these and I wanted to know if we can use store bought powdered sugar even though it contains cornstarch?? I don’t have anything to grind my own sugar.
Hi Samantha ..
I wouldn’t recommend using store brought sugar and it contains cornstarch and would definitely change the texture of the caramels. However, you can use regular granular sugar available to you, it would just take a little longer to melt, that’s it !!
So excited for a recipe without corn syrup!
A couple questions, do I let the sugar melt at the start without stirring? Because I stirred it a couple times and it turned into hard clumps. It eventually all melted together, but is that ok?
Also, mine did get dark and bitter, should I have the heat lower and heat it longer, or have the heat higher to heat it faster?
Thanks!
Hi Alyssa..
1. 1st Rule – Always avoid mixing the sugar too much while melting or caramelizing ..just spread it evenly in the pan, and it should melt with minimal stirring.
2. It’s always good to keep the heat on slow to medium and heat it for longer, this wouldn’t make it dark in color
Could I use 250 grams of granulated/turbinardo sugar instead of powdered sugar?
Yes.. It’s just that powdering the sugar before using lets the sugar melt faster and evenly
I’ve made this recipe twice; the second batch is cooling now.
The first batch tasted amazing, but the butter and sugar/cream mixture never fully emulsified.
As I stirred the butter into the sugar/cream mixture, I worried i’d have the same problem again. However, this time, I stirred for a longer time… long enough to see that the butter was slowly mixing. I carried on until I achieved the consistency described in the recipe.
For those of us that are new to the art of the caramel and candy making in general, it would be great to have advice/tips about this sort of detail written into the recipe or the notes at the end.
A small detail, but if I hadn’t persisted with the stirring, I might have given up on this recipe, which would have been a shame.
Thank you!
Hi
So happy you gave this recipe a 2nd try and it seems to have worked for you this time
I’ve tried to share a couple of tips in the entire post (please give it a read from the top to the end)
And yes! It does get a little tricky to make candy at home especially if your new to it, hence I always recommend investing in an oven thermometer, really helps
And thank you for sharing your experience while making these, it’s going to help many more viewers who plan to attempt making caramels
Hi! Just made these and i dont know what i did wrong. The color came out super dark and when i tasted it it was a little bit burnt. I used a candy thermometer for every step but the result wasnt what i expected. What can i do?
Sorry to hear about it … But this sounds like you burnt the sugar at the start itself. Was the gas flame too high ?? Cos sounds like it was… If the flame is high the sugar turns dark.. We need golden color sugar not dark brown (dark brown indicates that it’s burnt, thus the bitterness)
Thanks a lot for the recipe. I followed until before the last step and I poured the mix into a bowl with popcorn and it was heaven. My family loved it.
The only problem was I couldn’t use the thermometer, so maybe because of it some caramel was hard at the very end, but I think it went pretty well. Thanks again.
Oh Luis … You just gave me a fab idea !! Never thought of using it to caramelize popcorn but this sounds great ..
Thermometers are always of great help, maybe you should invest in one soon..
I have made these many, many times and they always turn out perfect! Thank you so much for sharing this!
So glad to hear this .. Thankyou Ella ..
Hi Alisha, the caramels look amazing. I would like to make them, but have a few queries.
1. If I have to substitute vanilla pod with essence, when should I add. Should I heat with the cream in place of vanilla pod? Or anytime during the process?
2. In India, most of the fresh creams such as milky mist etc, says they have minimum 40% fat content. Is it okay to use those creams?
3. When you say you use digital thermometer, do you mean the ones we use for body temperature and get in pharmas?
Thank you,
Diana
Hi Diana ..
You’re going to love these caramels once you make it
1. If your planning to use vanilla essence, do not heat it with the cream you can add it anytime after that step. It’s best to add an essence at the last stages of any recipe
2. Yes !! It’s perfectly fine to use 40% cream as long as its unsweetened cream. The milky mist cream works well
3. Yes !! The digital thermometer is the one you use to check body temperatures as well, it looks like a gun and is popularly used for chocolate making too, it has a laser light which you use to focus a particular surface to check the temperature. You can use this one or a candy thermometer too. Both work well as long as you can check temperatures
Hey !!
I’m all set to give the recipie a try. But can I substitute vanilla pods with essence. If yes, then how much ?
Hope you’ll hel
Stay safe
Hi .. Yes, you could do that. I think a teaspoon of vanilla essence is good
do you know what percentage fat the cream should be? should i get whipping cream, cooking cream or full cream milk? thanks 🙂
Hi you need to use cream that has a fat content of anything between 25% to 30% (cooking cream is what we call it in India)
What is a 5″ tin. 5″ deep? 5″x5″? I’m not a candy maker and cannot relate to that description. Thanks
Hi John .. 5-inch tin is the size in inches of a square dish that needs to be greased before pouring the caramel mixture into it
You don’t say how many caramels this recipe makes. No idea what a 5″ pan is – I have a pretty well equipped kitchen from both a US and a European perspective, and don’t have any such item.
Not sure that powdered sugar really makes sense. Doesn’t it usually have something like cornstarch in it?
But, for all that, delighted to have found a no corn syrup recipe. Have my ingredients prepared, and ready to give it a try.
Hi Ronald.. When I say 5-inch tin, I mean 5-inch size square dish in which you need to pour this mixture. Powdered sugar is regular sugar thats ground, this just helps in melting sugar faster and more evenly. We call it the original caramels because we have no add ons like cornstarch or corn syrup. Hope this recipe works for you
Hi Alisha,
I need a work around for your “powdered sugar” that typically contains cornstarch – to avoid corn.
The entire point of a corn-syrup free recipe, for me, is to avoid corn, like the cornstarch in powdered sugar.
Is your intention for us to grind our sugar, instead..is that how you are explaining to Richard? I’ve been
cooking a long time, and I have not read a reference to “powdered sugar” otherwise.
Kindly advise if you are grinding your sugar granules, or if you are actually using a package named, “powdered sugar.”
Some companies may divert and use tapioca starch instead of cornstarch in their powdered sugar; but that one is a no go for me, as well.
I want these caramels to turn out well, tonight. Thanks! 🙂 🙂
Hi Shell ..
Yes !! When I say powdered sugar I mean granulated sugar that is powdered at home in your mixxy.
It’s true that readymade powdered sugar has cornflour added and that’s the reason I don’t buy readymade
Hello Alisha! This is my favourite caramel recipe I have tried:-) I know making caramels can be a finicky process, so I was wondering if you can double this recipe without compromising flavour/texture?
Hey Mandy .. So glad you like this recipe
Yes !! Go ahead and double it, you should still get the same flavor and texture
This recipe was wonderful. Loved how the ingredients were so simple and pure. I didn’t have a candy thermometer so I had to use the ice test because of which I think the sugar became a bit bitter. Will try again! 🙂
Hey Seema .. Glad you liked this recipe.
Yes !! Temperatures are the most essential thing while making candy. Thus, you need a thermometer for sure. It makes a big difference
If we use regular white sugar what are the measurements? And how much vanilla extract?
Same measurements for regular white sugar. 1/2 the quantity if using vanilla extract instead of vanilla essence