4 Ingredient Soft Caramels
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EASY 4 Ingredient Soft Caramels you can whip up in about 15 minutes. You don’t need a candy thermometer to make these caramels and they literally melt in your mouth!
Looking for more easy dessert recipes? I have you covered with my posts for Peanut Butter Fudge, No Bake Peanut Butter Bars, Easy Microwave Peanut Brittle, and 3 Ingredient Old Fashioned Potato Candy.
Why This Recipe Works
Old-fashioned flavor — People just LOVE my mom’s candy caramel recipe. Truly, it’s famous. And, while it’s delicious, it’s one of those recipes requires a candy thermometer, a giant pot, and a LOT of pot-stirring. As much as I adore those caramels, I tend to be a slightly less patient person than my mother and need something quick and easy that still delivers a big buttery caramel flavor. That’s where this recipe comes in. Big flavor, little work. I love it.
Easy — These homemade caramels seriously are so easy to make. They only require four ingredients (5 if you decide to go all-out and sprinkle on the sea salt) and you spend about 10 minutes stirring and keeping an eye on the stove pot.
No fancy gadgets — The best part is that NO fancy gadgets (namely, no candy thermometer) are needed. Do you have a saucepan, a can opener, and a spoon? Then you are good to go!
Delicious — Not only is this easy caramels recipe quick, but they are also soooooo melt-in-your-mouth yummy. BIG caramel flavor, with just a hint of sea salt (if you chose to add it). The hardest part is waiting for the caramel to cool before eating it!
Ingredients
- Sugar — Use all-purpose, white sugar here for the best-tasting caramels.
- Light Corn Syrup — Make sure you use light corn syrup because this type of corn syrup keeps the sugar from crystalizing as it cooks, ensuring a rich, chewy texture.
- Sweetened Condensed Milk — This is the trick to easy caramels because the condensed milk easily caramelizes when put to heat and helps the caramels maintain smoothness and creaminess.
- Coarse Sea Salt & Vanilla — Optional flavors you can add to the caramels but not necessary!
Here’s How You Make It
- Combine the butter and sugar in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir, stir, stir, till the butter is melted and the sugar has dissolved into the melted butter. They’ve become one.
- Add the corn syrup and condensed milk to the butter/sugar mixture.
- Allow the candy syrup to boil then decrease the heat and let it simmer for about 7-10 minutes or so.
- Keep stirring till the caramels have reached a deep golden color.
- Pour the caramels into a foil-lined 8×8 inch pan and let them cool completely. (Here’s where you’ll sprinkle them with coarse sea salt if you choose.)
- When the candy has completely cooled, you can cut the caramels into squares and wrap them in wax paper.
Expert Tips & Tricks
- This recipe creates roughly 20-30 caramels (depending on how large you cut them).
- Store wrapped caramels in an airtight container at room temperature.
- For additional richness and flavor, stir in 1/2 teaspoon vanilla after removing the caramel from the heat and before pouring it into your prepared pan.
- Want to add a little salty zing to your caramel? Sprinkle coarse sea salt on top of them after you pour them into a pan to cool.
Frequently Asked Questions
Once the caramels have cooled, you can cut them up and wrap in wax paper. I use wax paper because it will not stick to the caramels. Depending on what size you want to cut your candy you’ll want to cut squares or rectangles of wax paper the same shape as your caramels, and slightly larger (I give them about a half inch extra on each side).
Once you have all your wax paper cut, add a caramel to the center and roll the caramel up in it, then twist both ends tight to keep it secure.
Want to use your homemade caramel for more than just individual candies? You could:
– Make caramel apples by dipping and twirling apples into the caramel while it is still warm in the pot (put the apples on a stick or use a fork inserted into the top of the apples before dipping).
– Don’t want whole caramel apples? Slice apples up and put them in concentric rings on a plate and drizzle warm caramel over the top of them. Bonus: Sprinkle chocolate chips on top of the warm caramel over the apples before it cools for an extra treat.
– Have an ice cream social and pour warm caramel over the top of ice cream sundaes.
– Dip pretzel sticks into the caramel and then roll in sprinkles or chocolate chips or crushed candy.
– Add caramel to brownie batter before or after baking.
– Add a little square of caramel into the middle of a chocolate chip cookie before baking.
More Recipes for Caramel Lovers!
- Caramel Cookie Bars
- Salted Caramel Brownies
- Caramel Apple Dump Cake
- Salted Caramel Stuffed Double Chocolate Cookies
Did you make this recipe? FANTASTIC. Please rate the recipe below and be sure to tag me on social when you share a photo on social – I love seeing what you’re up to in the kitchen!
Easy 4 Ingredient Soft Caramels (no candy thermometer required)
Ingredients
- 1 ½ sticks butter , (12 tablespoons)
- ½ cup sugar
- 3 tablespoons light corn syrup
- 14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
- optional: coarse sea salt, ½ teaspoon vanilla , (see note)
Instructions
- In a medium sauce pan combine butter and sugar and stir over medium heat until melted. Stir in corn syrup and condensed milk.
- Bring to a boil and then decrease to simmer 7-10 minutes or until mixture achieves deep golden color, stirring constantly. (*For lower altitudes, simmer time may need to be reduced 2-3 minutes, watch carefully for coloring and read note!)
- Pour caramel into a foil-lined 8×8 inch pan and allow to cool completely. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt if desired.
- When completely cooled, cut into squares and wrap in wax paper.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Just made these today, they set up beautifully, I let them cool at room temperature for at least 2 hours. But when I cut them they are crumbling, almost taste like maple sugar candy in the texture and taste, they are not sticky like I would think they should be.
I am putting them in the frig to see if that helps, but what did I do wrong? Did I cook them too long?
This recipe turned out awesome! D’you think the corn syrup could be replaced with thick cane syrup? My recipe needed 3 whisk times, but it is setting and looks awesome! Plus, it’s not just sweet- it’s full of flavor, not just fatty sugars. I give this two thumbs up and 360%!
i just tried this twice and both times the butter separated. Looks pretty disgusting really!
Hi Diane, if you read through the other comments, you might see that some other readers have had this issue of the butter separating and have had success with the following method: If the butter starts to separate, remove pan from heat, then whisk quickly until mixture comes back together, then return to heat and continue to stir. Repeat as needed until caramel reaches golden amber color. 🙂
u didnt do it right
Thanks for a super easy caramels recipe! Made these today and like many other readers, there was a lot of excess butter. I’ve made caramels many times and I would make these again but with less butter. Everything else was great- they set fine and the flavor is delicious!
Is the caramel stable enough to dip into chocolate? Should I refrigerate them first?
It’s stable once it’s cooled but I would probably cut them into squares, then chill for 30 minutes before dipping into melted chocolate.
I just made these tonight. They are sooo delicious!! The butter did start to separate on me, but I used the whisk trick that someone else mentioned, and it worked the butter back in. The only problem I had is after reading all these comments on here I was too afraid of my caramels not setting up, so I wanted to be sure it came to a deep golden color. It came to be the color of store bought caramels are, so I thought I was good. They turned out very hard. I think next time I will stop cooking it sooner and go with a color in between deep golden, and light brown. Oh, and the hardness of my caramels isn’t too bad, I just microwave for a couple of seconds and they soften right up. Great recipe, yummy caramels!!!
These are sooo good! I was a little skeptical because of how disastrously all the others I have tried turned out, but these were great! They have set up nicely so far, I was afraid I hadn’t cooked them long enough because at almost ten minutes the color hadn’t changed and cooking it on medium was way to high it started to burn. I sprinkled with salt and am trying so hard to be patient! I live in the mountains of north carolina and it was raining while I made them. Cooking it for ten minutes on medium/low (a few ticks bellow medium) seems to have worked well (: I was also worried about using so much butter but yes it still worked and had no problems with seperation. This was also great because I dodon’t own nor have I used a candy thermometer. Thank you so much for this!
I was wondering if there is a good substitute you’ve successfully used for sweetened condensed milk in this recipe?
What about homemade sweetened condensed milk?
I haven’t tried any substitutions – I’m sorry! If you do find a good substitute please let me know, I’m sure some others would love to know about it! 🙂
I always thought making caramels would be really challenging but I followed the recipe exactly as written and they turned out perfectly! So yummy! Thanks:)
Can this recipe be doubled?
I haven’t tried it myself but it would probably work – you will need a bigger pot and maybe a little more stirring time on the stove.