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.
These are great! Mine took 25 minutes of stirring but well worth it. I added toasted pecans and a little sea salt. I so could eat them all.
OMG, so good! I added toasted pecans and a little salt, rolled them up and sliced. It did take longer for mine, about 25 minutes but well worth it.
Has anyone used the carmel flavored condensed milk for this recipe?
Re: “that being said” about effects of location and weather. I’m wondering, if where you live has to do with your perfect results, so i’m curious where that is? Just figuring if i’m similar, I doubt, but my more perfect batch, a friend posted on.facebook. I’m striving to repeat that. So i tried two tonight. Not close.
Thanks for Sharing,
Carolyn,
Anchorage, Alaska
Hi Carolyn! I’m located in Utah 🙂
I live in India. I love the taste of caramels. I want to prepare them at home but I don’t get corn syrup here. Do u have any substitute for that or can i skip corn syrup. Or if u know the method to prepare corn syrup at home let me know.
Or can I use corn flour instead
I made this recipe this weekend for Christmas gifts! It turned out so well. 🙂 Thanks for the recipe! I will be going back to this again and again for little gifts.
A few suggestions:
* In your recipe instructions, you say “simmer” on step 2 and “reduce heat to medium” in your recipe update. When I made my first batch, I reduced to a simmer per the first instructions — but quickly realized I needed to bring the heat back to medium. Simmer and medium heat are vastly different. Medium was perfect! This might be why some people didn’t have the recipe set up properly.
* You also mention to line a 8×8 inch pan with foil. Now, perhaps this is commonsense, but when I read recipes, I take everything literally… so I didn’t coat the tinfoil with grease and didn’t assume I should or need to. My first batch was a huge mess. They tasted perfect, but tin foil was stuck to half of it. I’d highly recommend you change tin foil to parchment paper. Parchment paper worked PERFECTLY the second go-around. 🙂
Thanks again!
Wow, thank you for this recipe! Tried it last night, slightly trepidatious from some of the other commentors’ struggles, but this worked beautifully! Just keep stirring! I’ve been wanting to try caramel-making for a while but have been intimidated by other recipes (and I don’t have a damn candy thermometer!) but this was easy and tastes great! I lined my pan with parchment paper instead of foil — no sticking issues! And I used a whisk and there were no separation issues,
either. My boyfriend even got in on the action; his very first Pinterest craft, aw! 😉 Can’t wait to try another batch with a perhaps a chocolate-nut topping?! THANK YOU for an easy-to-follow and tasty holiday recipe!
These were awesome. Made them for a secret santa gift at work. I used parchment paper to line the pan, and to wrap the caramels in. The recipient LOST THEIR MIND they were so happy with them. I sprinkled Maldon flake sea salt on half of them.
It took a lot of beating to incorporate the butter at first. I used my electric hand mixer to start it off but then finished it with the whisk. They stayed a lovely soft texture too, but I was careful not to cook them too much. This was an awesome, easy recipe and I thank you so much for posting it.
I’ve kept them in the fridge for MONTHS (forgot about them). They were still delicious and friends couldn’t tell the difference between those & the ones I gave them the day after they were made.
How long do they last for once made?
I’ve kept these up to two weeks wrapped individually in wax paper!
About 45 mins at my house.