I’m bringing back an oldie, but a goodie today, you guys. Just over 2 years ago, I shared my tried and true soft caramel recipe, and today it’s still one of the main “sweets” recipes I reach for around the Holidays. This year I have a few recipe tweaks, new imagery and a fancy, schmancy printable recipe card to accompany this gem of a recipe!
When people see that I’ve made caramel, I often get the comment, “Wow–Caramel is hard to make! How’d you do it?” While caramel-making does take some attention to detail, the only real sticky part about it (pun intended!) is making sure the caramel doesn’t burn. And with constant stirring and a watchful eye on the candy thermometer, you pretty much can’t go wrong. So, I hope that if you have the interest in making caramel, you shake off those “intimidated by caramel” vibes and jump right in with this recipe. Your family and friends will thank you.
- 1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk
- 1.5 c White Corn Syrup
- 1 c Unsalted Butter
- 2 c Granulated Sugar
- 1 tsp Table Salt
- 1 tbsp Bourbon
- Coarse Sea Salt or Lavender Sea Salt for Sprinkling
- Cooking Spray
- Candy Thermometer
- Wax or Parchment Paper
- 9″ x 13″ Glass Baking Dish
- Wooden Spoon or Utensil That Won’t Melt at 240 Degrees F
- Scissors
- Spray glass baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.
- In a heavy bottomed saucepan, combine sweetened condensed milk, corn syrup, butter, sugar and table salt on medium heat. Resist the urge to crank the heat to speed up the process; caramel scorches easily.
- Stir constantly for roughly 25 minutes until the mixture begins to darken slightly, and add 1 tablespoon of bourbon. Continue stirring. In order to avoid crunchy caramel, try not to splash too much on the sides of the pan, and do not scrape the sides of the pan back into the mixture. Only scrape the bottom of the pan. Essentially you want to keep the caramel moving on the bottom of the pan.
- When the mixture begins to boil, clip candy thermometer to the side of the pan and continue stirring constantly. Do not remove the thermometer from the mixture until it reaches 240 degrees F, and try not to drag the thermometer around too much against the metal pan. The metal on metal action can actually cause crystals to form in the caramel, and the end result will be crunchy, rather than shiny and smooth, caramel.
- When the mixture reaches 240 F (soft ball stage) remove from heat.
- Pour mixture into prepared greased glass dish.
- Let sit for 20 minutes; then sprinkle with sea salt or lavender sea salt.
- While the caramel is cooling, cut roughly 100 4″x 5″ parchment paper rectangles to serve as the caramel wrappers.
- When caramel has cooled to room temperature, cut into 1/2″ x 1″ rectangles with scissors. Then wrap the caramels up with parchment papers, by centering a cut caramel on a parchment rectangle so that the long sides of the caramel are parallel to the long sides of the wrapper. Roll the long sides of the paper over the long sides of the caramel, and twist the paper at each short end of the caramel. Repeat until all caramels are wrapped!