Brown Sugar Caramels
This recipe is excellent, BUT it requires a tremendous amount of patience. To get creamy caramel, you have to stir constantly and never leave the pot alone. Otherwise, the caramel will burn at the bottom of the pan. Make sure your heat is medium-low. Be patient and keep stirring!
How To Ensure Caramel Texture is Creamy
After your sugars start to boil, add the evaporated milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, while stirring. The drastic temperature change causes the sugar to crystallize. To help avoid this, I heat the evaporated milk in the microwave for two minutes.
How to Handle the Caramels When Cool
Once the caramel mixture is at 240- 245 degrees, pour it into a buttered 13” x 9" pan. Let it cool to room temperature and then refrigerate it for easier handling. If gifting, cut the pan into one-inch squares and wrap each in a candy wrapper. This makes about 90- 120 caramels, depending on how you cut them.
Brown Sugar Caramels
This recipe is excellent, BUT it requires a tremendous amount of patience. To get creamy caramel, you have to stir constantly and never leave the pot alone. Otherwise, the caramel will burn at the bottom of the pan. Make sure your heat is medium-low. Be patient and keep stirring!
Ingredients
Instructions
- Grease of 13 x 9" pan
- In a large heavy pan, combine the butter, sugar, and glucose and heat over medium heat, stirring constantly until the mixture begins to boil. This will take about 5 to 10 minutes.
- Once the mixture is boiling, very slowly add the evaporated milk, maybe a tablespoon at a time, stirring constantly. You want to add the evaporated milk while keeping the temperature at a boil. A drastic temperature change will make the caramel crystallize. I like to heat the evaporated milk in the microwave for two minutes to speed up this process. This may take about 15 minutes. Be patient!!
- Stir the mixture constantly, scraping the sides occasionally, until it reaches a firm ball stage, about 240-245°F. This takes about 30-45 minutes. Maybe longer.
- Test it with the softball test: drop a spoonful of hot caramel sauce into a cup of ice water and mold it with your fingers into a ball. When it's ready, it will feel pretty firm and pliable, but still slightly sticky.
- Pour the mixture into the 13 x 9 pan and let it cool down at room temperature. I don't like to put it in the refrigerator because it gets hard too quickly.
- Let it cool for several hours, then refrigerate.
Notes
- Several recipes call for lining the pan with parchment or wax paper. I'm here to tell you that it doesn't work well—at least not for me. I found myself scraping the paper off with a sharp knife. Butter the pan instead. You can thank me later!
- Heat the evaporated milk in the microwave for a couple of minutes. It ensures your caramels will not crystallize.
