Dump and Stir Caramel

This is my FIRST EVER attempt at candy making. My great grandmother makes an amazing soft caramel, and it always seemed so technical and scary to me, so instead of trying to make it myself, I just wait patiently each year for my Grandpa to make his mom’s caramel recipe. I savor a few pieces, and then wait a whole year for more.

Today I decided it was time to overcome my fear, and try a very basic recipe. Yes, it does use a candy thermometer, and there are a few tips and tricks to keep in mind to get “good” caramel (I mean, is there any such thing as bad caramel), but as a candy making virgin, I have to say, this was fairly easy, and totally painless. I highly recommend trying it. I got the recipe from Pinterest, and of course I had to tweak it slightly because…well… that is what I do. Here is the original. The only change is I added a little cream, and used a bit of coarse sea salt on top to give it a more “salted caramel” taste, as I love a bit of contrast!

Dump and Stir Caramel

This basic recipe for homemade caramels is delicious and fairly easy.

2 from 1 vote

Print Pin Rate

Course: Candies

Cuisine: American

Keyword: caramel

Prep Time: 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes minutes

Ingredients

• 1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 Tbs cream
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cup white Karo Syrup
• Coarse sea salt for top optional

Instructions

• Put everything in one heavy saucepan, except the salt used to top it.
• Put on medium heat.
• Stir CONTINUOUSLY, do not stop.
• When it starts to boil, put in a candy thermometer.
• Keep stirring and cooking until the temperature reaches 240.
• Grease a 9x13 pan, pour caramel into pan, top with the big crystal salt and let cool completely
• Cut into squares
• Wrap in wax paper
• Store in fridge

Notes

Stir with a wooden spoon.
Don't scrape the sides, this can cause sugar crystals to end up in your caramel, making it crunchy instead of smooth when done.
Once you insert your candy thermometer, don't move it around or remove it and put it back in, as this too can lead to sugar crystals.
Heat on medium, if too high, you will see brown specks, which is your candy scorching; if this happens remove immediately from heat, and turn down, then return.
When cutting and packaging, it helps to set the pan on a tray with ice cubes to keep cold, making handling much easier.

Our recipe card software calculates these nutrition facts based on averages for the above ingredients, different brands, and quality of produce/meats may have different nutritional information, always calculate your own based on the specific products you use in order to achieve accurate macros for this recipe.

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Put all of your ingredients in a heavy saucepan.

Start stirring, don’t let it splash on the sides if you can help it, and don’t scrape the sides.

Bring it to a boil, and put your candy thermometer in. Keep stirring until it reaches 240 degrees.

Pour into your 9×13 pan. Let cool completely before cutting.

Get your wax paper ready for rolling your caramels in. Cut caramel. At this point I actually got a jelly roll pan, and put ice cubes in it, then put the pan of caramel on top of it so that it would stay cold and firm while I individually wrapped it.

Then enjoy!

This really is a dump and stir caramel, it was SO easy. I really hope you enjoy it as much as we do.