Easy Homemade Caramels Recipe

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Have you been searching for the perfect easy Homemade Caramels recipe that does not contain corn syrup so that you can get a start on some holiday treat-making? This is our favorite recipe for homemade caramels; you only need a few ingredients to make it.

Have you been searching for the perfect easy Homemade Caramels recipe that does not contain corn syrup so that you can get a start on some holiday treat-making? This is our favorite recipe for homemade caramels; you only need a few ingredients to make it.

Easy Homemade Caramels Recipe

There is nothing better as we enter the holiday time of year than all the yummy homemade baking. It just wouldn’t be the same if you bought things from the store! At least not in my house.

We always like to pick out several cookies and treat recipes that we want to make for the year and make them throughout December (instead of having a TON of cookies to be made simultaneously, we spread them out). Not only do we make cookies, we like to make various other treats, too! Like:

Yum! That’s enough to get your mouth watering! One of the new recipes we are making this year is this easy Homemade Caramel recipe. This soft caramel candy recipe is made without corn syrup, and we use raw sugar instead of processed sugar to make it as natural as possible. make a chewy caramel recipe without condensed milk

Caramels are my very favorite (I like them more than chocolate!) so I’m always excited about making up a few batches of these and giving a few batches for gifts. If I decide to, we can give some away! Here’s how to make a chewy caramel recipe without condensed milk or corn syrup.

Easy Homemade Caramels Recipe Ingredients

Ingredients for Easy Homemade Caramels

What You Need:

  • Heavy cream. You can use heavy whipping cream or heavy cream in this recipe. You can also use cream skipped off the top of raw milk.
  • Raw or brown sugar. I’ve made this recipe both ways, and it works, so you can use what you have.
  • Sea salt. Any salt will work here, but I prefer sea salt in this recipe.
  • Vanilla. You can use homemade vanilla extract or store-bought.
  • wax paper
  • candy thermometer
Making Homemade Caramels

Instructions for Making Caramels Without Corn Syrup

Pull out all your ingredients. Start by preparing a good-sized piece of parchment or waxed paper on your table or in a bar pan.

You can place this on a cookie sheet or a baking sheet if you need to move the caramels from your table at some point (since they need to sit before you can put them away).

In a saucepan, mix the cream, sugar, and salt. Cook in a small pot over medium heat, stirring constantly, until boiling. Just stir as needed until the mixture reaches 250 degrees F. You need a candy thermometer for this recipe; it will not work on a guess. Luckily you can grab one for just a few dollars here.

Tip: Save your leftover cream in the freezer with Cream Cubes for use later.

Pouring Out Homemade Caramels

Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract until incorporated. Pour the mixture onto your waxed or parchment paper on your table or baking sheet. I use an Unbleached Wax Paper. You can also pour the caramel into a shallow baking dish if you don’t have a sheet.

Homemade Caramels with Butter

After your caramels have sat for at least 8 hours, use a knife coated in butter and cut out the shapes of your caramels. Use a sharp knife if a regular butter knife isn’t cutting through them well enough for you.

Slicing Homemade Caramels

This will give it a nice buttery flavor plus help you cut through the caramel.

Simple Homemade Caramels

Using more wax paper, wrap each piece individually so they can’t stick together. Store the caramels at room temp. They won’t last more than a week, so make sure you don’t make more than you can eat or give away during that time. Enjoy your yummy treat!

Homemade Caramels Without Corn Syrup
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Easy Homemade Caramels Recipe
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Easy Homemade Caramels Recipe

These delicious easy homemade caramels only need a few ingredients for homemade candy perfection!

Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword easy homemade caramels recipe, homemade caramels without corn syrup
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Resting Time 8 hours
Total Time 8 hours 15 minutes
Servings 30 caramels
Calories 97 kcal
Creator Merissa

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups Heavy Cream
  • 2 cups Raw or Brown Sugar
  • 2 teaspoons Sea Salt
  • 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
  • Wax Paper
  • Candy Thermometer

Instructions

  1. Pull out all your ingredients. Start by placing a good sized piece of parchment or waxed paper out on your table or in a bar pan to be ready. You can place this in a cookie sheet or a baking sheet if you will need to move the caramels from your table at some point (since they need to sit for a while before you can put them away).
  2. In a saucepan, mix the cream, sugar, and salt. Cook over a medium heat, stirring constantly, until boiling. Just stir as needed until the mixture reaches 250 degrees F.
  3. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract until incorporated. Pour the mixture onto your waxed or parchment paper on your table or baking sheet.
  4. After your caramels have sat for at least 8 hours, use a knife coated in butter and cut out the shapes of your caramels.
  5. This will give it a nice buttery flavor plus help you cut through the caramel.
  6. Using more wax paper, wrap each piece individually so they can’t stick together. Store the caramels at room temp. They won’t last more than a week so make sure you don’t make more than you can eat or give away during that time. Enjoy your yummy treat!
Nutrition Facts
Easy Homemade Caramels Recipe
Amount Per Serving
Calories 97 Calories from Fat 36
% Daily Value*
Fat 4g6%
Saturated Fat 3g19%
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.2g
Monounsaturated Fat 1g
Cholesterol 13mg4%
Sodium 162mg7%
Potassium 31mg1%
Carbohydrates 15g5%
Sugar 15g17%
Protein 0.4g1%
Vitamin A 175IU4%
Vitamin C 0.1mg0%
Calcium 20mg2%
Iron 0.1mg1%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

How to Store Leftover Homemade Caramel Candy

Place any leftover caramels in their wax paper wrappers in an airtight container in the fridge. Remove them from the fridge for a few minutes before enjoying them so they are not too hard. You can also store them at room temperature if your kitchen isn’t too warm.

Common Questions About Caramel Making

What is the trick to making caramel?

You need to make sure that you get your ingredients to the right temperature or the caramel will either be too soft or too hard.

Why is my homemade caramel not hardening?

You need to make sure that you get the mixture to 250 degrees F before removing it from the heat. Also, do not add any additional ingredients that could cause an issue with the hardening process.

How do you fix caramel that didn’t set?

You can try and reheat the caramel to the correct temperature but you do risk it becoming gritty. You can always use thin caramel for a sauce or dip instead.

Can you put caramel in the fridge to harden?

No. Caramel needs to be brought to a specific temperature to be able to harden. Just getting it cold in the fridge won’t work.

Homemade Caramels

Tips to Make This Recipe With What Already You Have

This recipe is made with commonly found ingredients, so you can source everything you need fairly easily, even in a small town.

You could also make this recipe with frozen Cream Cubes if you don’t have fresh cream.

If you have your own cow that produces milk or get raw milk from someone, you can skim the cream off the top and use it in this recipe.

Use any kind of salt if you don’t have sea salt.

You can make your own brown sugar if you don’t have any. Combine 1 cup of white sugar with 1 Tablespoon of molasses and mix until coated.

Leave out the vanilla if you don’t have it. It will just give it a different flavor. Still very good!

Easy Homemade Caramel Sauce

More Caramel Recipes

Find even more Desserts and Treats Recipes on Little House Living!

Do you have a special easy Homemade Caramels recipe that your family likes?
How many different kinds of treats do you make this time of year?

Me and Kady

Merissa Alink

Merissa has been blogging about and living the simple and frugal life on Little House Living since 2009 and has internationally published 2 books on the topic. You can read about Merissa’s journey from penniless to freedom on the About Page. You can send her a message any time from the Contact Page.

This Easy Homemade Caramels without Corn Syrup Recipe was originally published on Little House Living in November 2013. It has been updated as of October 2023.

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Recipe Rating




94 Comments

    1. 5 stars
      Well I had just tried another corn syrup free recipe and it was awful. I tried yours using brown sugar and it was perfect and so much easier.I love it Thank you so much!

    1. Yes it is. It’s “If You Care” brand and I get it from my co-op (azure standard). I’ve seen it at health food stores though. We like it because it’s not bleached 🙂

  1. This looks wonderful–I have a taste for the caramel with a pretzel and some chocolate drizzled on top. Thank you for posting!

  2. Soooooo like my grandmother’s recipe! Even the finished product wrapped in waxed paper looks the same. One year I got so excited, because I found Christmas patterned wax paper. Had to make a batch of caramels for it. I’m glad people like you are still making homemade candy.

  3. Hoping for some advice on the carmels. We made carmels for Halloween. They were great for a couple of days and then they became very dry. Any ideas.
    Great website.

      1. Very easy and yummy! I made two different batches: first one exactly as stated. I used dark brown sugar. I felt they were a but too salty but everyone ekse liked them. Second batch no salt and I used light brown sugar. This made an obviously lighter caramel but just as yummy! So hsppy to have found this recipe!

  4. With 2 tsp. salt is it salty tasting?? I want to make some of these for Christmas gifts.. It just sounded like a lot of salt! Thanks

  5. We would really enjoy your Homemade Caramels and just in time for gift giving. Hope you are staying warm and cozy in this cold weather and thank you so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday.
    Come Back Soon!
    Miz Helen

  6. Merissa just wanted to stop by and let you know your featured this week at Showcase Your Talent Thursday #90!

  7. Love the caramel and I am cooling it on wax paper. BUT it does not want to separate from the wax paper. It has not been 8 hours but I am worried that after all that, that I wont be able to serve it because the wax paper is permanently attached to the caramel. Any thoughts?

  8. 1st batch tastes great, but i seemed to have done it to the wrong temp. they are not crackling hard, but not shiny or chewy either. i’m still going to cut & wrap them, they taste that yummy! any advice before i start my next batch?

  9. We made a batch and it looked perfect, tasted delicious, but we left them in the pan overnight and they are still too gooey to cut, like it didn’t set right. As soon as it was 250 degrees we took it off the heat. This is the first time we’ve ever tried candies- do you know maybe where we went wrong?

  10. I couldn’t get it up to the temp? Highest I got was 230 F. I eventually gave up cause it all tastes the same in the end right? Oh well. Learn from my mistakes. any tips for next time though?

    1. Did you try putting a lid on the saucepan? Sometimes I’ve found that it can help when I’m having trouble getting it up to temp. Although on some of the newer stovetops I think they don’t go up to as high of a temp as is needed.

  11. Hi. Do you have an idea of how many caramels one recipe makes? I am doing a cookie/candy sharing weekend with friends. Thanks.

  12. I am sooooo doing this. Thank you for the wonderful idea. This should make a great little Christmas gift along with my rumballs.

  13. Yum! I just recently tried making homemade caramels, too. I created a version with coconut milk, since my husband is allergic to dairy (although it still uses a little butter) and we loved the result, even if dairy wasn’t an issue! (http://syncopatedmama.blogspot.com/2014/11/coconut-milk-caramels.html if you want to try it out yourself sometime) I plan on making mine to give as Christmas presents, but hadn’t found the perfect thing to wrap them in, so I’m glad I discovered this post of yours!

  14. A handy hint for caramel making – be sure to calibrate your thermometer each year. Simply stick it in a pot of water, bring the water to a boil, and note how far off of 212 F the thermometer was. A couple degrees either way makes a big difference, and candy thermometers seem to change from year to year. That way your 250F will really be 250F!

  15. oh my goodness I would love one of these. Thank you for sharing at the Thursday Favorite Things blog hop. xo

  16. This looks wonderful!! I don’t have a Candy Thermometer, is there any way that I can make the caramels without it??

    1. It would be very difficult to tell when the caramels are the right temp without one and you may end up with gooey or crunchy caramels. I would highly recommend one.

  17. I ran out of heavy cream (I only had a cup left) so I looked up replacements and found that you can make a mixture of butter and milk (for 1 cup of heavy cream, you can mix 1/3 cup melted, unsalted butter and 3/4 cup 2% or whole milk). So I used a 1/2 cup of that and they still turned out nice and chewy. Plus, it makes them taste super buttery. My co-workers said it was delicious! I know what I’m making them for christmas!

  18. I would love to try your recipe! In reviewing it for making a trip to the grocery store, I noticed that there was no butter on the ingredient list, but in the photo of the mixture being stirred and cooking, there does seem to be a stick of butter melting in the pan. Am I missing something????

      1. Thank you! I totally understood about the butter coated knife:) Maybe what I see in the photo of the pan with the spatula is a reflection of a light or something from above. Kind of looks like a stick of melting butter!! Thank you for clarifying.

  19. Question:
    I made these, to temp, and everything looked perfect. Until I looked closer. The caramels literally crumbled to powder. Now, I did make a few variations. I added about 3T of butter to the mixture, substituted about 1/4 C of sugar for coconut sugar (I ran out), and poured it into a 7×11 pan instead of flat. The top edges were a delicious caramel, the rest was powder. What went wrong?

  20. Love this caramel recipe. Just what I was looking for. Love that there is no corn syrup in it – just natural ingredients. 😀 I’ll be using this for my dipped apples. Thank you for the recipe!

  21. Good morning! I just made this recipe with goat’s milk and after letting it set the 8 hours found when I cut into it, the finished product is just too sticky to call “candy”…do you have any suggestions to give it more form? I’d like to try again today. Thank you and Merry Christmas 🙂

      1. I got it up to 250…is that high enough? I made another batch last night and elevated the temp to 275 and it burned 🙁 I wonder if the pot that I am using needs to be heavier?

  22. I tried this recipe and it was SUPER easy! I love how easy it was…BUT, it turned out a bit salty. I wonder what I did wrong? I doubled the recipe.

  23. Can you make a huge batch a few days early for an event and then remelt the caramel batch on low heat and use it to dip apples? I am trying to put together a “make your own caramel apple” bar and am trying to stay away from corn syrup for about 150-200 people.

  24. Thank you!! I can’t believe how difficult Google has made it to find a caramel recipe without corn syrup or sweetened condensed milk! All the search results come up with is caramel sauce. Thank you, thank you, Thank you!!!

  25. 5 stars
    So happy I found this site and this recipe.
    Can these be frozen, since I noticed the 1 week shelf life?

    Thanks again.

  26. 5 stars
    These caramels smacked. They were so good, I ate so many that I’m pretty sure I gave myself pre-diabesity.

  27. I’m confused why it only needs to be 240 degrees. Most caramel is supposed to be higher than that. At 240 mine still looked beige & not amber.

  28. I made these today. I got them to 250. I waited 8 hours. They are impossible to cut. They don’t hold a shape. They are delicious, but don’t know what went wrong. Is there anyway to fix it? If I let it sit longer or maybe put it in the fridge overnight? Thanks.

    1. Sorry they didn’t turn out, I’m not sure why they wouldn’t set up if they were up to the right temp for the right amount of time. You can always use them for a tasty caramel sauce too.

  29. Thank you for such a fast reply. How long should it stay at 250? Your recipe said to take it off the heat once it reached 250?

  30. What if I want to use condensed milk? It is easier to have on hand for longer period of time. What changes would I need to make to the recipe?

    1. I haven’t made this recipe with condensed milk so I’m not sure how it would turn out or what changes would need to be made.