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I have very little experience making candy so this was an adventure to say the least. I ended up with a burned finger, a sticky kitchen, and a full belly. I think it was worth it.

Things I learned-

1) Caramel is ridiculously sticky so handle with care and don’t let them touch each other, the counter, or anything else that you really care about.

2) If the thermometer says 250 degrees, don’t try to rake the excess caramel off the spatula with your finger. Duh!

3) Drop only one caramel at a time into the chocolate. The filling starts to melt really quickly.

These caramels are topped with walnuts, coconut, an almond slice, coarse sea salt, and a toasted pecan. 

Chocolate Covered Caramels

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup dark corn syrup
  • 1 cup butter
  • 1 (14oz) can sweetened condensed milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 (12 oz) package of semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 2 tbsp shortening
  • Wax paper
  • Toppings of choice (Sea salt, crystallized ginger, nuts, coconut, etc)

Bring sugar, corn syrup and butter to a boil in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook, without stirring, for 7 minutes.

Stir in the condensed milk and bring to a boil. Stir constantly until the candy thermometer reaches 238 to 240 degrees (soft ball stage). This takes about 18 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour into butter greased 8×8 inch glass pan.

Let cool at room temperature for 8 hours. Cut into even squares and set on wax paper. Be sure that they do not touch each other (I did and it was a mess!).

In a small saucepan, melt over medium heat the chocolate and the shortening. Stir and heat until smooth then turn off the heat. One at a time, drop the caramel square into the chocolate. Retrieve the square from the chocolate with a fork. Tap the fork on the edge of the pan several times to remove extra chocolate. Rake the excess chocolate off the bottom of the chocolate by scraping the bottom of the fork on the side of the pan. Gently place the square onto the wax paper. Top with desired nuts, etc.

Chocolate covered…

Naked…

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