I have to be honest, I’m getting a little misty about the fact that today is the last day of the Handmade Holiday series. I have had so much fun handing over my ideas for handmade gifts! If you missed any of the posts, I’ll be doing a round-up post with links to all of the gift ideas on Monday.

Well, I may be sad that it’s over, but man, we’re going out with a bang.

Salted caramels are nothing new. And gifting them for the holidays is nothing new either. But I desperately wanted to throw my hat into the buttery ring this year. I’ve never been much into candymaking, and even though it took a few attempts to finally get perfect caramelsโ€”it was totally worth it. These things? Insanely delicious. Which is no surprise. Butter + sugar pretty much always equals good.

 I’ve had good success using honey in place of corn syrup with other candymaking (like marshmallows) so I felt like that would work here, too.

After some Googling, I landed on a pretty good starting spot from Two Tarts. I did some modifications to their recipe.

Like I said above, I had to make these guys a few times not because of the taste (the taste was awesome) but because I had a really hard time getting the caramels to set. On the bright sideโ€”I had a lot of delicious caramel sauce to put on yogurt!

I think I struggled so much with timing because I was (a) relying on a candy thermometer that has never been super accurate and (b) I moved! I now live at a much higher elevation than I did last time I did any candymaking and elevation definitely matters.

Eventually, I ended up chucking the candy thermometer and relied on the tried-and-true cold water test. Basically, you drizzle a little bit of the caramel sauce in a cup of cold water, then gather it with your fingers. At first, it’ll be just goopy threads that are impossible to grab (this is called the, aptly named, thread stage). The next stage is that you’ll be able to roll the threads into a gelatinous soft ball (named the soft ball stage). And the next stage is the one we are looking forโ€”the hard ball stage. When you scoop the caramel out of the water, you should be able to roll into a ball that keeps its shape. It should be just slightly softer than the texture you want in your final caramels. When you hit that stage, turn the heat off, you’re done. Who needs a stinking thermometer? Not me.

Go ahead and prepare yourself to eat no less than 400 of these things while you’re cutting and wrapping them. It’s like they grow legs and jump into your mouth. Unless you have ironclad willpower, you will make yourself sick on sugar. Just accept that fact. But the good thing? The recipe makes enough to eat your weight in them and still have enough to wrap up and give to your friends and family!

The caramels are smooth, buttery, chewy and just a teeny bit salty. Which makes them pretty much my favorite thing ever. It’s hard to beat the simplicity of these, but I already have fun ideas swirling around for the next batch. Bacon pieces? Chocolate drizzles? Potato chip crumbs? I even thought it’d be fun to make these into thin strips that can wrap around a fresh apple slice for an appetizer-sized caramel apple!

Sea Salt Honey Caramels

Sea Salt Honey Caramels

Yield: About 3 dozen
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes

These sea salt honey caramels are smooth, buttery,ย chewyย and just a teeny bit salty, with a simplicity that is hard to beat.

Adapted from Two Tarts.

Ingredients

  • Wax or parchment paper
  • Cooking spray
  • 1 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 1 stick unsalted butter, softened and cut into large chunks
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt

Instructions

  1. Line a 9 x 13 baking dish or 9 x 9 baking dish (which will make thicker, but fewer, caramels) with wax or parchment paper—leaving long overhangs on two sides. Spray paper with cooking spray and set aside.
  2. In a large saucepan, combine sugar and honey. Heat over medium heat until smooth and melted. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until sugar has darkened to a deep caramel color—about 5 minutes. Watch carefully, sugar burns fast!
  3. Reduce the heat to low and whisk in the knobs off butter one at a time. Be prepared, the mixture will bubble and grow (hence the large pot). Once all the butter is mixed in, whisk in the cream.
  4. Bring the pot to a boil over medium heat and continue to boil until the mixture reaches the hard ball stage (about 244° on a thermometer or when you drop some of the caramel in cold water, you can form it into a hardish ball). Remove from heat and pour caramel into prepared pan.
  5. Place pan in fridge for about 10 minutes to set up slightly, then sprinkle top of caramels with sea salt. Let caramels set up at room temperature for about an hour—or until totally cooled.
  6. To remove, gently pull on the paper overhang and remove the caramel block from the baking sheet. Cut into squares with a sharp knife and wrap in small pieces of parchment or wax paper.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 36 caramels Serving Size: 1 caramel
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 92Total Fat: 5gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 14mgSodium: 61mgCarbohydrates: 12gFiber: 0gSugar: 12gProtein: 0g

At Wholefully, we believe that good nutrition is about much more than just the numbers on the nutrition facts panel. Please use the above information as only a small part of what helps you decide what foods are nourishing for you.

Do you do any candymaking? What’s your favorite candy to make?

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35 Comments

    1. Hi Ky! We’ve never made this recipe with half-and-half, so we’re not sure how it would turn out. It looks like some of the recipes I can see online that use half-and-half also add butter to make up for the lost fat. So I’m not sure how a straight swap would work in this recipe without making additional modifications. If you try it, please let us know how it turns out for you!

  1. Just made these today and they are SINFULLY GOOD. Can’t believe how delicious they are!!! Was looking for a recipe without corn syrup and this was so perfect, soft and chewy and perfect with the salt. The only modification I made was I added a teaspoon of vanilla. What a fantastic recipe, thanks so much for sharing!!!

  2. I’m very grateful that I found a simple recipe for honey caramels. I have misplaced my mothers candymaking book, and was really dreading trial-n-error. ? as per the question someone asked about coconut milk. Yes, you can definitely use it. I grew up using water when making fudge or caramels. Coconut milk is basically white water.? thanks again for sharing

  3. I learned to cook without a candy thermometer when I was a child – didn’t even know they existed. The Thread stage is the stage that comes after the hard ball stage, not before the soft ball stage. When the spoon is lifted out of the hot sugar mixture it should spin light, brittle threads. That knowledge doesn’t matter with this recipe, but it might if you make toffee or brittle or other hard candies. I’m looking forward to making these caramels. They look wonderful!

  4. Just curious what altitude you are at? I’m working on finding the perfect temperature for my caramels. So many opinions out there!