Chewy Maple Caramels
A chewy and buttery maple caramel is just what your holiday candy box needs.
These sumptuous maple caramels are enriched with authentic, robust maple syrup and the rich flavor of grass-fed butter. The rich maple caramels are very reminiscent of Riesen caramels, just without the chocolate coating. Although these caramels might be even better with a little chocolate but that’s for another time. Right now, we just have the standard chewy maple caramel, and that’s more than alright. Now, let’s sit back and enjoy our homemade caramels.
Chewy Maple Caramels
2 cups robust maple syrup
1 TBSP unsalted grass-fed butter
1 tsp kosher salt
Tools
Candy thermometer
Silicone Candy molds
Non-stick cooking spray
Rubber or off-set spatula
Prepare your candy molds by spraying them with your non-stick cooking spray. Wipe off any excess spray with paper towels, you don’t want to have the spray pool too much because it will make the caramels greasy.
In a medium sized heavy bottom pot, pour the maple syrup. Set the pot of syrup on the stove at medium heat, bring the syrup to a boil.
When the syrup starts to boil, add the butter and salt. Whisk until the butter has completely melted into the syrup. Place the candy thermometer in the syrup and continue to boil until the syrup reaches 240°F or the soft ball reading on your thermometer. While you’re waiting for the syrup to come up to temperature, whisk the syrup continuously to ensure that the sugar doesn’t burn.
Once your maple syrup reaches 240°F, remove from the heat and let cool for 3 minutes. Whisk the syrup vigorously until the syrup thickens, about 5 minutes.
Add your thickened syrup to the prepared candy molds making sure to level off the syrup with a rubber or off-set spatula. Leave the caramels to set for about 2 hours before placing them in the fridge to set completely overnight.
Once set, remove the caramels from the molds and store in a parchment lined airtight container. Store in the fridge or freezer and let the caramels sit at room temperature for at least 5 minutes before enjoying.
*Notes:
It’s very important that you use real robust maple syrup when making these caramels. The caramels won’t cook correctly or taste as good if you use the fake stuff such as Mrs. Buttersworth.
If you don’t have silicone candy molds, you can easily use a standard loaf pan instead. Simply grease the loaf pan with cooking spray and line it with parchment paper. Once the caramel has set overnight, you can remove it from the pan and cut the caramel into bite size pieces with a sharp knife.
The recipe states to use grass-fed butter however, it is not imperative to use it. The grass-fed adds a little more richness to the caramels that you just don’t get with your standard Land o'Lake butter, just like in my recipe for Old-Fashioned Caramel Corn. But if you can’t get your hands on it that’s more than fine, it won’t make or break the recipe.
In lieu of the holiday season, I opted to use Christmas shaped candy molds for my caramels. But feel free to use whatever silicone molds you might have on hand.