The directions leave something to be desired, but with a little tuning, the results are excellent.
After stirring in the butter and cream, put the mixture back on the heat until the mixture reaches 234 degrees again. Bubbling will be vigorous at first and gradually die down. Watch carefully when the temperature goes past 220 again, as most of the water is cooked out at this point and the temperature rises quickly.
Cool the mixture slightly, and then dip your target ingredients. Dipping apples at around 200 degrees worked well.
Pour leftover caramel onto parchment paper and cool in the refrigerator. Allow to return to room temperature and cut into pieces for delicious caramel candy.
Delicious! Thanks M. O'Brien for expanding the directions. This makes a wonderful old-fashioned caramel perfect for making caramel apples. MUCH better than using premade caramels. This one's a keeper! I was able to cover 10 small-med apples with this amount of caramel with a couple of Tbsp left over (and it won't go to waste!). NOTE: Use a LARGE pot for this recipe. It more than triples in volume after the butter and cream were added. I ended up having to transfer to another vessel because it was boiling over!
I made 250 caramel apples for a school carnival using this recipe and they were a huge hit! Needless to say I worked out all of the problems before attempting so many. Those who complain that it's just a sauce didn't cook it long enough. The first cooking faze is fast (approx 10 min) but after you add the cream & butter it took a consistent 20-25 min to reach 230-232 degrees. I found 234 to 240 made the caramel too hard for an apple but 230 to 232 was perfect. Use parchment paper not waxed. I picked my apples so didn't have the wax problem. (Honeycrisp!) I washed them dried them and kept them very cold right until they were dipped. This helps the caramel cool faster. I also had 2 other people there so I could quickly dip (I didn't wait for the extra to run off) and hand them off to empty hands who held them turning them this way and that so the caramel didn't drip off. After about one minute the caramel was set enough they could place them on the paper and none of the apples had the caramel sluff off. My husband made quite a few by himself so when the caramel got to the point it wouldn't stick he just put it back on the stove on low until it melted to the desired consistency again. Make sure your thermometer is accurate and check your pan. Mine had a steel bottom so even after I removed it from the heat at 230 it cooked to 236 which was too hard. Don't give up. This is awesome caramel!!
This turned out to be a great sauce My Husband and I used it for Ice Cream too (just kept it in a glass jar in the fridge and heated it up a bit before drizzling over dessert) We weren't sure at first but from now on it will replace store bought caramel sauces in our house. And thank you M. O'Brien for expanding on the directions. Mine surely would have failed with out the extra information.
One major omission in this recipe is the amount of time you should cook it. Cook Time says 20 min. but that is not included anywhere in the directions of the recipe. After adding the butter and cream I cooked it at med. high heat for about 10 min. stirring constantly and slowly until it began to get a caramel color. THEN I took it off the stove added the vanilla and dipped the apples.
Thank you so much for posting a recipe that doesn't call for premade caramels. I had one heck of a time finding a plain old caramel recipe for my caramel apples. Thank you again.
I agree with M.O'Brien. I ended up cooking it for about 10-15 minutes at a steady boil.The Sauce is creamy and delicious not too sweet. Light in color and excellent on brownies!
This is seriously good caramel I couldn't find my candy thermometer but it still turned out perfect boiled for 10 minutes or so after adding the butter and cream like others. I dipped apples and poured the leftover caramel on parchment and cut and wrapped in parchment to make caramel candies.
AWESOME! I didn't have heavy cream so I tried substituting a cup of whipping cream and a cup of 2% milk. I was surprised how good this turned out! I also boiled about 15 minutes after adding the butter & cream/milk to get the right viscosity. Tastes like Werther's Original! If yours isn't thickening just keep simmering and it will.
I don't know why everyone is raving. this syrup will not thicken up even after boiling for 15 minutes. it tastes might good though but it will not coat an apple whatsoever. Does anyone know where I went wrong? I followed the recipe to a T.
