Maple Caramels

These are buttery, chewy, and SO maple-y without being too sweet. Wrap them in wax paper for gifts, or just keep them in the fridge for yourself.

What You’ll Need

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup maple syrup. Light or dark both work.
• ½ cup light corn syrup. Not optional. Corn syrup keeps things from getting grainy.
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter. Salted is fine, but drop the added salt to ¼ teaspoon.
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon maple extract. Usually found in the baking aisle near vanilla and almond extracts. You can skip it, but then they barely taste like maple.

*Keep in mind that you’ll need to stand at the stove, stirring the mixture for 30-40 minutes, so make sure you give yourself enough time before you start making these.

Equipment You’ll Need

• Heavy-bottom 3-4 quart saucepan. Thin pots scorch sugar. Use the heaviest one you own.
• Candy thermometer. Or use the cold-water test in the recipe notes, but a thermometer is way easier.
• 8×8 pan
• Parchment paper. Two pieces crossed with an overhang, so you can lift the whole slab out to cut it.

Instructions

Prep the pan

Line an 8×8 pan with two pieces of parchment paper, crossed so you have overhang on all four sides. That overhang is your lift-out handle later, so give yourself at least an inch or two to grab.

Butter the top layer of parchment. Hot caramel is very sticky, so don’t skip this step.

Combine everything in the pan

Add the cream, sugar, maple syrup, corn syrup, butter, and salt to a 3-4 quart heavy-bottomed saucepan.

Set it over medium heat and stir to moisten the sugar. Keep stirring while the butter melts. Nothing exciting is happening yet, but this is where you make sure the sugar dissolves evenly rather than settling into a grainy layer at the bottom.

Bring it to a boil

Once the butter is fully melted, bump the heat to medium-high and bring the mixture to a boil while stirring. When it’s boiling, drop the heat back to medium and clip your candy thermometer to the side of the pan.

Make sure the thermometer tip is in the caramel but not touching the bottom of the pan. If it’s touching the metal, you’re reading the pan temperature, not the caramel, and you’ll pull it way too early.

Cook to 245°F

Keep stirring and let the caramel climb to 245°F, which usually takes 30-40 minutes. Watch the thermometer, not the clock. (If you live at altitude, you’ll need to adjust the temperature down by 2°F for every 1,000 feet you live above sea level.)

If you don’t have a thermometer, use the cold-water test: drop a teaspoon of hot caramel into a bowl of ice water, wait 15-20 seconds, and fish it out. If it forms a firm ball that’s still slightly pliable, you’re done. If it flattens between your fingers, keep cooking. If it shatters into shards, you’ve gone too far (see notes below, it’s salvageable).

Caramel goes from perfect to burnt VERY fast. Don’t check your phone!

Add the extract and pour

Pull the pan off the heat as soon as you hit 245°F. Stir in the maple extract, it’ll bubble up a little, that’s normal, and pour the whole thing into your prepared pan. Don’t scrape the bottom of the saucepan aggressively; whatever’s stuck down there is stuck for a reason, and you don’t want it in your smooth caramel.

The maple extract is really what makes it taste like MAPLE caramel and not just sweet caramel.

Cool and cut

Let the caramel cool at room temperature for 2-3 hours, or until it’s firm enough to lift out cleanly. Don’t put it in the fridge to rush this. Cold caramel is hard to cut and loses that soft chew.

Lift the parchment overhang to pull the slab onto a cutting board. Use a sharp, well-oiled knife (any oil or even butter works to prevent the knife from catching on the caramel) to cut 8 strips across, then cut each strip into 1-inch pieces. You’ll get 64 little caramels. 

Storage Instructions

Wrap each caramel in a 4×4-inch square of wax paper and twist the ends closed like a candy. This keeps them from sticking together and makes them easy to grab.

Keep them in an airtight container at room temperature, and they’ll be good for up to 2 weeks. In the fridge, they’ll last up to 4 weeks. Just let them come to room temperature before you eat one.

Variations

• Salted maple caramels: sprinkle flaky sea salt over the top right after pouring into the pan, before it sets.
• Chocolate-dipped: once cut, dip half of each caramel in melted dark chocolate and set on parchment paper.
• Add ½ cup toasted chopped pecans or walnuts to the pan before pouring the caramel in.
• Skip the maple extract and use 1 teaspoon vanilla extract instead for a classic vanilla caramel.
• Brown sugar version: swap the granulated sugar for light brown sugar. So good and a little richer.

Best Ways to Use It

• Wrap them up in little wax paper squares and give them away as gifts.
• Chop and fold into vanilla ice cream after churning.
• Melt a few with a splash of cream for an instant caramel sauce over apple pie.
• Tuck into a homemade candy box alongside fudge and peanut brittle.
• Stir a chopped caramel or two into hot coffee. It melts as you drink.
• Press one into the center of a chocolate chip cookie dough ball before baking.
• Serve on a cheese board with sharp cheddar and sliced apples. Fancy!

Questions and Troubleshooting

Do I really need a candy thermometer?

I highly recommend one. Candy making is finicky, and a thermometer takes the guessing out of it. But if you don’t have one, use the cold-water test in the notes.

Can I skip the maple extract?

You can, but they won’t taste very maple-y. I tested this recipe both ways, and the syrup-only version had hardly any maple flavor. Trust me, you want the extract!

Can I use dark corn syrup instead of light corn syrup?

Yes, your caramels will just be a bit darker in color. The same goes for swapping brown sugar for the white — darker color, slightly deeper flavor.

Why did my caramel turn out grainy or crystallized?

The sugar didn’t fully dissolve before boiling, or sugar crystals stuck to the side of the pan and fell back in. Stir gently at the start until the sugar is completely moistened, and don’t stir aggressively once it’s boiling.

My caramel is too hard/too soft — what happened?

Temperature. Too hard means you went past 245°F, too soft means you didn’t get there. A few degrees really do matter with candy. If it’s too hard, you can salvage it by melting it back down with 2-3 tablespoons of heavy cream off the heat.

Does the brand of maple syrup matter?

Probably a little. Some brands are way more maple-y than others. That’s another reason I add the extract

More homemade candies for gifting

• 51 Old-Fashioned Christmas Candies
• Classic Vanilla Fudge Recipe (From Scratch)
• 17 Homemade Valentine’s Day Candies
• 27 Easy Old-Fashioned Christmas Decor Ideas You’ll Love to Make