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Homemade Maple Caramels require 6 ingredients and are so easy to create! Top them with sea salt and these chewy caramels make great teachers gifts, neighbor gifts or tasty treats to munch on all year round!

 

 

Maple Caramel Candy is a personal weakness of mine.  Chewy caramels with the sweet flavor of maple, make for a great treat! 

Have you ever wondered ‘at what point in history did someone create Caramels’? And more importantly, how did they come up with the worlds greatest candy?

I certainly have.

After digging into the topic a bit, I’ve come to find out a few things that I never knew. The inventor of Caramels is unknown.

 

 

No one really knows who or when caramels made their debut. Clearly the person who did create them didn’t instantly turn their amazing treat into a billion dollar business. But instead, must have passed along the recipe to a friend, neighbor or relative, just as I’m doing now.

What we do know is that hard candies were created in American homes over the fire starting around 1650. Then, over the next 200+ years the greatest inventor of all time created Caramels.

 

 

When, where and what that exact recipe was, will forever be a mystery. Homemade caramel candy was invented somewhere between 1650 and 1880.

Talk about a large mystery gap in history!

It was in the mid 1880’s that homemade caramels began to show up in candy shops along side the classic hard candies. However what surprised me most in my research, was that Hershey’s Candy Company actually started out as Lancaster Caramel Company.

 

 

Milton Hershey didn’t discover chocolate until he was searching for a coating for his caramels.

Fast forward in history, Milton sold Lancaster Caramel Company and started up Hershey’s as we know today.

Call me crazy but to think that caramels and chocolate have only been around for 100 years or so is crazy to me. I can’t even begin to understand or imagine what the world will look like 100 years from now and how they will one day look back on us and our backward ways.

 

 

I for one am glad to be alive today. And one of those reasons is because of the ability to enjoy a bounteous supply of baked goods, candy and especially homemade caramels!

Over the last year I’ve been on a how to make caramel journey. I’ve started to lose count how how many batches of caramels I’ve attempted to make.

Most have been edible, and yet some (like today’s attempt) were utter failures.

 

 

This Maple syrup Caramel recipe though is one of my tasty success stories!  They turned out so delicious and are a fun twist on the classic caramel candies.

CAN I USE REAL MAPLE SYRUP IN THIS RECIPE?

Yes you can!  Instead of adding maple extract, you can certainly use real maple syrup.  In fact I’ve tried myself this method.  What I discovered is that the real maple syrup flavor can’t compete with the rich caramel flavor.  Thus the real maple syrup flavor is almost nonexistent.   I found that you really do need the concentrated extract to bring the flavor of maple syrup to these caramels.

WHAT HAPPENS IF I USE FAKE MAPLE SYRUP INSTEAD OF CORN SYRUP?

Great question!  Fake Maple Syrup found at the grocery store is predominantly corn syrup.  So I tried using it instead of corn syrup in this recipe.  If you like science experiments and don’t care about tossing a full pan of caramels, then you should try this.  Really it’s the oddest consistency and texture of any foods I’ve ever made.  It was gel like.  Cooking this recipe with fake maple syrup turned out.  And they were edible.  However, they were such an odd consistency when cooled that we tossed the whole pan.  

If you want to eat them, use corn syrup.  If you want to play with them for a fun experiment, use fake maple syrup. 

 

 

WHAT OTHER FLAVORS OF CARAMELS COULD I MAKE?

• Sea Salt Caramels
• Microwave Caramels
• Chocolate Caramels
• Licorice Caramels
• Sea Salt Vanilla Caramels
• Vanilla Cinnamon Caramels

WHAT OTHER THINGS CAN I MAKE WITH MAPLE CARAMELS?

• Crispy Coconut Caramel Clusters
• Caramel Cashew Clusters
• Salted Peanut Caramels
• Peanut Butter, Caramel & Pretzel Bites
• Easy Scotchmallows

 

 

HOW LONG DO CARAMELS LAST?

In my house they last only a few days.  However if you’re looking to make these ahead of time, we’ve had good success with these lasting up to a month.  Any longer though and they start to get hard.

HOW DO YOU WRAP HOMEMADE CARAMELS?

Cut a piece of wax paper 4x as wide as your caramel and 2x as long as your caramel.  The idea is to wrap the wax paper around your caramel and then twist each end.  Wax paper is the best option for keeping these from sticking to the paper.  

WHY ARE MY CARAMELS TOO HARD OR SOFT?

The final cooking temperature will determine how hard or soft your caramels are.  If your caramels come out too hard, then cook them to a lower temperature. If your caramels come out to soft, then cook them longer, to a higher temperature.  Personally I like my caramels at 241*F.

 

And so my dear friends, I come to you with this delicious version of Maple Caramels that are easy to make and oh so tasty!

We are huge caramel lovers in our home and after wrapping hundreds, if not thousands of caramels this year, we’ve got a pretty good idea of what a good caramel tastes like versus a bad one. These Maple Caramels are a favorite among our family and friends. Plus they make your kitchen smell amazing.

Homemade maple caramels are a favorite of ours and something we look forward to making every year!

 

 

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