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These Easy Homemade Caramels combine butter, corn syrup, sugar, condensed milk, salt, and vanilla to create a soft chewy irresistible treat that is cooked in minutes in the microwave. You will love making microwave caramels and having these on hand for a quick treat to eat or to give as gifts to teachers and friends. 

Easy Homemade Caramels 

One of the highlights of my childhood was going to visit grandma. There was something special about visiting her that I loved more than anything. She always made us feel so loved and special, especially when she would bring out the homemade caramels! 

One day she took me in the kitchen and showed me just how easy these candies were to make. As we walked in she told me that she was going to share her secret with me and that was she cooked homemade caramels in the microwave! 

You will love how easy these candies are to make and you will love how soft chewy and delicious they are to eat! 

If you want another easy treat the whole family will love, gather the basic pantry ingredients needed to make these sweet delicious caramels.

How to make homemade Caramels in the Microwave

• Spray a 8 x 8 baking pan with canola spray or line with parchment paper.
• Place butter, corn syrup, sugar, brown sugar, sweetened condensed milk, & salt into a large glass bowl.  
• Place in the microwave and cook on HIGH power for a total of 7 minutes, remove after 1 minute to stir.  

• Place back in the microwave and allow to cook for a few minutes before removing once again to stir.  

• Place back in the microwave for the remainder of the cooking time.
• Remove from the microwave.  Be very careful the caramel mixture will be very hot and could splatter.
• If you have a candy thermometer you can double check and make sure your mixture is 240-245 degrees.

• Add in vanilla extract.  Stir to combine. 
• Carefully pour caramel mixture into your prepared baking pan.  

• Sprinkle with sea salt flakes or sea salt.

• Put in the refrigerator for 20 minutes to allow the caramels to firm up. 
• Cut into small rectangles,  Wrap individually in parchment paper.  

Tips Tricks and FAQs

• You want to make sure you use a large bowl. This is because the mixture will foam up as it cooks and you do not want it to overflow. 
• I recommend keeping them in the fridge for at least 20 minutes, but it could take longer. You want to make sure these are pretty cool before cutting. 
• You don’t want to cut these in the pan. Remove them all by lifting up the parchment paper and cut on a cookie sheet. 

Storage

You will want to wrap your caramel individually in parchment paper and store them at room temperature. We keep ours in a candy dish on the counter and they are gone so fast! Typically these last for up to 2 weeks. You can freeze them in a freezer-safe bag to have them last longer. 

Why do homemade caramels not turn out?

The number one reason why homemade caramels do not turn out right is that you don’t get the caramel mixture to the right temperature. For these soft melt-in-your-mouth caramels, you want to get the temperature to 240-245 degrees. To ensure this happens you want to use a candy thermometer. 

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