Fall Caramel

Caramel, the true color of Fall

If you’ve just read the spring caramel post, hold on to your dentures because the fall caramel, with its simpler recipe, delivers a caramel with such subtle differences, that a peasant, unfamiliar with the nuances of culinary sublimity, fails to grasp the unparalleled importance of the need for two recipes. Don’t feel discouraged if you still wonder why we use two different recipes. You will want to read the Kent Merrell science behind the two caramel recipes, “The Tale of Two Caramels” click here.

Here’s my mother’s recipe. Please note how pure it is.

4 Cups Sugar

½ lb. Butter – two sticks

2 Cup Corn Syrup

2 – 12 oz. Cans Evaporated Milk

Melt the butter in a large pan on the stovetop. Cooking on high; before you burn the butter, add the corn syrup, then the sugar. Stirring constantly throughout the cooking process. Bring to a full boil. Clean the sides of the pan occasionally with a wet pastry brush to keep sugar from crystallizing on the sides. Add the evaporated milk, a little at a time, so the candy doesn’t stop boiling. Cook to 230 degrees. Pour into the buttered tray. Usually, a 9 x 13 pan works well.

Do not pour on foil or waxed paper that hasn’t been buttered or greased well.

We use a 6-quart size pan for this recipe.

One pan makes about 136 hand dippable caramels. (Or you can leave them un-dipped). The recipe also makes about 25 caramel apples. One batch makes about 2 pans of turtles (5 rows each) and 1 pan of pecan rolls. We will explore the science behind turtles in a future article so don’t fret here.

Now, move on to the “Tale of Two Caramels.”