How do you keep caramel from getting hard?

by Porsche
(Los Angeles, CA)

How do you keep caramel from getting hard?

I made some chocolate caramel brownies and when the brownies cooled down the caramel was too hard.

I used the store bought caramels and melted with evaporated milk.

How do I keep the caramel soft?

Hi Porsche,

How much evaporated milk did you add to the caramel when melting it? Perhaps you just needed to add more, but instead, I'd try using a heavy cream when melting the caramels to make the caramel softer.

Of course, instead of using the Kraft caramels, you could make caramel from scratch. I haven't tried this particular recipe myself yet, but I recently found it and it had some good reviews so I thought I'd add it here for you in case you wanted to give it a try.

Homemade Caramel Recipe

1 pound of salted butter
4 cups of white sugar
32 ounces of light corn syrup
1 quart (32 ounces) of heavy cream

***Please note that you can cut the ingredients in half to make a smaller batch if desired.

Combine all ingredients over medium heat and bring to a boil. With a candy thermometer bring the candy to 246 degrees. Be sure your thermometer is accurate and allow for any altitude, etc.
You may need to stir occasionally so that you don't burn or scorch the candy on the bottom.
Once the desired temperature is reached, immediately pour the caramel into a well buttered pan and allow it to cool.

(In your case, you can simply pour the caramel on top of the brownie mixture as desired)
Once the candy is cool, you can cut it into squares and wrap the individual pieces in waxed paper. If you like, you can also dip each piece in melted chocolate if you want chocolate covered caramels.

If you use this recipe, do let us know how it turns out for you. We always love personal reviews.

If you decide to continue using the Kraft caramels and try adding the cream instead, let us know the outcome of that as well.

Hope this helps you get the result you want.

Blessings,
Angie