It Can't Be True

 When considering titles for this blog post, the following options came to mind:

1. Too Good To Be True
2. No Way!
3. I Can't Believe It
4. Dangerous Knowledge
5. Uh-Oh
6. Using a Microwave?
7. I'm In Trouble

The reason for this is because when you see this recipe, you will think to yourself, "No way. This is too good to be true. I can't believe it and I won't believe it."

Then, after you have tried this recipe, you will think to yourself, "Uh-oh. This is dangerous knowledge to have. I can't believe you can make this with a microwave. If I don't find someone to share this with, I am going to be in trouble."

The recipe I am going to share is for homemade microwave caramels. These are unbelievably just as good as the homemade caramels that you make using a pot and a candy thermometer. Only this time, no pot or candy thermometer is necessary.

The one and only time I tried to make caramel before this was a failure. I watched that candy thermometer like a hawk and I stuck to that recipe like glue (two cliches in one sentence. Are you proud of me?). It looked good...but then it hardened...and hardened. It wasn't delicious, soft, melt-in-your mouth caramel. It still turned out to be delicious (after all, it had cream, sugar, and butter in it...how can you go wrong?). However, it turned out to be hard candy. So, I ended up melting the whole thing in the microwave so that it was pourable again, and I poured it into sucker molds and made caramel suckers. Still lovely and deliciously edible, but not what I had been hoping for. I have been reluctant to try my hand at candy-making ever since (candy making definitely doesn't come naturally to me).

I think it is impossible to fail with this recipe, if you follow it. This caramel was soft, chewy, and delicious. Find someone that you need to give a thank you gift to, because otherwise you will gain 5 pounds eating this stuff in two or three days! I gave a third to a next-door neighbor, a third of it I sent to work with my husband to share with his co-workers, and we kept a third of it to eat at home. Delicious!

Microwave Caramels

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 cup white granulated sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup light corn syrup (such as Karo Syrup)
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

Directions:

Spray an 8x8-inch glass baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.

Combine all ingredients in a large microwave-safe bowl. Cook in 2 minute increments, stirring after each, for a total of 12 minutes.

Pour caramel into 8x8-inch baking dish and allow to cool completely. Cut caramels into desired sized pieces and wrap each individual caramel in waxed paper.

Store in an airtight container, or in the refrigerator.

Source: I originally found the idea on Pinterest. It can be found on at least a dozen different blogs and websites. Here are the two sites that I got the recipe from (the first site includes a halved version of the recipe--I think it is the original source. The second site includes the recipe as shared above.) Halved version from Food.com found here. Recipe as shown above found here.

Notes: I kept a tally on a piece of paper as to how many minutes the caramel had been in the microwave because I knew that I would lose track of it otherwise. One of the versions of the recipe that I found off of Pinterest also included 1 teaspoon of vanilla. If you decide to add this, I would suggest adding it in while you are stirring the caramel mixture before you cook it for the last two minutes. I originally cut my caramel into 40 pieces (ten cuts across and four cuts down). However, I realized that because this made for pretty thick caramels that I could cut each of those pieces into three or four pieces each. So, I would say that, depending on how small or big you want your caramels to be, you could get anywhere from 40 large to 120 smaller pieces of caramel out of one batch.

 

 

 

Above: I started out with the plan to cut 40 pieces of caramel.

   

Above: After awhile, I started cutting the original pieces of caramel into thirds. They were still good-sized pieces of caramel. If I had started doing it that way, I would have ended up with 120 pieces total. If you want them in-between these two sizes, I would suggest cutting them into 80 pieces (7 cuts down the pan, 10 cuts across the pan).

Yum! I could have eaten them all! (Don't worry...I didn't eat them all...but I ate way more than I should have!)