Vanilla cream filled caramels are very nostalgic for me. Growing up they were one of my Mom's favorite candies to eat and I can still see her unwrapping the clear and red wrapper in my mind. These are also referred to as the homemade bullseye candy and very similar to the cowtails candy recipe.
If you are looking for a luxury cut and wrap caramel recipe, check out this pdf guide. It goes over all aspects of making the candy, FAQ, and even retail packaging and labeling. It is the exact recipe I use for my retail sales (and is constantly sold out!)
From start to finish these will take you about two hours if you don't take any breaks. I highly encourage reading this post and watching the 30 second video below before jumping to the recipe if you are going to make them.
If you read through this recipe and decide you want to give something a little simpler a try, take a look at these easy salted caramels. If you love these and want to make another version, I've also got chocolate cream caramels.
Ingredients - vanilla cream caramels
- unsalted butter
- brown sugar
- salt
- evaporated milk
- heavy cream
- corn syrup
- powdered sugar
- vegetable shortening
- vanilla
Equipment - vanilla cream caramels
-
5 quart planetary mixer
-
high heat spatula or wooden spoon
-
kitchen scale
Instructions
Make Caramel
All of the ingredients for this caramel go in the same pot at the same time. Cook it over medium low until all of the butter is melted and sugar is dissolved. Turn the heat to medium until you reach a boil, and then continue to cook on medium-high until you reach 241F. This will take around 25 minutes.
Spread the caramel on parchment paper in a 10" x 15" rectangle. The caramel will be around ⅛" thick. Let the caramel cool completely while you make the vanilla cream. Caramel will cool in about 30 minutes.
Make Vanilla Cream
Using a five quart planetary mixer, cream shortening until it is soft and smooth, about a minute. Add in powdered sugar in ½ cup increments until all of it has been incorporated. Add in vanilla and corn syrup while mixing on low. Mix until all ingredients are combined, and then add in water. Vanilla cream will have an almost goat cheese / crumbled appearance, but holds its shape if squeezed in your hand. Pour the vanilla cream out on parchment paper and knead it until it the consistency turns into a dough. At this point, you can either roll it out using a rolling pin OR leave it as is and hand apply small amounts directly to the caramel.
Cut your caramel
Yes, you could make one really large vanilla cream caramel but it is MUCH EASIER to work with four smaller pieces. Cut your caramel slab into four rectangles.
Apply the Vanilla Cream
This part is messy. Choose your own adventure here by either:
- rolling out the exact size square of vanilla cream center you need and applying it to the caramel
- take small amounts and spread it on with your fingers, a spatula, a knife.. etc.
The vanilla cream layer should be half the height of the caramel layer. You also need to leave a ½" space at the top of the caramel slab.
Roll baby, roll (twice!)
Starting from the side that does NOT have the caramel space, roll the caramel into a log. This is very similar to making cinnamon buns. Roll it as tightly and evenly as you can. Once you've completed the roll, you're going to continue to roll the same piece. This is just like when you were five years old and how you used to pretend to make play-doh snakes. Or, similar to when you roll out pretzel dough to make soft pretzels at home. This will lengthen the caramel log and cause the vanilla cream inside to pack together nicely. You need to roll and lengthen until you no longer hear the caramel seam hitting the table.
Cut and Wrap
I like to cut my pieces into ½" slices, and then use clear cello wrap to package them. You can also use parchment or wax paper cut into 5" x 5" squares. If you purchase clear cello wrap for candy, double check the size before you buy! You need them to be AT LEAST 5" x 5".
If you don't wrap these individually, please make sure you place them in a single layer without any caramel touching each other. Caramel loves to stick together. Single layer, parchment in between layers, closed container.
When you cut, roll your caramel long in a quarter turn after each cut. This will make it so the caramel retains a circular shape. Also, if you heat your knife up and use cooking spray on the blade you can help with keeping a nice piece shape.
Vanilla Cream Caramels
Equipment
- high heat spatula or wooden spoon
- kitchen scale
Ingredients
Caramel
- 113 grams unsalted butter
- 340 grams brown sugar
- 4 grams salt
- 340 grams evaporated milk (1 can)
- 170 grams heavy cream
- 285 grams corn syrup
Vanilla Cream
- 475 grams powdered sugar
- 90 grams vegetable shortening
- 75 grams corn syrup
- 2 grams vanilla
- 10 grams water around 1 tablespoon
Instructions
Make Caramel
- Lay out a large piece of parchment paper. This should be large enough to fit a 10" x 15" rectangle with room around each side.
- In a heavy duty, thick bottomed pot, combine butter, brown sugar, salt, evaporated milk, heavy cream, and corn syrup.
- Cook over medium- low heat, stirring constantly, until butter has melted and sugar has dissolved.
- Turn heat to medium. Stirring constantly, bring mixture to a boil.
- Turn heat to medium high. Stirring constantly, cook caramel until temperature reaches 241F.
- Turn off heat. Pour caramel on parchment. Spread into a thin layer, making a 10" x 16" rectangle. Cool completely. Make vanilla cream while it cools
Vanilla Cream
- Place shortening in mixing bowl. Mix on low for one minute.
- Add powdered sugar, ½ cup at a time.
- Add vanilla and corn syrup. Mix until combined. Ingredients will resemble goat cheese crumbles.
- Add water. Mix. A small amount of additional water might be needed to achieve texture. You are looking for the ingredients to feel like play-doh and to become like clay when you squeeze them together in your hand.
- Dump out contents of mixing bowl onto work surface (parchment paper or a large cutting board is great!) Work the ingredients until a dough forms. Set aside.
Assembling Caramels
- Cut caramel slab into four equal pieces.
- Apply vanilla cream in a thin layer to caramel, leaving ½ " space at the top long side. Vanilla cream layer should be about half the height of the caramel layer.
- Roll up caramel into a log.
- Using your hands, roll caramel long like you are rolling pretzel dough to lengthen it. Aim for 12-15 inches in length. You should no longer hear or feel a caramel seam when rolling the piece.
- Cut the caramel into ½" slices. Wrap in desired packaging.
Lynne Sussman
From mummasuss to one sweet mama any chance you could use imperial measure? I would love this recipe, but too difficult to use metric for me. I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks so much!
Lynne
Hannah
Hi Lynne! I don't provide imperial measurements because in candy making it is really important to have the right amounts of each ingredient and not approximates. Cup measurements have too much room for error and can vary greatly between each person. I purchased a digital food scale from my local Walmart for $10 and it does grams, kg, lbs, and ounces. You can also find very reasonable priced food scales on Amazon. There are also some websites that will convert ingredient measurements for you, but again, I don't recommend this.
Tiffany W.
Delicious!!! Easy to follow recipe. My caramels turned out great! I'm going to share them with friends. 😊
Hannah
Thank you so much! I'm so glad you enjoyed them and hope your friends did too!
Liliane st martin
What kind of shortening are you using
Hannah
Just plain Crisco! Sticks or tub, either works. Skip the butter flavored version though, it competes with the caramel instead of letting it shine.
Lynne
Good idea I actually have a scale duh! Let you know how it goes. Thanks Hannah!
Monica
I know this is an older comment, but for anyone else who wants to try a recipe like this where imperial measurements aren't there, there's lots of easy to use conversion calculators online.
Lisa
Your instructions say to add water, but doesn't say how much. Can you please clarify that?
Hannah
Great catch, and sorry about that! It's 10 grams of water, around 1 tablespoon. Add it slowly though, because how much you actually need shifts a little with humidity. You're looking for the mixture to go from goat cheese crumbles to something that squeezes together like play-doh. Some days that takes a touch more, some days a touch less. I'm getting the recipe card updated now so nobody else hits that.
Penny Boggs
can you please convert this to ounces,pounds,cups,teaspoon,tablespoon, i can't use grassland so on ...thanks
Hannah
Hi Penny! I don't provide imperial measurements because in candy making it is really important to have the right amounts of each ingredient and not approximates. Cup measurements have too much room for error and can vary greatly between each person. I purchased a digital food scale from my local Walmart for $10 and it does grams, kg, lbs, and ounces. You can also find very reasonable priced food scales on Amazon. There are also some websites that will convert ingredient measurements for you, but again, I don't recommend this.
Kelsey
How long do these store for? Also do we store in the fridge or counter?
Hannah
1-2 months for shelf life, and storage should be normal room conditions, not the fridge.
Casey Anne
I tried your recipe, it was great! You have such thorough instructions. Thank you! I made these Carmel creams for Christmas neighbor gifts. They turned out great. I made the cream into a few flavors. cinnamon and also egg nog. I used a candy thermometer on my first batch, but it turned out hard as a rock. I then tried the cold water method, and it was perfect! I read that altitude can affect the temperature of candy, I'm in the rocky mountains. Thanks again, I'm super excited to try some of your other recipes...gingerbread Carmel nougat ..yum!
Hannah
Casey, what a kind review! Thank you so much. I love those flavor combos. Yes, candy companies at higher altitudes actually have to adjust temperatures! They cook to lower temperatures depending on what altitude they are. I'll have to give eggnog a try!
Penny
These look awesome. I have so many childhood memories of bullseye candies! Question: vegetable shortening--Crisco? Or what specifically do you use?
Hannah
Yes, Crisco is exactly what you want! The plain white sticks or the tub both work fine, just don't use the butter flavored kind. It'll throw the flavor off.
The reason it's shortening and not butter here is that shortening is all fat with no water in it, which is what keeps the cream center firm instead of going soft and weepy inside the caramel.
So glad the bullseyes brought back some memories. Same for me with my mom!
BukLee
These look delicious! I’m going to add them to my Christmas baking list but it would be great if I can make them in advance. Assuming they are individually wrapped, how long do you think they will keep?
Thanks!
Hannah
oh thank you! Yes, you can make them in advance. Honestly the shelf life is pretty great, at least 1-2 months under normal room conditions. No need to refrigerate.
Dianna Benson
I’d really love to makes these however We don’t use corn syrup in our home what can be used as a replacement?
Hannah
Hi! You can use glucose syrup, tapioca syrup, or brown rice syrup as a 1:1 substitute.
Laurel
hi, do you think this recipe could be successful using a hand mixer?
I was passed down a broken bowl-lift stand mixer but haven't gotten up the courage to try to fix it.
I'd love to make these for my mom and aunt.
Hannah
I think it would be fine!
Lori
Any substitutions for shortening?
Hannah
Palm shortening is your best 1:1. Same job, same texture, and it's usually the swap people are looking for if they're avoiding Crisco specifically.
Refined coconut oil can work but it's finicky. It melts around 76F, so if your kitchen runs warm the center will go soft on you. If you try it, keep the candies somewhere cool.
Lard technically works and holds up well, but you'll taste it. Depends how you feel about that.
The thing to avoid is anything liquid at room temperature. Oils won't set up and the center will stay loose inside the caramel.
Martha
What part of this recipe will be affected by refrigeration? I always refrigerate my home made caramels to avoid them sugaring with time. They are ok for a couple weeks maybe but will keep for months and months if kept cold.i do not want my labor and ingredients to get sugared up on me. What would happen to them if they did get refrigerated?
Thank you! This looks great and I also loved these confections as a child!
Hannah
Great question and I want to poke at the premise a little first.
Refrigeration doesn't really prevent graining. Sugaring comes from crystals getting a foothold during the cook or the cool, usually from stray crystals on the side of the pot, stirring after the boil starts, or not enough corn syrup to keep things in check. Cold slows down a lot of things but it isn't the thing keeping crystals away. Your corn syrup is doing that work.
What refrigeration does to this recipe specifically: the cream center is the part that suffers. It'll firm up and go a little dry and crumbly in the cold, so you lose the soft contrast against the caramel that's the whole point of a bullseye. Caramel also picks up moisture fast when it comes out of the fridge and hits room temperature air, so you get condensation on the surface and sticky, weepy wrappers.
If you're set on storing them cold, wrap each piece individually and put them in an airtight container, then let the whole container come fully to room temperature before you open it. That keeps the condensation on the outside of the container instead of on your candy.
But honestly, if your caramels are graining at a couple weeks, I'd look at the cook rather than the storage. That's a fixable thing and it would save you the fridge entirely.
Laura R
I made them and they taste great but having a terrible time cutting them. The filling squishes out.
Hannah
So glad they taste good! The squishing is a solvable problem.
Two things are usually behind it. First, the log is still too warm. Caramel that's even slightly soft will compress under the knife and push the center out the sides. Let the rolled log sit at room temperature for a while before you cut, or pop it in the fridge for 15 minutes. Firm log, clean cut.
Second, too much cream in the roll. The center should be about half the height of the caramel layer, and if it's thicker than that there's simply nowhere for it to go when the blade comes down.
A few things that help at the cutting board: heat your knife under hot water and dry it, spray the blade with a little cooking spray, and press straight down rather than sawing back and forth. Sawing is what really drags the filling out. Wipe the blade between cuts too, it builds up fast.
And give the log a quarter turn after each slice. Keeps the pieces round instead of flattening on one side.
Samantha Bliss
Can butter be used in place of shortening?
Hannah
Reply:
Not a straight swap, unfortunately. Butter is about 80% fat and the rest is water and milk solids, while shortening is basically pure fat. That water changes everything in a cream center. You'd end up with something softer and wetter that slumps inside the caramel instead of holding its shape, and it gets worse as it sits.
Shortening also stays firm at room temperature where butter goes soft, so the center holds up better once the candies are wrapped and stacked.
If you want butter flavor in there, a tiny bit of butter extract with the vanilla will get you closer without wrecking the texture.
Bill Rycraft
I want to make these for my wife since bulleseye ( just a different shape ) and everything homemade tastes so much better. I always like to compare recipes as many are similar but I noticed other recipes use unflavored gelatin and you do not. What does the gelatin do vs leaving it out if you have tried any recipe using the gelatin. I am going to try this but just wondered if you know the difference because nobody explains why they use gelatin.
Also have you tried using butter flavored shortening?
Thank you looking forward to making these today for her.
Hannah
Ooh good question, and you're right that nobody explains it.
Gelatin in the cream center is doing two jobs. It gives you a little bounce and chew so the center has some structure instead of just being smooth, and it holds onto moisture, which helps the center stay soft over time instead of drying out and getting crumbly. It's the same thing that makes a marshmallow springy, just in much smaller amounts.
Leaving it out gives you a shorter, softer center that melts away faster. More like a fondant. That's the texture I wanted here because I like it against the chew of the caramel, but if your wife likes a center with a bit more body, gelatin is a legitimate way to go. Neither is wrong, they're just two different candies.
On the butter flavored shortening, I'd skip it. It reads a little artificial next to a caramel that already has real butter and browned sugar flavor going on, and the two end up competing. Plain shortening lets the caramel be the star.
Hope she loves them! Report back.
Laura Wilbanks
Fantastic recipe! Both my Sister and I thought the caramel was sooo much better than any caramel that we had ever bought before (and even now). She shared it with a friend of my Nephew's and he wanted to pay me to make some for him, "regardless of the price"!
I am a die hard fan of caramel (even at my age)! I prefer it far above any type of chocolate, including German chocolate.) and couldn't seem to get enough of it. However, now that I have this recipe, I find that I don't crave it quite as much now since I can make it when I want it and it is so much better than what I have bought before.
Maci
How long do theses keep?
Hannah
About 1 to 2 months! Keep them at normal room temperature, no need to refrigerate. Just make sure they're either wrapped individually or stored in a single layer with parchment between layers, because caramel will happily fuse itself into one giant blob if you let it.
Jeannette
I don’t remember if I have ever had this kind of candy before, but I wanted to thank you for your wonderful, clear directions! I intend to try making it.
Hannah
Thank you, that means a lot! If you've never had one, they're a caramel with a soft vanilla cream center rolled inside, so you get chewy and creamy in the same bite. Sold as bullseyes in a red and clear wrapper if you ever spot them.
Come back and tell me how they turn out. The rolling part is the fun one.
Melissa
I am starting to think I didn't cook the caramel long enough. It’s falling apart and very greasy. The vanilla cream is perfect but I am worried the caramel is undercooked. What do I do? Is this normal ?
Hannah
Hi! Greasy usually means the caramel broke rather than that it was undercooked. When the fat separates out from the rest of the mixture you get that oily feel and it won't hold together. Two things cause it most often: not stirring constantly the whole cook, and pushing the heat up too fast so it boils hard before everything has a chance to emulsify.
Worth checking your thermometer too. Stick it in boiling water and it should read 212F. If it's reading high, you pulled the caramel before it actually got to 241 and that would make it soft on top of everything else.
You can sometimes rescue a broken batch. Put it back in the pot with a splash of heavy cream, melt it slowly over low heat while stirring constantly, and once it looks smooth again bring it back up to 241F. No promises but I've saved a few that way.
Also, your vanilla cream being perfect is a great sign. That's the fussier half.