This is a REAL caramel recipe...not one that calls for unwrapping store bought candies and melting. Simple recipe but does require you to babysit the entire time. I added ten extra minutes to the final cook stage to get a richer color. The taste is amazing, no changes or tweeking needed. Also, by no means cut the recipe in half, you will just be mad when it runs out...and it will run out. YUM

I'll give this recipe 5 stars ONLY because I followed M. O'Brien's additional instructions, which really helped make it clear that the mixture has to be boiled to 234 a SECOND time, and she/he described what to look for as it's boiling down. Thanks to both SPLACE and M. O'Brien for a yummy caramel recipe!

Amazing!! Easy to follow and turned out SO delicious!

This is so easy to burn. Which happened with my first try. I was letting it come up to temperature and it looked good, and I took it off the stove to do the water test, and it burnt. The next time I let it get to 90C, and dropped some into cold water. It didn't ball up, and it was rock hard. When I took it out of the water, it wasn't soft. I thought I'd over cooked it, even though it was still a clear color. I took it off the heat added milk (I had homo on hand, no cream), and margarine (no butter, it's bad for you). I put the pan back on the stove and let it cook some more. The caramel tasted buttery and good, but it wasn't thick. After a couple of days in an air tight container in the fridge, it has thickened up and has nice color. It's delicious over ice cream, apples, and drizzled over apple pie!

Really, really yummy---watch carefully so you don't have a messy boil over.

I made 250 caramel apples for a school carnival using this recipe and they were a huge hit! Needless to say, I worked out all of the problems before attempting so many. Those who complain that it's just a sauce didn't cook it long enough. The first cooking faze is fast (approx 10 min) but after you add the cream & butter, it took a consistent 20-25 min to reach 230-232 degrees. I found 234 to 240 made the caramel too hard for an apple, but 230 to 232 was perfect. Use parchment paper, not waxed. I picked my apples so didn't have the wax problem. (Honeycrisp!) I washed them, dried them, and kept them very cold right until they were dipped. This helps the caramel cool faster. I also had 2 other people there so I could quickly dip (I didn't wait for the extra to run off) and hand them off to empty hands who held them, turning them this way and that so the caramel didn't drip off. After about one minute the caramel was set enough they could place them on the paper and none of the apples had the caramel sluff off. My husband made quite a few by himself so when the caramel got to the point it wouldn't stick, he just put it back on the stove on low until it melted to the desired consistency again. Make sure your thermometer is accurate and check your pan. Mine had a steel bottom so even after I removed it from the heat at 230, it cooked to 236 which was too hard. Don't give up. This is awesome caramel!!

This is a good caramel sauce for apples, which is what it is marketed as. Some of the reviews on here made me think that it would harden to make caramel apples, which it didn't. It's definitely a caramel sauce. Still looking for the perfect caramel apple recipe.

I don't know why everyone is raving. this syrup will not thicken up even after boiling for 15 minutes. it tastes might good though but it will not coat an apple whatsoever. Does anyone know where I went wrong? I followed the recipe to a T.

This was way too soupy. It didn't really harden up. It tasted great, but couldn't really be eaten by itself.

I am giving this four stars because, as other reviewers mentioined, the directions lack a lot of details. I have a digital thermometer and got the sugar and corn syrup up to 234 degrees as other reviewers recommended. Then I added about a cup and a half of fat free half and half and a half cup of skim milk (because I didn't have enough half and half). I returned to a boil and boiled for about 15 minutes or until the mixture returned to 234 degrees (per other reviews). It did take on a caramel color, although it was more opaque than I thought it would be. We waited until it got to around 200 degrees and then dipped 8 large apples in it. The caramel eventually fell off the first apple, so I think next time I'd let it cool even a little less than 200 degrees. My husband did say it tasted just like Werther's candy and the apples were a hit. They did stick to the wax paper that I put them on and I will try parchement next time instead.