What Are Caramel Kisses?

Caramel kisses are small candies that are often made from a combination of chocolate and caramel. They can be bought in a variety of stores, as well as from online retailers. This kind of candy is usually manufactured with specialized machinery that forms the finished ingredients into a widely-recognizable individual chocolate drop shape. Caramel kisses are not only a sweet treat on their own; they can also be added to a wide variety of dessert recipes. This type of candy can also be made at home from scratch as an alternative to buying ready-made caramel kisses.

The most popular store-bought caramel kisses are fashioned with a milk chocolate shell that encloses a semi-liquid caramel center. These flavors make the caramel candy a quite versatile ingredient for baking cookies, dessert truffles, and other kinds of homemade sweets. Other versions of these caramel candies can often be baked from recipes that may leave out the chocolate; these typically call for a mixture of light corn syrup, white granulated sugar, milk, vanilla extract, and butter. Some experienced bakers recommend that real butter rather than margarine be used for this caramel recipe. As with many caramel candy recipes, getting the temperature just right may take some practice at first to avoid scorching or under-cooking the ingredients.

Cookies are often a favorite dessert that can include caramel kisses as a topping. Recipes can vary widely and create any number of cookie flavors, so home bakers searching for new ones to try are often sure to find an inventive flavor combination that includes these caramel sweets. Some cookies topped with caramel chocolate drops can even be included in many diet plans since these cookies tend to be smaller in individual serving sizes. Adventurous bakers can also opt to create a unique dessert truffle by surrounding individual caramel kisses with a thicker layer of melted chocolate mixed with crushed pecans, walnuts, or almonds if preferred.

This unique kind of chocolate and caramel candy can also be used as an added flavor ingredient in flan, another popular sweet dessert. Baking this kind of flan recipe typically involves melting a certain number of the candies and then blending them with the rest of the ingredients. While this technique is usually a departure from most methods of making a traditional flan, bakers who have had success with it claim that it is worth a few extra steps.