Homemade Milk Duds Recipe

Like your favorite movie theater candy, perfected.

A yellow dish of homemade milk duds set on a yellow background.

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

Why This Recipe Works

  • Cooking over medium heat ensures that the sugar completely dissolves before the water boils off.
  • Minimal caramelization matches the flavor of real Milk Duds.
  • A generous dose of cream makes the caramels soft but chewy.
  • Coating the caramels by hand is super fast and keeps the shell thin.

So far as I'm concerned, there's only one candy at the movie theater concession stand: Milk Duds. From their unassuming name to their humble appearance (best described as a brownish blob), Milk Duds are a study in simplicity. No geometric shape, no logo, no colorful candy shell, no nuts, no smarmy mascot. Just chewy caramel and chocolate; the end. A straightforward story, perhaps, but one that reminds us it's what's inside that counts.

Making the Caramels

Now, there are plenty of recipes in this world for chocolate-covered caramels, but a Milk Dud is unique. Its caramel core is chewy and mild, without any bitterness at all. To make a caramel like that, I keep things simple, with sugar, salt, and cream. The technique itself is exactly like the one for myeasy caramel sauce, but with the ratios and temperatures adjusted to make a chewy candy instead.

Where my sauce is cooked to just 225°F (107°C), my candy goes all the way up to 260°F (127°C). That drives off more water, making it thick enough to slice. It also has less cream, so it's not as tender as my sauce would be if cooked to the same stage (giving your jaw a real workout, a hallmark of the Milk Dud experience). Finally, my candy hinges on a much lower degree of caramelization, so the flavor stays light and dairy-centric, not dark and bitter.

The real difference between the sauce and the candy, though, is in how they're handled. Caramel candy is poured into a parchment-lined pan, then chopped into bite-size pieces with a knife. I also like to squish each one by hand because a) it's super fun, and b) Milk Duds are delightfully amorphous.

Coating the Caramels

The next step is to temper the chocolate, which you can read about in Kenji's excellent and incredibly thoroughguide.Without that crucial step, the chocolate coating would be tacky and soft at room temperature. Fortunately, Kenji's outlined several different methods for tempering chocolate, which means you can be sure to find a technique that suits your style.

With the chocolate properly tempered, the dipping phase is childishly simple: Mix all the caramels into the chocolate, then fish 'em out by hand.

I know you neat freaks are probably climbing the walls now, but it's all for the best. For starters, individually dipping 50 caramels would take forever, and it can be challenging to keep chocolate in temper for that length of time. Plus, traditional dipping methods make it hard to get a sufficiently thin shell, since tempered chocolate tends to drape itself over the caramel like a thick blanket. That ruins the caramel-to-chocolate ratio, which screws up the balance of texture and flavor on the whole.

It may be messy, but actually handling the caramels helps everything move much faster; you can dip all 50 pieces in about two minutes. By gathering up a handful of caramels and then gently pressing each one between your thumb and forefinger, you'll squeeze off the excess chocolate, leaving only a thin coat behind.

Closeup of homemade milk duds. One dud has been cut in half to reveal the caramel center.

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

Besides, there are worse fates than being covered in chocolate. Like not having a giant pile of homemade Milk Duds to call your own.

October 2016

Recipe Details

Homemade Milk Duds Recipe

Active60 mins
Total3 hrs 30 mins
服务50 pieces

Like your favorite movie theater candy, perfected.

华体会应用下载

For the Caramel:

  • 4盎司(1/2 cup; 115g)

  • 8 1/2盎司sugar(1 1/4 cups; 240g)

  • 3/4teaspoon(3g) Diamond Crystalkosher salt; for table salt, use half as much by volume or use the same weight

  • 6盎司heavy cream(3/4 cup; 170g)

For the Chocolate Coating:

  • 8盎司finely chopped dark ormilk chocolate(1 1/3 cups; 225g), such as Callebaut or Valrhona; do not use chips

Directions

  1. For the Caramel:Nestle a large sheet of parchment paper into an 8-inch cake pan to roughly cover the bottom and sides. In a 2-quart stainless steel saucier, combine water, sugar, and salt over medium heat. Stir with a fork until sugar is fully dissolved and syrup comes to a rolling boil, about 4 minutes. Simmer, without stirring, until syrup is honey-gold, roughly 7 minutes. Immediately add cream and reduce heat to medium-low, adjusting the heat lower if needed to keep caramel from foaming too high. (This is more likely on an electric stove due to residual heat.) Stirring constantly with a heat-resistant spatula, simmer until caramel registers 260°F (127°C) on a digital thermometer, about 7 minutes. Immediately pour into prepared pan, cover tightly with foil, and cool to room temperature, about 2 hours.

  2. Peel caramel from parchment, transfer to a cutting board, and cut into 50 pieces (approximately 1/4 ounce or 7g each) with a sharp knife; don't worry about being too precise with their shape or size. If you like, use your fingers to mold the pieces into a more oval, Milk Dud–like shape.

    A three-image collage of cutting caramel into squares, shaping into dud-like blobs, and arranging on a work surface.

    Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

  3. For the Chocolate Coating:Line a baking sheet with parchment. Temper chocolate according to one of the methods describedhere.所有焦糖部分折叠成的巧克力。With a clean hand, scoop up pieces like handfuls of marbles, then slide each one over your index finger with your thumb into your other hand (think of how you'd dole out a handful of M&M's) and arrange on prepared baking sheet. Let stand at room temperature until fully set, about 15 minutes, then transfer to an airtight container.

    A four-image collage of tempering chocolate, adding the caramels, fishing them out by hand, and leaving to set on a work surface.

    Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

Special Equipment

8-inchanodized aluminum cake pan(round or square), 2-quart stainless steelsaucier,heat-resistant spatula,digital thermometer with clip-on attachment

Notes

For the most authentic flavor, choose a dark chocolate with 65 to 72% cocoa solids. Brands like Callebaut or Valrhona are easiest to temper, but any high-quality chocolate made with real cocoa butter will do.

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Nutrition Facts(per serving)
55 Calories
3g Fat
8g Carbs
0g 蛋白质
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 50
Amount per serving
Calories 55
% Daily Value*
Total Fat3g 3%
Saturated Fat 2g 8%
Cholesterol5mg 2%
Sodium28mg 1%
Total Carbohydrate8g 3%
Dietary Fiber 0g 1%
Total Sugars 7g
蛋白质0g
Vitamin C 0mg 0%
Calcium 11mg 1%
Iron 0mg 1%
Potassium 20mg 0%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)