I tried making my own Caramac bar after Nestle stopped making them – one version was a sticky mess
These are sad times for Caramac fans everywhere, with Nestle UK confirming it is axing the chocolate bar.
Apparently Caramac isn’t as popular as other bars in Nestle’s range, but you wouldn’t have thought so given the huge outcry – with one expert saying the decision is ‘a bit old-fashioned’.
Maybe he’s right: I grew up with Caramacs and have friends who have fond memories not only of the bar itself, but also of Easter Eggs and other versions. I’m not sure when the last time I had one was though.
That said, you never know when you’ll be craving a snack that harkens back to your childhood, so now that Caramacs are off the shelves, I might as well see if it’s possible to just make my own snack. Of course it can’t be that difficult.
A few minutes later my self-confidence is no longer so high.
These are sad times for Caramac fans everywhere, with Nestle UK confirming it is axing the chocolate bar
Ellen Manning tried two recipes for homemade Caramac. The first had multiple ingredients and ended in a ‘sticky mess’, but the second (pictured) was a ‘triumph’. It used only white chocolate, melted several times in the oven and then frozen.
While I wait for my experiments to be done, I find another idea: a How to Make Caramilk Style Chocolate recipe (actually Caramac) that uses only ONE ingredient (photo)
A simple search online for “Caramac recipe” or “how to make Caramac at home” doesn’t yield the flood of easy recipes I’m looking for. There are Caramac cupcakes, Caramac fudge, Caramac everything – but they’re all recipes using the soon-to-be-defunct bar, rather than step-by-step instructions on how to make my own bar.
I even ask someone I know who once worked at Nestle, hoping they’ll give me the secret recipe, but their answer isn’t quite the comprehensive instructions I’m hoping for: “Actually, it’s a lot of things combined to make a sweet and tasty recipe. children’s favorite’, complete with a smiling face emoji.
I go back to basics and look up the ingredients of Caramac. Not exactly an attractive list: Vegetable fats, sugar, lactose, sweetened condensed skimmed milk, skimmed milk powder, butterfat, emulsifier, syrup, flavoring and salt.
Sounds delicious…. But it’s a start.
I don’t plan on investing in emulsifiers and lactose, but I think I can handle most of the main ingredients.
I also do a little research into making white chocolate – not to be confused with ‘real’ chocolate as it doesn’t actually contain cocoa – and discover that there is an overlap of ingredients in the fats, milk powder and sugar.
Because I feel a bit like Willy Wonka, I’m going to experiment. For my fat I opted for margarine (because who has ‘butter fat’ in the kitchen), together with condensed milk (of which everyone for some strange reason has a can in the cupboard), milk powder and syrup. from my neighbor.
My white chocolate recipe instructions are clear about melting everything using a ‘double boiler’ – basically a bowl set over a pan of hot water so it doesn’t burn.
Ellen first looks up the ingredients in real Caramac and discounts a few she couldn’t get her hands on, opting for milk powder, margarine, condensed milk syrup
She starts by following a recipe for homemade white chocolate – and puts the ingredients in a double boiler
After melting in the kettle for a while, the mixture quickly turns into a smooth, Caramac-colored concoction
I start with the margin, melt it into a golden puddle, then add the condensed milk and syrup. Since I don’t have a recipe, it’s a bit of guesswork, but it certainly looks Caramac-colored.
The recipe for white chocolate says to blend it to make sure it’s not grainy, but a taste test proves it’s still quite smooth, so I decide that will do. I didn’t add the sugar to the ingredients list, but my muddy mixture is so sweet it makes my eyes water, so I decide to save my teeth and leave it as is.
Since I’m not a pastry chef, I don’t have a chocolate mold, so make do by lining a flat dish with cling film and pouring my mixture into it.
It’s all a bit of fun and reminds me of childhood making weird sweet concoctions with melted chocolate bars and anything sweet I could get my hands on. Truly a childhood dream, except that I’m 41.
Still, I’m pretty pleased with my efforts as I pop it in the freezer to set until I notice the bowl of powdered milk I forgot to add sitting on the counter.
I’m tempted to pretend it was never there in the first place, but since the Caramac ingredient list lists both condensed milk and powdered milk and I’ve already left out half of that, I decide to give it another try. .
Same method, same ingredients, except this time after the fat has melted I add my milk powder. There’s a point where it looks like it’s about to turn into a powdery goo, but it quickly melts away and we’re back to creating a smooth lava of sugar-laden goodness.
We go back into the freezer.
After the mixture has completely melted, Ellen places some of it in a large container and puts it in the freezer
Because she doesn’t have a chocolate mold, Ellen places cling film on a flat baking tray and spreads the liquid mixture thinly over it.
While I wait for my experiments to be done, I find another idea: a How to Make Caramilk Style Chocolate (actually Caramac) recipe that uses only ONE ingredient.
How did I miss this?
Given the lack of confidence I have in my homemade Caramac concoctions, I decide to give it a try. It’s basically caramelized white chocolate and it’s certainly easier: you basically take a bar of white chocolate and melt it repeatedly in the oven until it caramelizes, before putting it back in the fridge or freezer.
No water bath hassle, no funny ingredients that I may never use again and much less mess.
It sounds simple, but turns out to take a long time as I need a total of three 15 minute melting times in the oven before I can get it into the freezer. At this stage I think I prefer my blend of ingredients which took minutes.
After the first 15 minutes of melting time it looks like melted white chocolate, but when I stir it after the second it magically changes to Caramac color. Then it is certainly the right color for the third time, although it feels more like Concrete than Caramac.
While waiting for her first attempt at setting, Ellen finds a Caramac recipe that simply involves melting white chocolate in the oven three times for 15 minutes each. After the third firing it becomes a thick Caramac-colored ‘concrete’ mixture
The three times melted white chocolate is spread again on a tray covered with cling film and placed in the freezer
While the first, and considerably more complicated, recipe (right) turns out to be a ‘sticky mess’ even after a long time in the freezer, the one-ingredient alternative (left) is a ‘triumph’ and ‘snaps like the real thing’. ‘
An hour later, the cheat version is rock solid and I’m feeling pretty excited. My own mixture, on the other hand, is far from hardened and is a sticky mess more reminiscent of something my dog might leave behind than a tasty treat.
I give it some time, but it remains a sticky puddle. It tastes fine, but it’s not chocolate. And after almost wrenching my fingers together trying to get it off the cling film, I finally give up and admit defeat.
My one-ingredient Caramac version, on the other hand, is a triumph. It clicks like a real one, has the right color and tasting it brings back memories of childhood treats and sugar highs.
But despite the great similarity, it’s still not quite the same. There’s no joy in unwrapping that gaudy red packaging and finding the sleek, carefully shaped creation inside. And while the taste is similar, it’s not quite the same.
There’s only one thing to do. Nestle, you need to bring back the Caramac.