Homemade Milk Duds Recipe (2024)

Why It 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.

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

Serves50 pieces

Ingredients

For the Caramel:

  • 4 ounces water(1/2 cup; 115g)

  • 8 1/2 ounces sugar(1 1/4 cups; 240g)

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

  • 6 ounces heavy cream(3/4 cup; 170g)

For the Chocolate Coating:

  • 8 ounces finely chopped dark or milk 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.

    Homemade Milk Duds Recipe (2)

  3. For the Chocolate Coating: Line a baking sheet with parchment. Temper chocolate according to one of the methods described here. Fold all caramel pieces into tempered chocolate. 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.

    Homemade Milk Duds Recipe (3)

Special Equipment

8-inch anodized aluminum cake pan (round or square), 2-quart stainless steel saucier, 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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Homemade Milk Duds Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the coating on Milk Duds? ›

The candy, marketed in a yellow-orange theater-style box, is an irregularly shaped caramel disk with a confectionery chocolate coating of cocoa and vegetable oil.

Did Milk Duds change their recipe? ›

They haven't changed much over the years

Back in the day, Milk Duds were made with cocoa butter, which helped give the candy a creamy and rich flavor. But that's no longer the case. According to Today, Hershey changed part of the recipe for Milk Duds, along with several other of its chocolate candies, in 2008.

What makes Milk Duds shiny? ›

Flip around the label to peep at the ingredient list on candy corn, Whoppers, Milk Duds, Jelly Belly jelly beans, Raisinets or Goobers and you'll see sugar in some form, of course, some colors and some synonym of food-grade shellac, which also goes by the name pharmaceutical glaze, resinous glaze or confectioners' ...

Who originally made Milk Duds? ›

MILK DUDS Candies were first produced in 1928 by F. Hoffman & Company of Chicago. Where are MILK DUDS Candies manufactured? MILK DUDS Candies are produced at the Hershey Company plant in Robinson, Illinois.

What flavor are Milk Duds? ›

Milk Duds candy was the perfect combination of chocolate and caramel. This was complimentary from Influenster.

Were Milk Duds a mistake? ›

The chocolate-making equipment of that time posed a problem

Though the candy itself wasn't a mistake, the shape of it was. According to Mentalfloss, the F. Hoffman & Company confection business set out to make perfectly-shaped, circular caramels covered in chocolate in 1926.

Are Milk Duds bad for you? ›

Sticky candies like Milk Duds are especially bad because, in addition to the sugar, they tend to stick and stay on your tooth, becoming a reliable food source for the bacteria in your mouth, says Santa Clarita, California dentist Dr. Sean Kutlay, D.D.S. If you eat milk dudes, brush and floss afterwards, he suggests.

Do Milk Duds have shellac? ›

Examples of candies containing shellac include candy corn, Hershey's Whoppers and Milk Duds, Nestlé's Raisinets and Goobers, Tootsie Roll Industries's Junior Mints and Sugar Babies, Jelly Belly's jelly beans and Mint Cremes, Russell Stover's jelly beans, and several candies by Godiva Chocolatier and Gertrude Hawk.

Why are Milk Duds so good? ›

Milk Duds are little caramels covered in milk chocolate. They are the perfect treat for any chocolate lover. We love to munch on these at the movies, for dessert, and especially for those secret late night trips to the kitchen. Somehow, we just seem to sleep better after eating a couple (or a hundred) of these candies.

Why are duds called duds? ›

Though experts aren't sure where the word duds came from originally, they know that it was dudde in the 1300s, which meant "cloak or mantle," and later came to be duddes and to mean "ragged clothing."

Are Milk Duds and whoppers the same thing? ›

The basic differences between whoppers and milk duds is that whoppers are basically malted milk balls covered with chocolate that is artificially flavored and have a diameter of 3/4 of an inch. Milk duds are caramel balls covered in confectionery chocolate and are chewy.

Why did my candy turn white? ›

It's actually just a scientific process called “chocolate bloom”. There are two types of this bloom: sugar bloom and fat bloom. Sugar bloom happens when moisture comes in contact with the chocolate - it dissolves the sugar crystals on the chocolate's surface, leaving a white, powdery look.

What candy has shellac? ›

What do jelly beans and most brands of sprinkles and candy corn have in common? They all contain an ingredient called shellac, otherwise known as confectioner's glaze or resinous glaze. (In Europe, it is identified as E904.)

What is the candy coating from bugs? ›

Candy lovers beware: The hard, shiny shells on Junior Mints, Red Hots, Lemonhead, and Boston Baked Beans candies are glazed with secretions from lac bugs. Nearly 100,000 bugs die to produce about 1 pound of shellac flakes, which are combined with alcohol to make a confectioner's glaze.

Are Milk Duds good for you? ›

Milk Duds. A snack-sized container of Milk Duds is only 36 grams but contains 160 calories and 18 percent of your recommended daily intake of saturated fat. The first three ingredients listed are corn syrup, sugar, and vegetable oil; which raises the question: What am I actually eating?

What are the ingredients in Tootsie Rolls? ›

Ingredients: Sugar, Corn Syrup, Palm Oil, Condensed Skim Milk, Cocoa, Whey, Soy Lecithin, Artificial and Natural Flavors.

What candy has no nuts or milk? ›

See our 2022 Nut-Free, Dairy-Free, and Gluten-Free Halloween Candy Guides for more allergy-friendly candy!
  • Dum Dums. Flavors: All Flavors. ...
  • No Whey Spider Pops. ❤️ Free from: Top 8 Allergens. ...
  • Smarties. ❤️ Free from: Top 8. ...
  • Surf Sweets Organic Halloween Fruity Bears. ❤️ Free From: Top 8 Allergens + Sesame.

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