What is chewy caramel made of?

Is it just caramelized sugar?

What is that? I am guessing it's some kind of cooking process, but isn't caramelized sugar the same as baked or boiled sugar?

I think you might have a slight misunderstanding. When you cook sugar, the water evaporates and what's left is brown sugar or caramel. Chewy caramel comes from a different technique. Chewy caramel is made by putting sugar in a blender and blending it until it becomes liquidy, then adding butter to make it a paste and then baking it.

The term "chewy caramel" might be in reference to the texture. Well, there are several types of Caramel (and I think they are not all considered "chewy" in this context). Here's the Wikipedia entry.

For an example of Chewy Caramel, you can check out the following, which came out very gooey. I would describe it as "loudly chewy", but my definition may be different than yours.

Does boiling condensed milk turn into caramel?

Yes, in the right temperature and time it does turn into caramel.

You are correct that there is no way to actually tell how old the condensed milk is at any given time. In my experience, older condensed milk turns a slightly darker color (probably not significant).

The primary component of condensed milk is sucrose, which is about 50% of the total sugar content in the original milk. There are two ways you can use this in cooking: It will brown more quickly than regular sugar, which is why it's used in making caramel candies. It will caramelize more easily. This is why it's used in making caramel sauces.

Since the milk is boiled off to make condensed milk, the sucrose is converted into something else: lactose. Lactose is also 50% of the total sugar content in the original milk. Since lactose is a sugar, it caramelizes the same as regular sugar. It's just a different type of caramelization.

What makes caramel soft vs hard?

What makes your brownies gooey?

What makes the meat in a cheeseburger melt so perfectly?

The reason why, according to this study, is that heat melts fats and proteins. That's why, as an experiment, I made some caramels last night. Here's the recipe: Melt the butter and sugar over medium heat. Then add the vanilla, and mix.

Pour the milk into the pan and stir constantly until it gets smooth. Add the salt and stir again. Then add the eggs, and stir. Take off the heat, and stir in the corn syrup, which will be the dominant flavor. Stir for a minute, and then add the cream of tartar. Stir again, and pour the caramel into the molds. And I used a toothpick to remove the caramel. Here's what I ended up with: Hard caramel. (which just means that the center was hard, but the outside was soft). But soft caramel. (which just means that the center was soft, and the outside was hard). Then I took two forks and gave them a try. Here's what I found: Soft caramel. And after I ate the hard caramel, I couldn't wait to try the soft one. It was the perfect consistency. Not too soft, but not too hard.

When you take a fork, you push down on the caramel, and you see what's underneath. The hard caramel is still underneath there, so it's hard to take that fork out.

But the soft caramel is below the center. And if you lift your fork, you can see how smooth it is.

So I took the fork and tried to pull it out, but I couldn't do it. I had to just lift it slowly, because if I pulled it too hard, it would break.

And I did the same thing with the soft caramel, and the difference was even more dramatic. I could pull the fork out easily.

Which made me wonder if the softer the caramel, the easier it will be to eat.