Keto Candy
Create any candy imaginable with this base sugar-free candy recipe
From salt water taffy and caramels to high chews, lollipops and jolly ranchers, learn how to make any keto candy with this base recipe. Using just 3 ingredients as your foundation, you can turn your confectioner's favorites into sugar-free delights.
1 square cm candy
30
Servings
11
Calories
0.7g
Fat
0g
Protein
0.2g
Net Carb
1.7g
Total Carbs
Do you love candy but don’t want all the sugar? Then this recipe is for you! These sweet treats are the fastest way to beat a sweet tooth besides my other favorites like my microwave chocolate chip cookie or some almond joy bites.
You can create homemade keto candies that are sweet and delicious, but made with low carb ingredients instead of sugar. You can customize these treats to your taste preference by using different flavors and changing the length of cooking time to create different textures – like taffy, medium chews, hard chews or hard candy. This base recipe of just 3 ingredients will help you make any type of candy you crave. So go ahead, get creative in the kitchen and indulge!
Candy making at home doesn’t have to be complicated or involve fancy equipment like candy thermometers. In fact, you don’t even need a candy thermometer to make keto candy. Instead we go off of cooking time and appearance of our liquid candy mixture to achieve a particular type of candy.
How to make keto candy
- Melt butter in a sauce pan over medium heat. Lower heat to low-medium.
- Stir in sugar-free syrup, sweetener, salt and food coloring if using. Cook until boiling or bubbles start to form. At this stage, you have made a thick syrup. Remove from the heat now if you want to make caramel syrup or sauces for cheesecake or ice cream. Depending on the consistency of candy you are looking to create, cook for additional time.
- Pour into candy molds or onto parchment paper and refrigerate until hardened.
Types of Keto Candy
- Soft Chew / Taffy: If you are making taffy or a soft chew, continue cooking past the initial boil phase until the mixture starts to get frothy and foamy. Let cook for an additional minute. Then remove from heat.
- Medium Chew / Caramels: To make a medium chew like a caramel candy, continue cooking past the initial boil phase until the mixture starts to get frothy and foamy. Let cook for an additional 2 minutes or just until the liquid candy has thickened and you can scrape a spoon on the bottom of the sauce pan and see the pan. Remove from the heat and quickly pour into molds.
- Hard Chew / Hi-Chew Candies: To make a hard chewy candy, cook past the initial boil phase and the frothy and foamy stage. Cook for additional 3 minutes or just the liquid is thick and if you lift your spoon out of the liquid candy it starts pull off in a ribbon.
- Hard Candy: To make hard candies like lollipops or suckers, cook past the above stages until large clear bubbles start to form. Remove from heat and quickly pour into molds.
Base Candy Ingredients
To make the base candy recipe, you need 3 ingredients, plus salt – which I figures most already have in their pantry.
- Butter: Adds fat and flavor to our candy recipes. This is a necessary ingredient in caramels and toffees. Make sure you use unsalted butter, especially since we are adding salt to the candy recipe.
- Sugar-Free Syrup: The only syrup that I use for making keto candy is by ChocZero. Their syrup is made from soluble corn fiber so it is sugar-free and sugar alcohol free. It is thick like maple syrup and comes in a variety of flavors. I mostly use Vanilla and Caramel in my recipes for candy. Their sugar-free syrups are an invaluable ingredient and can’t be substituted as it works like corn syrup to prevent the crystallization in sweet candy.
- Sweetener: Granulated sugar-free sweetener is added for sweetness. You can use a monkfruit blend sweetener or allulose in this recipe.
- Salt: Salt enhances the flavor and balances the sweetness of all types of candy. If making salt water taffy, we add just a pinch salt to achieve that sweet salty flavor.
- Flavoring: Any flavoring can be added to your candies. It’s best if using extracts to add them right after cooking but before pouring into the mold in order to preserve the flavor.
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Keto Candy Base Ingredients
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
-
1/4 cup ChocZero vanilla syrup
-
5 teaspoons allulose or monkfruit blend sweetener
-
pinch of salt
-
food coloring, optional
-
flavoring, optional
-
candy molds
Add To Make Keto Taffy Ingredients
-
extra large pinch of salt
-
1/2 teaspoon flavoring
Add To Make Keto Caramel Ingredients
-
2 tablespoons heavy cream
Add To Make Keto Hi-Chews Ingredients
-
1/2 teaspoon watermelon electrolyte packet
Add To Make Keto Jolly Ranchers Ingredients
-
flavoring
-
1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon citric acid
Keto Candy Directions
-
Melt butter
Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.
Ingredients
- Butter
Quick Tip
If making caramels, cook the butter until brown bits start to form and the butter have a nutty aroma. This is called browned butter and it creates a delicious caramel flavor. -
Add ingredients
Reduce heat to low-medium. Add sugar-free syrup, sweetener, salt and food coloring (if using). If making caramels, add in the heavy cream. Stir to combine. Let cook until the mixture starts to boil.
Ingredients
- Sugar-free syrup
- Sugar-free sweetener
- Salt
- Food coloring
Quick Tip
If you want to make a sugar-free syrup, remove pan from heat after the initial boil phase. -
To make soft candy chews or taffy
Continue cooking over low-medium heat until the mixture starts to foam and turn frothy. Remove from heat, stir in flavoring and pour into a candy mold. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours to set.
Quick Tip
To make laffy taffy, pour into strips on a sheet of parchment paper. To make salt water taffy, don't forget to add in the additional large pinch of salt. -
To make medium candy chews or keto caramels
After the initial boil, continue cooking until candy mixture starts to foam and turn frothy. Cook for an additional 1-2 minutes or until the mixture has thickened and you can scrape a spoon on the bottom of the sauce pan and see the pan. Remove from the heat and quickly pour into molds. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours to set.
-
To make hard candy chews like Hi-Chew candy
After the initial boil stage, continue cooking until candy mixture starts to foam and froth. Cook for an additional 3 minutes or until the mixture is thick enough to pull off in a ribbon if you lift it up with spoon. Remove from heat and quickly pour into molds. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours to set.
Quick Tip
If using flavored electrolyte powder, omit the pinch of salt and add the flavored electrolyte powder instead with the sweeteners. -
To make hard candy like Jolly Ranchers
After the initial boil stage, continue cooking past the foam and frothing stage. Cook until larger clear bubbles start to form. Stir in flavoring and citric acid (if using). Remove from heat and quickly pour into silicone molds. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours to set.
I tried the caramel version and the addition of 2 tablespoons of heavy cream made it luxuriously smooth and buttery. Cooking until I could see the bottom of the pan worked like magic for thickening. Chilling it in candy molds gave perfect bite-sized treats with a melt-in-your-mouth finish.
I made the banana taffy version and added about 1/2 teaspoon of flavoring like you did. It turned out great and wasn’t overpowering at all. Texture was spot on too once it cooled in the fridge.
I made the caramel version using the base recipe and added heavy cream like it says. Turned out smooth and soft with a nice buttery flavor. I used about half a teaspoon of almond extract and that seemed like the right amount. Great low carb treat.
These are so good, I made some high chew green apple candies today. Thanks for the recipe, excited to experiment with it!
Absolute newbie.
1) do you stir constantly? I have another recipee that says not to.
2) I followed your instructions but it took a great deal more time than suggested and both browned, even though I turned the heat down the second batch. It never hit the hard candy stage.
Hi, I’m so happy to have found this recipe since I just bought the Zaffi Taffy and didn’t realize the main ingredient was Maltitol. However, I don’t have Choczero vanilla: did you try the experiment with the allulose syrup? Or is there a substitute you could recommend for CZ Vanilla?
I have blueberry, raspberry and strawberry CZ syrups, could I use those without any flavoring?
Thanks for sharing! Chewy Candy is my biggest nemesis on keto. ☺️
My butter separated from everything else did I cook it to long?
Yes
Annie have you tried using Torani sugar free syrup in any of your candies??
No, I haven’t yet. I wonder how it would work. You might be able to use it for flavoring and then use allulose syrup to serve as a base for the candies
Thanks for the reply. I was concerned with it being too sweet since they refer to it as a liquid sweetener. Since I have it , I’m going to try it. Ill let you know how it works. Wish me luck !! Thanks for your recipes.. Love you videos
Since I’m making a high chew, do I have to use butter? Or can I just do the syrup + allulose?
I haven’t tried it without the syrup. But I will be experimenting with this recipe again either this weekend or the next since ChocZero discontinued their vanilla syrup. I’m going to try all allulose syrup. ChocZero has a new honey that is replacing the vanilla syrup but it has a completely different flavor.
Did you try it with allulose syrup? I cant use choczero it spikes my blood sugar >.<
Hi, I followed the recipe and left the candies to set overnight in the refrigerator. However, they didn’t set. Do you have a suggestion as to what I might have done wrong? I appreciate any help. In advance. Thank you.
Sorry that happened. It sounds like you need to cook them even longer. Look at my video for reference on what the liquid should look like.
I wish I could give you a hug! This is such a fantastic set of recipes! Just made some caramels, but this is my first time with allulose… I hope it doesn’t cause gastrointestinal distress… guess I’ll find out soon enough. 😬
Did it cause gastrointestinal distress? Did you like it?
I very much liked them, and I’m happy to report, no distress was involved!
For this size recipe how much flavoring do you use. I don’t wanna waste my time or effort by putting too much or too little in and I can tell you’ve done this a lot lol. What is your suggestion? Like how much did you use for the banana taffy? Thanks
1/2 teaspoon would be enough. If you have concentrated drops, use 1/4 teaspoon.