Here's is a quick recipe of homemade salted caramel sauce that tastes super delicious on almost anything. Its flavors will remind you of milk toffee or butterscotch candy. I'll be using it in many of my upcoming recipes.
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Ingredients
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
The sauce calls for just 4 ingredients (salt included). The process of making caramel is easy, you just need to be vigilant and the steps are very easy to follow. The pictorial and the video will help you further.
How to make it?
The most important tip for making this sauce is to keep the ingredients measured beforehand. Caramel would burn in seconds and you need to add the next ingredients immediately.
Another tip is to make it with full concentration without any multitasking. The sauce takes just a few minutes to cook and fewer to burn.
Start making the sauce by heating the sugar in a pan. Keep the heat on high and stir constantly for even cooking. Adjust heat as needed but sugar will begin to melt on high temperature only.
The sugar will first begin to melt.
Then the color will change within minutes. Now here is the secret, sugar reduces it's sweetness as it is caramelized and develops a nutty flavor that we love in caramel. Look for deep mahogany color for the best taste while stirring the caramel constantly and keeping the butter close to you. If you add the butter too early while the caramel is still pale yellow, the sauce will be too sweet and lack flavor. and if you wait too long and the caramel turns brown, the sauce will taste bitter and burnt. It needs a bit practice. I'll advise to wait and push it to dark lovely caramel color but not brown.
As soon as that color has reached stir in butter. Butter will immediately stop caramelization. I used butter cut in small cubes so it melt quickly. Reduce heat to low.
This thing splutters, it is not risky but just be careful and keep your body slightly away while stirring butter in the sauce. Caramel is very hot and can burn immediately. (Consider wearing cooking gloves if you are new to cooking.)
When butter is fullt melted and butter cubes are not visible add the cream. Mix cream in the sauce, the sauce will keep bubbling.
Time to make it salted. Sprinkle salt over the surface of sauce and mix it throughly. For best taste use sea salt other salts like table salt or pink salt can be used too. When the sauce is smooth turn off the heat.
The sauce will be pretty thin while hot, but it thicken significantly as it cools.
Recipes in which you can use this sauce:
Salted Caramel Brownie
For topping on Dulce de leche Ice cream
For topping on Dulce de Leche Mousse
To make Salted Caramel Ice cream
📖 Recipe
Salted Caramel Sauce (smal batch)
This salted caramel sauce has lovely buttery taste and can be used as topping on a number of desserts and ice creams. Be careful while adding butter, it can splutter. Consider wearing kitchen gloves and stand back.
5 from 2 votes
Print Pin Rate
Prep: 5 minutesminutes
Cook: 10 minutesminutes
Servings : 8spoons (½ cup)
Calories: 112kcal
Ingredients
½cupgranulated sugar
3tablespoonsalted butter, (60 grams) add extra salt after tasting if using unsalted butter.
4tablespooncream
¼-½teaspoonsalt , or to taste
Instructions
In a heavy bottomed pan melt sugar on high heat until melted.
½ cup granulated sugar
Reduce heat and keep stirring until color changes to amber colored liquid.
Immediately add butter. Be careful as this can cause splutters.
3 tablespoon salted butter
Keep stirring. As soon as the butter is completely melted add cream and salt.
4 tablespoon cream, ¼-½ teaspoon salt
Turn off heat and keep stirring until the sauce stops bubbling.
Add Moisture: If the sugar is melted but you still see a few crystals- sometimes adding some liquid like water or heavy cream to the mixture can help dissolve any sugar crystals that have formed and promote a smoother texture.
Add heavy cream. Some caramel sauce recipes call for milk, but if you find this still produces a thin sauce, you can add room-temperature heavy cream and return the caramel sauce to the stove for another few minutes. ...
If you don't want to make a special trip to the store, you can use whole milk with an extra tablespoon of butter in place of the heavy cream. It may not be quite as thick, but it will work in a pinch!
Adding a couple tablespoons of water to grainy caramel sauce is the easiest way to make it smooth! Start by adding up to 1/4 cup in a sauce pan along with the sauce and bring to medium-low heat. Stir constantly using a silicone or rubber spoon until the crystals have dissolved and the mixture is smooth.
Caramel crystallizes because there are crystals of sigar formed on the sides of the pan by evaporation. Brushing down the sides of the pan wirh water should prevent this. I usually add any butter or other fat in the recipe while the sugar is melting, so it is already combined as it caramelizes.
As it cools, it will thicken. You will need to store the caramel sauce in the refrigerator, so it will firm up even more once chilled. Just bring it back to room temperature and microwave before drizzling or dipping! Note: Add 1-2 tablespoons more cream to thin it more before serving, if preferred.
If the caramel is too thin, simmer the caramel on medium heat for 5-10 minutes to thicken it (the caramel will not continue to darken). Keep in mind that the caramel will thicken significantly once cool. Likewise, if the caramel is too thick, thin by stirring a tablespoon or two of heavy cream.
When making a wet caramel, water is added to help dissolve the sugar before cooking. Like dry caramel, you want to gently move the sugar mixture in that same side-to-side paintbrush-like fashion until the sugar dissolves.
Most of the time, people cook caramel by heating up regular or brown sugar until it turns into a smooth and creamy substance. However, you can also make caramel out of sweetened condensed milk, creating the same great sauce with a unique, extra-sweet kick.
When you add heat to your ingredients, they undergo a chemical reaction known as the “Maillard reaction.” This means that the sugar is cooked to the proper moisture level and caramelization occurs. You know when this happens as the mixture changes colour to a rich brown.
The key to getting it right is to use soft caramels as opposed to hard. You must also add some sort of liquid, such as milk or cream, to prevent the caramels from drying out. Knowing these tricks will help you to melt caramels with ease.
It may be tempting, but stirring the sugar water mixture will actually encourage grains to form, and the caramel may end up grainy and crystallized. Instead, gently swirl the pan, being careful not to make it go too high up the sides of the pan (as that can cause crystallization too).
Do not stir, but instead swirl and shake the pan to distribute the caramelized sugar in and around the unmelted sugar and to promote even browning. Watch it carefully to make sure it doesn't burn. The caramel is done when it's a deep amber color and all sugar lumps have dissolved.
Caramel becomes grainy when the sugars crystallize, a process that happens when the melted sugar splashes up onto the cold sides of the pan. It loses its moisture and turns back into a sugar crystal. If this crystal touches the melted mass, it causes a chain reaction and the caramel will seize up and become grainy.
If the caramel is crystalizing right before your eyes, one effective method to fix it ASAP is adding a touch of water to redissolve the sugar crystal, then keep on cooking. If you want to prevent the sugar from crystalizing, you can add an inhibitor into the mix, like corn syrup, before heating.
To thin caramel, just add some cream or water over heat. Melt caramel loaves in the oven. You can also add corn syrup or lemon juice to caramel sauces to prevent them from crystallizing.
Introduction: My name is Chrissy Homenick, I am a tender, funny, determined, tender, glorious, fancy, enthusiastic person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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