Friday, January 18, 2008

Salted (or not) Caramel






A lot of people are incredibly intimidated by making their own caramel. I was too, for a time, until I gave it a go. I think what is scary about it is the unpredictability...it can easily burn if you cook it too long, and you have to know when to take it off the stove. But really, making your own caramel is pretty simple.

I like salted caramel, I think the addition of the salt gives a great layer of flavor to the otherwise uber-sweet caramel. I make this to put over ice cream, in macarons, under wonderful chocolate or ginger cakes. The uses go on and on. You could even harden it just a touch and make caramel candies from it.

One word to the wise...DON'T TOUCH! Boiling hot sugar is HOT, and it will burn the fingerprints right off of you. It's tempting, but no tasting until it's only warm!

If you want the unsalted version, just take the salt out of this recipe:

Salted Caramel

3 tablespoonscorn syrup
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
2/3 cupdouble or heavy cream
3/4 - 1 teaspoon (level) rock salt or coarse sea salt
2 tablespoons/25g unsalted butter, diced

Bring the corn syrup to a boil in s medium sauce pan.
Gradually add the sugar, stirring until the sugar has started to caramelize and turn golden brown.
Meanwhile, in a separate saucepan, bring the cream and salt to a boil.
Remove the caramel from the heat and cautiously add the cream . Do be careful because the mixture will probably bubble up in your pan.
Stir carefully over a low heat until smooth.
Remove from the heat, add the diced butter, and stir again until smooth.

1 comment:

Cakespy said...

It's so hard NOT to touch though!!! I love salted caramel, probably one of my favorite things. MMM.