Homemade Caramel Sauce

By Pavani @napavani
Blogging Marathon#65: Week 2/ Day 1
Theme: 1 Sauce -- 2 Dishes Dish: Caramel Sauce We are starting a brand new week of blogging marathon today and my theme for this week is '1 Sauce -- 2 dishes using that sauce'. I clarified with Valli if the sauce had to be savory and she said sweet sauces are also fine. I made this caramel sauce couple of months back and it has been in my drafts. So posting the recipe for caramel sauce today and I have 2 absolutely decadent recipes using this sauce coming up in the next couple of days.
Making caramel has always intimidated me, I burnt quite a few pans and quite a bit of sugar that I even stopped trying. But then happened to see this easy to make caramel sauce recipe on Food52 and I gave it a try.
The good thing about this recipe is that there is no need to judge when the caramel is ready based on its color, which is the point where I usually mess up and either over or under cook the sauce. In this recipe, a thermometer is used to make sure that there's little to no chance of messing it up. It is important to have a sugar thermometer to make this, they are pretty cheap (I broke the one you see in the photo and bought a new one recently from Bed, Bath and Beyond for $10).
This Caramel sauce keeps for months in the refrigerator. It can be used to jazz up vanilla ice cream or simple pound cake or a slice of apple. It can be eaten by the spoonfuls as well :-)
Real Caramel Sauce
Ingredients:
  • 1cup Golden Syrup or Light Corn Syrup
  • 2cups Sugar
  • ⅜tsp Fine Sea salt plus a little bit more if you want to make salted caramel sauce
  • 2cups Heavy Cream
  • 3tbsp Unsalted Butter, cut into chunks
  • 1tbsp+1tsp Vanilla extract
Method:
  1. In a heavy bottom medium size saucepan, combine syrup, sugar and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon or silicon spatula, until the mixture starts to simmer around the edges.
  2. Wash the sugar and syrup from the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush. Cover and cook for 3 minutes. In the meantime, rinse the brush to use again later.
  3. Uncover the pan and wash down the sides once again.
  4. Attach the candy thermometer to the pan making sure not to let it touch the bottom of the pan. Cook uncovered, without stirring until the mixture reaches 305°F.
  5. Meanwhile heat the cream in a small saucepan until tiny bubbles form around the edges of the pan. Remove from heat, cover and keep aside.
  6. When the sugar mixture reaches 305°F, remove it from heat and stir in the butter chunks.
  7. Gradually stir in the hot cream; it will bubble up and steam quite a bit. Put the pan back on the burner and adjust the heat so that the mixture bubbles but not violently. Stir until smooth. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the temperature of the mixture is about 225°F (or 228°F for a sauce that thickens like fudge when poured over ice cream).
  8. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Serve the sauce warm or hot.
  9. Store in an airtight container in the fridge and reheat gently in a microwave until hot and flowing.

Lets check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked today for BM# 65.