Adventures with Caramel

I was asked to make a Butter Pecan Cake with a Caramel Buttercream. I have never made either before so they were a fun project!  For now I am going to talk about my caramel making experiment and I will have a follow-up post about the cake because it also involved a penguin on top it :) 

I have made toffee and brittle before (and have sold it on my menu), but I have never made just caramel.  I knew I needed a sauce since it would have to blend with the buttercream.  From my experience when working with sugar you need a good candy thermometer, a careful eye and gloves.  I learned a lot from David Lebovitz 's  post about "How to Make the Perfect Caramel" (he posts a few more precautions). 

When making a sauce there are a couple of decisions to make: Dry vs. Wet and Butter vs. Heavy Cream, and Light Amber or Dark Amber (see note)

From David Lebovitz and a few other resources, I learned that there is a wet caramel (made with water) and a dry caramel (where sugar is cooked by itself and liquefies).  David recommended the dry caramel but other resources said the wet was easier (it did not burn as fast).  

When making a sauce you need to add in butter or heavy cream.  As I searched to find what the difference was I could not really find an answer.  I found that all recipes were different some just used heavy cream and some just used butter and some used both.  

So I decided to start with the wet caramel and just the heavy cream. What I did not like about the wet version was how the sugar stuck to the side of the pot and it seemed to take a very long time to reach the amber color I was looking for.  The result with just the heavy cream tasted more like a chewy candy to me and they actually hardened like a chew candy (I ended up making candies with a sprinkle of kosher salt).   

On my second trial I went with the dry caramel and both butter and sugar.  Working with the dry  can be tricky but for some reason I liked it better, it turned to the amber color faster and you needed less ingredients. You have to work fast but not too fast and keep the heat on low.  This , combined with the butter and the heavy cream resulted in a delicious rich and creamy sauce.  I added the sauce to my butter   cream, but it would also be super yummy over ice cream, as a filler for a cookie, or drizzled over a bundt cake :)

The sugar is starting to melt

The sugar has fully melted and it is time to add the butter

Once the butter is melted add the cream

Make sure to strain!

Carmel Sauce - adapted from Simple Recipes

1 cup sugar

6 Tbs Butter

1/2 Cup Whipping Cream

1. Get all your ingredients ready, because if you do not work fast your sugar will burn.

2. Heat sugar on a medium heat in a heavy-bottomed 2-quart or 3-quart saucepan. As the sugar begins to melt, stir fast (but not too fast because the sugar can lump) with a wooden spoon.  The sugar will start to turn a light amber color make sure to move the sugar around to prevent it from burning.  

3. If your sugar does begin to lump you can lower the heat to even out the melting and continue to stir (any left over chunks can be strained at the end).  

4. As soon as all the sugar is melted (you reach your desired amber color), immediately add the butter to the pan. Whisk until the butter has melted.

5. Once the butter has melted, take the pan off the heat.  Then slowly add the cream to the pan and continue to whisk to incorporate.

6. The cream will foam up but whisk until caramel sauce is smooth. 

7. Let cool in the pan for a couple minutes, then strain it into a glass mason jar and let sit to cool to room temperature. (Remember to use pot holders when handling the jar filled with hot caramel sauce.) Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

This will make between 8-10oz of caramel

Note:

The darker the color the more depth of flavor the caramel will have. Some people like that but some prefer a more mellow flavor it is all personal preference.  Since it takes longer for the sugar to liquify, the color is easier to control with a wet caramel, dry caramel is fairly dark which may influence your decision on where you want to start.  

Comments

[simple recipes]

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