How to Make Caramel Sauce
Caramel sauce is a delightful addition to many desserts especially for fall baking, the holiday season for apple recipes, and many Thanksgiving desserts. Keep reading to learn what it is, what it’s made of, and how to make caramel sauce to add an extra delicious component to all of your desserts.
What is Caramel Sauce?
Caramel sauce is type of liquid confection when you cook sugar until it turns brown through a process of caramelization then whisking in another liquid like cream. Caramelization is when sugar heated to high temperatures, water is removed and the sugar is broken down then reformed into complex polymers creating caramel. Source. Caramelization is a type of browning processes like the Maillard browning of proteins, and it’s commonly found in desserts, fruits, and vegetables like onions, carrots, etc.
Equipment & Ingredients to Make Caramel Sauce
- Granulated sugar: If you’re new to making caramel sauce, start with regular sugar. As you feel more comfortable with the process you can experiment with raw sugar or brown sugar.
- Heavy cream: Traditional caramel sauce uses heavy cream however you can also use juice! Orange juice and cider both work really well. Whatever you use, make sure to warm it so that whisking it in is not as shocking.
- Butter: Makes it a little more viscous and a whole lot more luscious. Optional of course but highly recommended.
- Flavorings: You can flavorings such as vanilla extract, spices, or a little bourbon to booze it up.
- Pastry brush: Some like to use a pastry brush to brush down the sugar from the sides of the pot. I find this pointless.
What Desserts Use Caramel Sauce
Lots of desserts can use caramel sauce to add that little something extra. However, not all flavors pair well with caramel such as lemon and other more intensely sour produce. Also not all types of desserts work with caramel sauce. Cookies can be messy and not ideal, but can be okay for dipping.
Caramel sauce works really well with a lot of fall baking such as those Thanksgiving pies, especially my bourbon pecan tart. Also, warming flavors like baking spices, orange, coffee, and especially chocolate. Don’t forget that caramel sauce is a great filling for both cakes and cupcakes!
How to Make Caramel Sauce:
What is Caramel Sauce Made Out Of?
Caramel sauce is very basically composed of sugar and heavy cream. To make it its absolute best, we want to add butter for a little more decadence and viscosity, salt because we all know salted caramel is the best, and extra flavorings. Flavorings can include vanilla, other extracts, espresso, bourbon, you name it!
Set up Your Station
When making caramel sauce, I like to make sure I have everything ready and close to my pot with the cooking sugar. Your cream or other liquid should be warm, and have a whisk and pot holder or towel nearby. Add your sugar to a medium pot with just enough sugar to make wet sand and have your other ingredients close by.
Cook the Sugar Using the Wet Method
There are two methods to caramelize sugar: the dry and wet methods. Dry method is sprinkling sugar into a pan, waiting until it melts then browns, then sprinkling more sugar. Rinse and repeat. The wet method, you add enough water to create wet sand and cook. The water evaporates leaving the sugar to caramelize. I prefer this method as it requires less attention and is more forgiving.
Cooking sugar does have a tendency to crystallize, though. To prevent crystallization, add a couple drops of lemon juice as an acid will break up crystallization, and you can brush water down the sides of the pot, though I do find this unnecessary. Also, don’t touch it. Don’t stir the pot or swirl the contents while it’s cooking before the caramelization part. As it does start to brown, give it a careful swirl to encourage even caramelization.
Finish the Caramel Sauce
You can check your caramelization color by dripping a little bit on a piece of parchment as it always looks darker in the pan. It should be amber colored, however you can judge how dark or light you want it. The darker it is, the less sweet, more flavorful, and more bitter it will be. If it’s lighter, the more sweet, less flavorful, and less bitter it will be. If it’s your color, then wrap your hand in a towel or oven mitt to hold the whisk.
Pour a little bit of the warmed cream into the sugar while whisking constantly. Be careful as it will bubble and steam. Continue adding a little at a time until the sugar calms down the slowly pour in the rest. Add your flavorings, salt, and butter, and allow to cool completely before transferring to another container.
Do’s and Dont’s to Make Caramel Sauce
- Do warm your cream before hand and have it ready nearby with a whisk
- Don’t stir or swirl your sugar before it starts to brown as this will encourage crystallization
- Do be very careful when whisking in the heavy cream and protect your whisking hand
- Don’t stick your finger in sugar as it is several hundred degrees
- Do have your station fully ready to go and close to your cooking pot
- Don’t dump in all your cream at once. Whisk it in in batches
- Do check the color of your caramel before adding the cream
Troubleshooting Caramel Sauce
The biggest things to watch out for when you make caramel sauce is crystallization and sugar shocking. Crystallization is when the melting and cooking sugar re-crystallizes. When you hit this point, the crystals cannot melt back down and you have to start over. However, you can prevent this by adding a few drops of lemon juice into the pot before cooking. Also, don’t stir or swirl the pot during cooking. This encourages crystallization.
Sugar shocking is when you pour a lot of cold cream into the hot af sugar. Sugar begins to caramelize at 320*F so when you add cold cream the sugar is shocked, immediately hardens, and sort of balls up around your whisk. You can save this by continuously whisking over medium heat until smooth before adding the rest of the cream. However, you can prevent it. Warm your cream or other liquid and slowly pour in a little at a time while continuously whisking.
Getting hung up or lost on all the baking terminology? Study up here.
Frequently Asked Questions:
- What is caramel sauce made out of? Sugar and cream. If you want to improve your caramel sauce, salt, butter, and flavorings like vanilla or bourbon can go a long way.
- What are the two methods for making caramel? The two methods are wet and dry. Dry is directly caramelizing the sugar in parts directly in a pan and requires more active attention and less time. The wet method is boiling sugar and water until the water evaporates and the sugar caramelizes. This method requires more time but less active attention.
- Can you use milk instead of cream for caramel? Absolutely! You can use any liquid to “deglaze” the caramelized sugar. I do not recommend milk because it won’t be as luscious, but it is usable.
- Is caramel just sugar and water? It can be! You can use any liquid to deglaze the caramelized sugar, however I would not suggest using water.
Have another question? Reach out and I’ll try to answer it for you!
Caramel Sauce
Ingredients
- 170 g Granulated sugar
- 125 g Heavy cream warmed
- 1 Tbs Unsalted butter
- 1 tsp Kosher salt
- to taste Optional flavoring Like bourbon, vanilla, espresso, etc
Instructions
- Combine in a medium pot the sugar with about a quarter of water to create wet sand.
- Turn the heat on high and allow the sugar water to boil without stirring or swirling the pot.
- When the sugar starts to brown in areas, give the pot a swirl or mix with a whisk. As the sugar gets darker, check for color by dripping a little bit on a piece of parchment paper. It should be the color of amber. Turn the heat down to medium low.
- Wrap your whisking hand in a towel or pot holder and start whisking. Slowly pour in a small amount of cream while whisking constantly. When it stops bubbling, add in another small amount of cream. Repeat until it no longers aggressively bubbles.
- Slowly stream in the remaining cream while whisking and turn off the heat. Add in the butter, salt, and optional flavorings. Allow to cool completely in the pot before transferring to another container.
