With or without salt, you need a small-batch recipe for caramel in your life. You already know everything that it wants to be poured on--ice cream, cupcake frosting, whipped cream, your spoon. Heck, even your morning coffee is staring longingly in the direction of the jar.
I used to be intimidated by homemade caramel sauce, and so I would buy it pre-made from the store. Then, I read the ingredient list on that stuff. Um, no thanks. I vowed to figure it out on my own. How hard could it be?--just sugar, water, cream, butter, and vanilla. I always have all of those things in my fridge, so I needed to figure it out. How great would life be if caramel sauce was always within reach? Answer: SO great.
Before I figured out a handy little caramel trick, I made it quite a few times and ended up with lumps. (Delicious little lumps that I ate out with a spoon when the mixture cooled, but so not the goal). Every recipe states that if you have lumps, just put the mixture back on the stove and stir until they melt. The problem with that is that the caramel keeps cooking, and the longer you cook caramel, the closer it gets to the temperature where it turns hard. I wanted soft, supple, pourable caramel. (All I've ever asked for in life).
I made homemade caramels in cooking school once (at the now-closed Tante Marie, sniff, sniff), and they were the soft, chewy caramels that you make around the holidays. I actually have a small batch recipe for homemade caramels. But again, I was looking for pour-ability. Drizzle-ability. Drink-ability.
My tip is to warm the cream before pouring it into the molten sugar and water. When the cream is hot, the temperature gap is bridged slightly and lumps are less likely to form. Revolutionary, right? I know. I try.
I actually got this little nugget of advice from the new book Ice Box Cakes. And after we make this batch of salty caramel, we're going to make an ice box cake with it. Stay tuned, friends!
Small-batch Caramel Sauce
A small pot of homemade caramel sauce, for ice cream, drizzling over cakes, and more!
Ingredients
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup water
- ½ cup + 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla
Instructions
- In a deep saucepan (at least 2 quarts--no smaller, because the mixture bubbles up!), add the sugar and water. Whisk to combine.
- Turn the heat to medium-high and let the sugar melt and dissolve without stirring. If you see sugar crystals on the sides of the pan, use a pastry brush dipped in water to gently push them back in the pan. Do not stir.
- Once the sugar is dissolved, crank the heat to high and watch it turn an amber color. Watch it closely, it happens quickly! You can swirl the pan gently to evenly brown the caramel.
- Meanwhile, heat the heavy cream until it's steaming, and small bubbles are forming around the edges.
- Turn off the heat to the sugar mixture, and add the heavy cream all at once. Be careful--it bubbles up triple the size! It is very hot!
- Next, whisk in the butter, salt and vanilla. Whisk until smooth.
- Pour the mixture into a jar to cool and use as you like.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
2Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 495Total Fat: 11gSaturated Fat: 7gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 32mgSodium: 1065mgCarbohydrates: 101gFiber: 0gSugar: 101gProtein: 0g
Michelle Fan | chasing bagels says
Hi Christina! I am with you plus a little more on the fear of caramel, the thought of intentionally burning something keeps me awake at night :( This looks delicious, though, and the fact that it's small batch guarantees that if it fails, I can eat the delicious mess before anybody gets home to judge me. I might just have to make this sometime!
Angel says
Hi, I haven't seen any recipes for caramel sauce that use water and I was curious what it does for the recipe? I'm a little worried about the effect.
Thanks!
Christina Lane says
It's just a little precautionary water to help prevent scorching. You can make it either way. Try it :)
Desyrae Oswald says
My Carmel is super liquidy!? What went wrong??
Christina Lane says
Hmm...that's never happened to me. I'm guessing it didn't boil hard enough or for long enough. It sounds like it didn't reduce and thicken?
Are you up for trying again? I promise I've made this recipe at least a dozen times and it always works :/ Did you do any substitutions? Did you use HEAVY cream?
loretta says
Hi! I've made this caramel sauce many times, and it's always delicious. but for batches I don't scarf down in one sitting, the sauce gets grainy after a few days. is there any way to prevent the graininess, besides eat it faster :) or is it just something sugar/caramel does? thanks!
Christina Lane says
Hi Loretta! This happened to me last week with this sauce! I normally eat it the same day it's made, but we had some leftovers. I warmed it back up with another splash of cream. It kinda helped. Sorry! Wish I could help more.
Beth says
If you mix it with cream cheese it makes a great frosting for anything, especially a pecan banana cake. The graininess that might develop disappears.
Pam says
Delicious! I think I let my sugar go a little too long, my sauce is not pourable. The fastest, simplest carmel recipe I've made.
Beth says
I Made another batch. It hardened. Anybody know why? It tastes wonderful, but more like candy Beth
Heather says
I just made this and got scared of it being a little thin after adding the cream (I actually halved the recipe, eyeballed a few ingredients, and used half and half. I know I didn't follow the recipe and didn't expect perfect results). I cooked it for another 2-3 minutes and cooled it down and it is the perfect thickness now! Kids got a dipping sauce for apples and I made a caramel latte. Once again, you nailed it! I'll be spending the rest of my day spoon feeding the remainder to myself.
Lorraine says
Hi! Can I use this sauce to make caramel apples?
Christina Lane says
I'm not sure if it would stick and harden. I haven't tried it. It's meant to stay thin and runny to be poured on stuff.
Bakhtawer Memon says
Such an easy recipe to follow. I took my sugar very close to smoking point because i like the flavor like that. It turned out so good. And it's a small batch so I can easily use it without having to worry about leftovers. This recipe is a keeper.
Christina Lane says
Oh my YUM! I, too, love that almost burnt taste of sugar! So complex :)