Homemade salted caramel
Salted caramel is perhaps the most favorite treat from my beloved native region - Brittany. There it is not only a plus for decorating cookies and waffles, but also a real ingredient that can be added to any dish to make it more appetizing. Usually, when we go back to Brittany for the summer holidays, I replenish my caramel stocks from local suppliers for several months in advance, but it must be said that these stocks are still running out faster than expected during frosty winter evenings in the mountains. Therefore, in the spring, there is generally nothing left, and you have to wait a long time for the summer, the spring desserts for their part do not wait! So here is my recipe for the real salted butter caramel, like in Brittany.
Before Cooking
The secret to a successful caramel lies not so much in the ingredients, although this largely depends on their freshness, but in the cooking technique. Before I had a real gooey and sweet caramel, I had a lot of failures and all of them were due to not knowing enough of these few tips. Here are the main ones :
1) Use dishes with thick bottoms and sides
Ordinary thin aluminum pans heat up and cool very quickly, it may turn out that the sugar does not melt evenly, and the caramel burns in one place and is still barely warm in another. Cookware with thick bottoms and sides accumulates and distributes heat more evenly.
2) The temperature of the electric hob (if that’s what you use)
Depending on the hob and its way of heating, the result can vary considerably. I advise you to melt the sugar over medium heat, for this you need a real happy medium. If the hob burner is very hot, the sugar will quickly begin to burn without melting all the way, and after mixing all the ingredients, the sugar crystals that have not completely melted will become hard again. And if you melt the sugar over very low heat, the process will take too long and the caramel will remain light and pale, without reaching the amber color. I cook the caramel on an electric hob and, to find the happy medium, I first preheat the it to high heat, then lower it to medium heat and start cooking the caramel straight away.
3) No need to constantly stir the sugar
Do not stir the sugar until it melts, because by stirring, the undissolved sugar first solidifies on the sides of the dish, then it penetrates into the syrup and thereby hardens. If you want to distribute the sugar more evenly across the bottom of the pan, shake it lightly at first, but don't stir.
4) Use only hot liquid cream
Once the syrup has reached a temperature of around 190 degrees and has turned a dark amber color (but not black!), cream should be introduced without delay.
If the cream is at room temperature, then when poured into a very hot syrup, there may be a lot of splashing, moreover, when the two products come into contact with a very strong temperature difference, crystals of sugar can form and the caramel will curl up into large lumps of sugar.
To prevent this from happening, heat the cream to about 80-90 degrees, remove the syrup from the heat and pour the cream into the syrup in several stages. Stir everything as vigorously as possible with a wooden spatula after each addition.
5) Only use good quality butter at room temperature
When using butter containing vegetable fats, you may encounter the problem of the caramel separating into 2 components - fat and sugar. To prevent this from happening, use only good quality products. The butter should be at room temperature, and it should be introduced to the caramel in 2-3 stages, mixing thoroughly.
Ingredients
• 100 sugar
• 100 ml full liquid cream
(little secret the fatter the better, 33-35% would be great)
• 25g butter
• 1 pinch of salt
Preparation:
• 100 sugar
• 100 ml full liquid cream
(little secret the fatter the better, 33-35% would be great)
• 25g butter
• 1 pinch of salt
1. First, heat the sugar over medium heat. Don't stir it right away, wait until it starts to melt and come off the sides of the pan. Meanwhile, bring the cream to a gentle simmer. If the cream boils before the sugar, remove it from the heat and periodically return it to the heat to keep it very hot, stirring frequently.
2. As soon as the sugar has melted, use a spatula or a whisk to start stirring it, completely dissolving it and turning it into a homogeneous mass. At this point, the caramel will already have a rich, dark amber color, so you don't need to cook for long to avoid the bitter taste of burnt sugar. Reduce to low heat and quickly add the hot cream, stirring vigorously. Usually the cream is added to the sugar off the heat, for my part I always leave the pan on very low heat when it is cold in the room. Homogenize the mass and add the butter cut into small pieces, stirring quickly. If you want to obtain a salted caramel, use semi-salted butter or add a bit of fleur de sel.
The caramel is ready! Pour it into jars while it is liquid and hot and let it cool slightly to room temperature. The caramel can be stored in the refrigerator for a week in a tightly closed jar. If the caramel hardens, just put the jar in warm water or heat it in a water bath.
Bon appétit to your taste buds!
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