“You live only once. Lick the bowl.”
Yup. I made caramel sauce. Not just any caramel sauce. A great tasting , super yummy , easy , totally addictive , will-make-your-jeans-fit-a-little-tighter-you’ll-have-so-much-of-it caramel sauce. And the best part ? No candy thermometer, no fancy ingredients , no burnt fingers , no scorched pans , no bitter results..just sweet caramel sauce!
Making homemade caramel sauce is so much easier than you’d think and so much more satisfying. Like seriously. There is something so comforting about a jar of homemade chocolate or caramel sauce in your refrigerator door. You know… for dessert and ice cream emergencies!
You can use this sauce in a million ways. Douse your ice cream it in , drizzle some artistically over your layer cake , sandwich your cookies with it , spoon it over bread and rolls , jar it up and gift it to a dessert loving friend , add some to your kid’s morning cereal , eat a little bit everytime you open the fridge for something else! If you think you might have no use for a caramel sauce , then you think wrong. Make it and it ‘ ll truly transform your life. Ok, that might be over-exaggerating a tad bit. But you get my drift… this sauce is that good!
If you google homemade caramel sauce, you ‘ ll get a million and more recipes. Some easier than this and some with fewer ingredients. Whats special about this? First , I love the taste ( not too sweet, not too salty , not too rich) . Second, I love the consistency (not too thin, not too thick, not too sticky) . Third ,this is a relatively burn fool proof recipe . Fourth, I wanted a caramel sauce that could be made in my kitchen with no special ingredients. I wanted to use white sugar because not everyone (including me) has brown sugar all the time , and I wanted to use light cream which is so much easier to get than heavy whipping cream (arghhh!) here.
Do you have 10 minutes? MAKE THIS. NOW.
You’ll need:
- 150 grams or 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 60 ml or 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup cream (I used Amul)
- 60 ml or 1/4 cup milk
- 56 grams or 1/4 cup unsalted butter
- pinch of salt
- 1 tsp vanilla (optional)
Makes : 1 1/2 cups caramel sauce
Time : 15 mins + cooling time
Lets get started :
First measure out your milk , cream and butter and keep ready . You can use one bowl as you dump it all in together.
Take the sugar in a saucepan (the wider the saucepan, the faster this will happen)
Add 1/4 cup water over the sugar. Heat on medium heat until sugar dissolves . There is absolutely no stirring during the entire process. Stirring causes crystallisation. Just swirl the pan to mix if you need. There might be some crystals along the edge , you can either a) use a wet pastry brush and wipe it down or b) keep the saucepan covered in the initial steps. I keep it covered, the condensation prevents crystallisation
Once sugar is dissolved , keep heating it until it changes colour to an amber colour. This may take from a couple of minutes to 7-8 minutes depending on your saucepan and heat.
Once you get an amber colour and at the first whiff of smoke, you have to add the butter, cream , salt and milk. You add these ingredients when you reach a light or darkish amber depending on whether you want light or dark caramel. BUT BE WARNED. Once, it reaches this colour, it darkens really fast and may burn . I strongly suggest to continue at a light caramel if you haven’t done this before.
Add the ingredients while stirring with a spatula or wooden spoon. When you add, the mixture will bubble up like crazy. This is because the other ingredients are cold compared to the hot caramel. Be careful . The bubbling will settle down in a minute.
Keep heating and stirring until the butter dissolves and the mixture becomes smooth.
Take off heat and mix in the vanilla.
Pour into your storing jar or container and chill in the fridge until cool . It will thicken as it cools.
Also :
- This can be stored in the fridge for upto 2 weeks.
- Heat up a bit in microwave before using if you want it really thin.
- You can replace the 1/4 cup milk with 1/4 cup cream for a thicker caramel sauce.
- Add a tsp of salt instead of a pinch if you want yummy salted caramel sauce!
YUM…….I didn’t even know I had a thing for caramel until recently. After this golden caramel sauce, I am head over heels in love with it (Sorry chocolate … you know you still rock my world!). I use it in so many ways. Mix in a little with your coffee for that extra luxurious boost when you don’t feel like facing the day. You’ ll see what I mean !