Beautiful, Dark, Luscious Caramel.  It’s magical isn’t it?  Store bought is great but homemade caramel sauce is always better. With just a few simple ingredients and just about ten minutes time you can make it at home.   Now, it’s important to remember to be extremely careful while making this recipe.  We are going to be cooking sugar in this recipe and it is extremely hot.  I’m actually extremely proud of myself for not only not hurting myself with this one but even attempting it at all.  If there are two things in the culinary world that I’m afraid of because I’m too clumsy its deep frying and cooking sugar.  But, the show must go on.  

       Now, there are 2 different methods of making caramel. The wet version and the dry version.  I made the dry version but I will run though how to do both so you can decide which you would like to do.  The only difference is the beginning step then everything else is the same.  

         Which ever method you are using, its important to babysit this the whole way through .  Don’t walk away, Don’t watch a show while you are doing this, just stand there and stir.  A few things can happen if you aren’t paying attention.  Especially, with the dry method the sugar can burn and you will have to start completely over.  Or it can bubble over and potentially hurt you.  I walked away for literally 20 seconds to grab a lid for the pot and this happened. That’s way too dark and burned so I had to start all over again

      The last thing that I want to talk about is crystallization.  When you are cooking the caramel and especially when stirring some crystals of sugar can form on the sides of the pot as seen above.  we don’t want that.. We want all of that sugar melted in the pot.. Also that crystallization can burn.  There are a few things that you can do to combat that.  Firstly,  whiping the inside of your pot before you start with lemon juice.  The acid will prevent crystals from forming. Just be sure to take out any seeds or pulp fiber that are left behind.  You can also brush the sides with water and a silicone brush when you see them forming.  I just know I would burn myself if I did that so what I do is just put the lid on the pot.  That will create steam and melt the crystals.  

      So with all this in mind let’s get to the recipe. With both the wet and dry version you are going to use the same ingredients except for the wet version has just enough water to cover the surface of the sugar.  

    To start wipe the inside of the pot down with lemon juice as I said before.  

Wet Method- Place the sugar in the pot with enough water to cover the surface of the sugar. Put the stove on medium high heat and let it cook with the lid on for 3-4 minutes or until the solution is clear.  Do not stir.  Stirring will provoke crystallization.  Continue cooking until it turns a medium golden color

Dry Method- Put the sugar in the pot. Cook on medium high heat stirring constantly until the sugar melts. This takes some coxing and it will look a little wierd before then.

   Shut off the heat and add the heavy cream.  It will bubble up a lot when you do so watch out. Just stir it and that will calm down.  The pictures were taken of the dry method. I have a few issues with it.  First of all, it is a lot harder to get the sugar to melt evenly and I got a good size chunk of hard caramel that I had to discard.  I would definitely go with the wet version but its up to you. try both for yourself if you like.

  After the mixture has calmed down from the cream, add the butter and stir to melt.  Lastly just add the salt. Its a little thin when you first make it but let it cool, transfer to a heat proof container and stick it in the fridge for an hour to firm up.

  So there you have it. A dark, luscious, gorgeous batch of caramel sauce. :),

Homemade Caramel Sauce

Yield: 1 Cup

Prep Time: 2 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 12 minutes

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Ingredients

• 1 Cup Granulated Sugar
• 4 Tbsp of Water
• 1/4 tsp course salt
• 1/2 Cup oh Heavy Cream
• 4 Tbsp of Unsalted Butter
• 1 half of a Lemon

Instructions

1. Wipe down the inside of a medium sized heavy bottom saucepan with lemon juice to prevent crystallization.

2. wet method- Put sugar and enough water to cover the surface of the sugar in the pot. Swirl the pot to distribute the water. Cook covered on medium high for 3-4 minutes or until the mixture is clear.   Continue cooking for a few additional minutes until it turns a medium golden color. Shut off.

dry method- Put the sugar in the pot. Cook on medium high heat until the sugar melts. Cook until boiling. Shut off.

3. Pour in the heavy cream and stir to stop from bubbling.

4. Add the butter stir that in. 

5. Add the salt and transfer to a heat proof container. Stir in the fridge for up to 

two weeks.

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