Caramel is an amazing dish that can be consumed by itself or even used as a topping on a number of deserts like, ice creams, chocolates, puddings, custards, etc. It is soft as well as chewy. The chewy factor of a caramel makes it taste wonderful with almost anything. Caramel is nothing but sugar that has been melted and browned in a way that changes the flavor of sugar completely. It is neither very difficult nor very easy to make caramel. The trick behind making soft caramel is to prevent it from crystallizing when you use water and sugar to make it. You can try making dry caramel with just sugar; however, it has to be prevented from being burnt. Read on to find out how to make caramel.
Complexity Level: Moderate
Time required: 2-4 hours
Resources Required:
- Granule sugar ½ a cup
- Water ¼ cup
- Butter or cream about 2 tablespoons
- Vanilla extracts for taste about 1 teaspoon
- An aluminum saucepan, make sure it is large and heavy-gauged
- An oven mitt to protect you
- A jar made of glass
- A wooden spoon for stirring the caramel
Instructions:
1. Take safety measures before your start
- Caramel is made on very high heat. As you heat sugar on very high flame, it can splatter on you.
- Hot melted sugar has a tendency of sticking onto your body very badly causing serious skin burns. Make sure you take necessary steps to keep yourself from being burnt.
- Start with wearing gloves in your hands or you can use mitts. Wear a long sleeved dress and cover yourself with an apron.
- Keep ice or ice water handy to put your hand into it, in case the melted sugar splashes on you.
- Protect your eyes with safety glasses.
- Make sure that you use a big saucepan so that the caramel does not spill as it boils.
2. Heating the sugar to melt it
- Water and sugar needs to be added together.
- Melt all the ingredients together in the saucepan.
- Make sure that you use a heavy-gauged large saucepan to heat the sugar to prevent it from being burnt.
3. Process of stirring the sugar
- The sugar needs to be stirred continuously until it melts completely.
- Stop stirring the sugar once it has melted.
4. Keep watching the mixture
- You need to keep watching the mixture to prevent it from burning or crystallizing.
- With the help of a candy thermometer, you can check if the caramel is ready. Avoid using it though, as many a timeâs professional thermometers melt when used to check caramel.
- Look for the color of the caramel to confirm it is done. The caramel will turn dark reddish brown when done; it passes the point where it just begins to steam. In fact, it will match the color of an old copper penny.
Frequently asked questions:
What else can be done with caramel?
Caramel can be used in a number of ways:
- Saucy caramel: Once the caramel is done, you can add some cream or butter to make a delicious caramel sauce out of it.
- Creamy caramel: All you need to do is add cream to the caramel made.
- Caramel Quinces: Quinces can be made out of caramel if you enjoy the taste of quinces caramel.
- Apples dipped in caramel: You can dip apple to the caramel to enjoy delicious apple caramels. All you need to do is choose the right apple for it to taste good.
Quick tips:
- Use a heavy-gauge aluminum saucepan to make caramel.
- Pour water into the pan once you use the caramel up. Keep the pan on high flame and let the water boil. Drain out the water to get a clean pan.
- Prefer tilting the pan than stirring it if you want to make wet caramel.
- Use the caramel as soon as it is made, as it hardens very fast.
Things to watch out for:
- Avoid using non-stick pans as caramel can damage them.
- Do not continue stirring the caramel once the sugar melts; it can crystallize the caramel.
- Donât rest stirring spoons on glass surfaces as it can permanently damage glace surface.
- Keep kids away when the caramel is cooking to avoid accidents.
