Caramel, everyone loves it! To spread on a brioche bun or in desserts, it's always a pleasure to eat.
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If supermarkets sell caramel coulis or caramelised spreads, a homemade recipe will undoubtedly be much better. The advantage of caramel is that it is composed of sugar. Therefore, it will keep for a very long time.
You can make several kinds of caramel sauces with the initial recipe: hard caramel which will set after a few minutes, practical for pastry decorations or sweets, but also soft caramel or salted butter caramel, which is creamy and can be used according to what you like.
An easy recipe to make caramel
In order to make a success of your caramel, it will be necessary to respect the measurements. For that, do not hesitate to invest in an electronic scale, which will be much more precise than your grandmother's scale.
You will need:
- 250 g of sugar
- 150 ml of water
Choosing the sugar
For your caramel, you can use white sugar as well as brown sugar. White sugar tends to caramelise more easily than brown sugar, but brown sugar will give a more powerful and well-flavoured caramel.
Cooking
To cook your caramel, put the water and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. It is important to 'allow' the caramel to cook itself, and not to stir it. In general, when you stir the caramel, the sugar crystallises and forms large hard lumps. Wait until it is brown before you touch it (without burning yourself).
Caramelisation
It's important to watch your caramel. One minute of overcooking could burn it, and you'll have to start all over again. Take your time and stay close to the stove. The mixture will begin to have a clear syrupy texture. It will then start to bubble and slowly colour. When the colour is brown, you can remove the pan from the heat.
Liquid caramel
The water and sugar-based caramel will harden in the open air, and in contact with the cold. If you want to use it to decorate a cake or cream puffs, it is perfect at this stage. On the other hand, if you want to make a soft caramel or caramel sauce, you will have to add cold liquid cream until you like the texture.
Caramel with salted butter
To have a very creamy salted butter caramel, you will have to add 70 g of salted butter once the caramel is coloured. Then add liquid cream. The more cream you add, the more liquid your caramel will be. The salted butter caramel can be kept in a cool place for a full week.
Clean your pan after cooking the caramel
Once the caramel has been made, you will have to go to the washing up stage. However, the caramel is difficult to remove, either from the pan or the wooden spoon. To do this, fill your pan with water and boil over medium heat. The heat of the water will dissolve the hard caramel. All that will be left to do is to sponge it with a degreasing washing-up liquid.
Now it's your turn!
