Description
This caramel sauce is perfect for drizzling on cakes, cookies or using for dipping as it sets up into glassy, chewy, but a not-too-sticky surface. Also, melt a scoop in your coffee and you’ll make a better-than-the-coffee-shop macchiato at home.
Ingredients
- 1 cup granulated sugar (200 g)
- 1/4 cup water (59 mL)
- 2 Tablespoons Lyle’s Golden Syrup or honey (not raw honey, see note), (30 mL)
- 1/4 cup heavy cream (59 mL)
- 2 Tablespoons butter (28 g)
- 1 teaspoon instant espresso granules
- 1 teaspoon vanilla paste or vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Combine the sugar, water, golden syrup, and salt in a small bowl just to moisten the sugar evenly.
- Pour the sugar into a heavy bottom saucepan. Turn the heat on medium.
- Once the sugar starts to boil, you’ll see clear, pale yellow bubbles (color is from the golden syrup).
- Whisk the cream, espresso, vanilla, and salt together in a small bowl. Place the butter on top the cream and keep this bowl near the stove.
- Cook the sugar until you start seeing color around the edges of the pan.
- If you notice that the color seems to be in one spot of the pan but not the rest, gently swirl the sugar in the pan. You may also turn the pan around 180 degrees on the burner to even out the heat.
- Do not stir with a spoon or whisk at this point as you can create sugar crystals and threads you will not be able to incorporate back into the caramel.
- Do not leave the stove. Once you start seeing color watch carefully. As the sugar begins to color, you’ll notice the bubbles start to slow down considerably.
- Caramel can go from pale amber to burnt in a few seconds. Start looking for more deep amber color form across the pan. Right at the end of cooking, you should smell just a hint of burnt sugar and you may see a puff of smoky steam. Once you see this, count to 5 and turn off the heat.
- Add the butter and cream mixture all at once, keeping well back and whisking with a long-handled whisk. Whisk until everything is smooth and glossy.
- Transfer the caramel to a glass jar. It will keep for about 2 weeks in the fridge. You can use the caramel immediately in a recipe like chocolate chip caramel pretzel cookies.
Notes
A note on honey: If you can’t find or don’t want to use Lyle’s Golden Syrup , honey can make perfectly fine caramel, but if you use raw honey that is crystallized, those crystals will never fully dissolve into the caramel, leaving you with a caramel that’s slightly grainy. It will still taste just fine, but it won’t be as pretty. The easiest solution if you can’t find Lyle’s Golden Syrup is to use honey that’s been pasteurized. The heat treating will prevent the honey from crystallizing.
Make it dairy-free and vegan: Caramel sauce is easy to make vegan. Swap out the cream with coconut cream and use coconut oil in place of the butter. You may have to whisk a little more over about 10 minutes as vegan caramel doesn’t stick together quite as well, but keep whisking as the caramel cools, and it will make a fine sauce. Be sure to use the Lyle’s Golden Syrup to keep it vegan. You could also use corn syrup for vegan caramel, though I avoid it for taste and because it is far too processed of an ingredient.
- Prep Time: 1 minute
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: Baking building blocks
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
