Making Caramel Sauce

[Pam R]

Thanks Patrick! I'll give that a try.

Does the grainyness(sp?) have something to do with why you should use a wet pastry brush to make sure all the sugar is in the bottom of the pot?

To follow up on Lorna's recipe... I put it back in a pot and boiled it for about 10 minutes and it thickened up great! The brown sugar gives it an amazing flavour. I could just sit and eat it sraight. I actually tried it on white toast this morning and oh my goodness.....it is sooooooo good! My only concern with it is I wonder if the butter might separate out a bit. Lorna, have you had this happen?

←

Try Ling's recipe with a pecan chiffon and whipped cream....

Edited July 9, 2005 by Pam R (log)

[Ling]

To follow up on Lorna's recipe... I put it back in a pot and boiled it for about 10 minutes and it thickened up great! The brown sugar gives it an amazing flavour. I could just sit and eat it sraight. I actually tried it on white toast this morning and oh my goodness.....it is sooooooo good! My only concern with it is I wonder if the butter might separate out a bit. Lorna, have you had this happen?

←

No, I've never had the butter separate. So glad you enjoy it! (It's also good sandwiched between Digestive biscuits, then covered in melted dark chocolate. Easy 1 minute snack... )

[Wendy DeBord]

I've seen the butter seperate previously. I attributed it to the sugar crystals not melting throughly in the first place..........or crystals clinging to the side of your pan not getting washed down properly. Those crystals will mulitple madly and when doing so, they seperate so it looks sort of curdled from any other ingredients in the pot with the sugar.

To the best of my knowledge once that's happened you can't bring the sugar crystals back into a smooth melted state. I throw the contents out and start a new batch............making darn sure I get my sugar properly melted before adding any other ingredients, to avoid cost.

[Marlene]

I'm making Creme Caramel for guests on Saturday night. I'd like to serve a liquid caramel sauce with it, but I'm not at all sure how to go about making it. Or whether I'm actually making any sense here.

Help me out!

[Patrick S]

Few things in this crazy, mixed-up world make as much sense as caramel sauce, Marlene! There are lots of variations on caramel sauce, the most common has you adding cream and/or butter to caramelized sugar. If you want clearish caramel sauce, you could add water instead of cream to the caramelized sugar. For instance, you might try this:

1/4C sugar

1T corn syrup

2T Water

2T soft butter

3-6T water

pinch o' salt

Mix the sugar, corn syrup and 2T water in saucepan. Turn the heat on medium-high. Stir to combine, then let it boil without stirring until you reach about 350-360F. If you dont have a thermometer, go by appearance -- at 300, the sugar will start to brown. Right about the time you start to get the first, tiny puff of smoke, put in the butter, turn the heat to low, and stir a little. Then add 3T of water. It will sieze up, but dont worry, it will dissolve into the water after a while. Add more water, if desired, to get the consistency you want.

[Sugarella]

Few things in this crazy, mixed-up world make as much sense as caramel sauce.

←

I think you should make this your sig line, Patrick!

[Marlene]

Few things in this crazy, mixed-up world make as much sense as caramel sauce, Marlene!    There are lots of variations on caramel sauce, the most common has you adding cream and/or butter to caramelized sugar. If you want clearish caramel sauce, you could add water instead of cream to the caramelized sugar. For instance, you might try this:

1/4C sugar

1T    corn syrup

2T    Water

2T    soft butter

3-6T  water

pinch o' salt

Mix the sugar, corn syrup and 2T water in saucepan. Turn the heat on medium-high. Stir to combine, then let it boil without stirring until you reach about 350-360F. If you dont have a thermometer, go by appearance -- at 300, the sugar will start to brown. Right about the time you start to get the first, tiny puff of smoke, put in the butter, turn the heat to low, and stir a little. Then add 3T of water. It will sieze up, but dont worry, it will dissolve into the water after a while. Add more water, if desired, to get the consistency you want.

←

Bingo! This is exactly what I was looking for: a "clearish" caramel sauce! Thank you!

[Patrick S]

Great! Also, if you accidentally add too much water, you can just reduce it down.

[Marlene]

How much sauce will this yield do you think?

[tan319]

Can I suggest something?

If you're you're making the caramel already for the "bottom" ( top) of the creme caramel, keep it clear, no butter.

Take, say 2 cups of sugar, put it in a pot, add only enough hot water to make a "slurry", like sandy but all of the sugar is wet.

Put it on the fire and cover with a lid or whatever is handy, then you don't have to wash down the sides with the pastry brush.

While this is cooking, bring say a cup of water, maybe a cup and a half to a simmer.

When you start getting some color, keep going 'till you get a nice amber,deglazing will lighten it.

When you get that color, being very careful, add your hot water ( or wine, liquor, whatever.)to your liking.

Let come together, whisk a bit.

If too then, while still hot, I add a bit of bloomed sheet gelatine.

Good Luck!!!

PS: Reason I suggest no butter or cream is because you already have that caramel And eggs, etc.

[HVRobinson]

How much sauce will this yield do you think?

←

I can't help it... and I apologise in advance:

this comes from a cooking teacher I started with....

"All of it!"

[Patrick S]

How much sauce will this yield do you think?

←

Roughly 2/3C, depending on how much water you add.

[alanamoana]

creme caramel, as ted said, already has caramel in the container. you pour a clear caramel which is just caramelized sugar (a little bit of water to get it started cooking if you're uncomfortable making a dry method caramel) into your ramekins making sure to coat the bottom evenly. when this cools completely, it should be hard and clear. then you pour your custard base into your ramekins and bake as usual. after cooling and refrigerating, when you unmold the cremes onto a plate, the caramel at the bottom should have dissolved thus forming your sauce and coloring the top of your cremes nicely.

are you looking for another sauce to accompany the dessert in addition to this?

[Marlene]

creme caramel, as ted said, already has caramel in the container.  you pour a clear caramel which is just caramelized sugar (a little bit of water to get it started cooking if you're uncomfortable making a dry method caramel) into your ramekins making sure to coat the bottom evenly.  when this cools completely, it should be hard and clear.  then you pour your custard base into your ramekins and bake as usual.  after cooling and refrigerating, when you unmold the cremes onto a plate, the caramel at the bottom should have dissolved thus forming your sauce and coloring the top of your cremes nicely.

are you looking for another sauce to accompany the dessert in addition to this?

←

Yes I was.

[Wendy DeBord]

I never heard of adding the gelatin Ted...........what's the reasoning......does that plate better?

[maggie]

I was wondering about the gelatin, too, because it's hard to tell if it's too thin before it cools. It's also yummy to use clear cider or apple juice or wine instead of the water for another flavor component. And again, as Patrick said, simply reduce it to get it thicker, if you add too much liquid. If you don't add enough and it's too thick once it cools, reheat it and add more liquid carefully and slowly.

[scott123]

I was wondering about the gelatin, too, because it's hard to tell if it's too thin before it cools.  It's also yummy to use clear cider or apple juice or wine instead of the water for another flavor component.  And again, as Patrick said, simply reduce it to get it thicker, if you add too much liquid.  If you don't add enough and it's too thick once it cools, reheat it and add more liquid carefully and slowly.

←

Assuming that your cooled sauce will be thicker than simple syrup, you can remove a lot of the guesswork by using a thermometer. The boiling temperature will indicate the syrup's water content/viscosity when cooled. That way you don't have to let the sauce cool to see if it's the desired thickness.

[tan319]

I never heard of adding the gelatin Ted...........what's the reasoning......does that plate better?

←

Yes, it plates better, to me at least.

And keep in mind, this is ONLY if you want a side sauce.

When I serve creme caramel, as alanamona stated, I use the "sauce" which spills out as you unmold the creme caramel as the sauce.

Any more then that would seem slightly redundent but to each their own, no problem.

In addition, not sure how a thermometer is going to indicate in anyway how thick a liquid is going to be.

If you make a creme anglaise ( which wouldn't be a bad sauce to dribble by the creme caramel), and use a themometer to get an absolute point of pasteurization, be it 80 to 86 c or 181/182 f, you can still end up with a "thin" anglaise unless you "push" it a bit or take it off of the heat and let it sort of "poach", then strain.

Not to mention how many yolks you use, etc.

[Patrick S]

In addition, not sure how a thermometer is going to indicate in anyway how thick a liquid is going to be.

←

Hi Ted!

I think the idea is that both the viscosity and the boiling point of a sucrose solution is a function of sucrose concentration, so you can tell how viscous/thick the syrup will be by measuring the boiling temp. As you know, a sucrose solution boiling at 235F has a sucrose concentration of about 85% and will form a malleable semi-solid at room temp, while a sucrose solution boiling at, say, 300F, is 99% sucrose will form a very firm brittle solid at room temp. Theoretically don't you think that you could also predict the viscosity of the cooled caramel syrup, which is still essentially a sucrose solution in the 40-70% sucrose range (I'm guessing), by the boiling temp? I imagine the ideal for a pourable sauce would be somewhere in the range of 215-222F, which corresponds to sucrose concentrations of 50-70%. I think an experiment is called for!

Edited February 22, 2006 by Patrick S (log)

[tan319]

Perhaps.

I liked what Hermes said for instance in his sugar table in "the Way to Cook" book.

There's two ways I came to inroduce gelatine into caramel based sauces.

One was reading many examples in Albert Adrias "Los Postres de El Bulli in the caramel sections where they would add maybe a half sheet to a recipe, probably to obtain more viscousity w/o driving themselves batty reducing/deglazing over & over.they also used it in confits ( I think, it's all in Spanish, not my first or second language).

I came back to these thoughts when a chef I was doing a pineapple caramel for kept complaining about the thickness.

Fixed that.

You also get a bit more "gloss" just like adding booze to an anglaise or sauce.

But to thickness again...

Yes, if sugar cooks to this temp we get soft ball and then we cook it to this temp we get hard crack but caramel is basically caramel once you hit it, yes?

In addition, not sure how a thermometer is going to indicate in anyway how thick a liquid is going to be.

←

Hi Ted!

I think the idea is that both the viscosity and the boiling point of a sucrose solution is a function of sucrose concentration, so you can tell how viscous/thick the syrup will be by measuring the boiling temp. As you know, a sucrose solution boiling at 235F has a sucrose concentration of about 85% and will form a malleable semi-solid at room temp, while a sucrose solution boiling at, say, 300F, is 99% sucrose will form a very firm brittle solid at room temp. Theoretically don't you think that you could also predict the viscosity of the cooled caramel syrup, which is still essentially a sucrose solution in the 40-70% sucrose range (I'm guessing), by the boiling temp? I imagine the ideal for a pourable sauce would be somewhere in the range of 215-222F, which corresponds to sucrose concentrations of 50-70%. I think an experiment is called for!

←

[Patrick S]

In terms of flavor and color, yes, but not in terms of viscosity. I think the important variable as far as viscosity of a syrup is concerned is not the temperature to which the sugar has been cooked, but the water content of the finished syrup, and that can be manipulated to whatever level you desire. So you can take your caramel and add water, and depending on how thick you want your syrup/sauce, you cook it to the right temp -- the higher the temp, the thicker the syrup. I hope I'm explaining that in a way that makes sense!

BTW, I can see how gelatin could be useful for thickening a syrup. You could thicken it by reducing it, like I've been talking about, but that will make the syrup very sweet, because a syrup is only going to get thick at 50+% sugar. But if you use gelatin, I can see how you could freely manipulate both the sweetness and the viscosity. For instance you could make a sauce that is thick but only 40% sugar.

But to thickness again...

Yes, if sugar cooks to this temp we get soft ball and then we cook it to this temp we get hard crack but caramel is basically caramel once you hit it, yes?

←

[tan319]

In terms of flavor and color, yes, but not in terms of viscosity. I think the important variabl

BTW, I can see how gelatin could be useful for thickening a syrup. You could thicken it by reducing it, like I've been talking about, but that will make the syrup very sweet, because a syrup is only going to get thick at 50+% sugar. But if you use gelatin, I can see how you could freely manipulate both the sweetness and the viscosity. For instance you could make a sauce that is thick but only 40% sugar.

But to thickness again...

Yes, if sugar cooks to this temp we get soft ball and then we cook it to this temp we get hard crack but caramel is basically caramel once you hit it, yes?

←

←

There you go!

I think that's where thickeners of the seaweed variety is coming in too.

[tedwin]

I was making a caramel sauce this weekend using sugar and heavy cream. As it cooled, the sauce thickened and eventually crystallized. Any idea why? Perhaps I didn't cook the sugar long enough or too long?

[John DePaula]

I was making a caramel sauce this weekend using sugar and heavy cream.  As it cooled, the sauce thickened and eventually crystallized.  Any idea why?  Perhaps I didn't cook the sugar long enough or too long?

←

When you poured it out to cool, did you scrape the pot? It's hard to leave any of the delicious caramel in the pot, but this is often the cause of re-crystallization.

[tedwin]

I made the sauce early in the day and left it in the pot. When it came time to use the sauce, it had crystallized. I reheated the sauce, stirred and it returned to it's liquid state. I poured it into a thermos, hoping to keep it warm and in its liquid state but in less than 10 mins. it had recrystallized in the thermos.

Perhaps I should have poured it out of the pot as soon as it was made?

Edited April 6, 2006 by tedwin (log)