Salted caramel is one of my absolute favorite flavors. In fact, we chose salted caramel gelato to serve at our wedding! I’m not sure why I love it so much, perhaps it’s the complexity of salty + sweet. I just know that I lose all resistance in the face of this flavor in any dessert! I originally made a batch of this salted caramel sauce because I needed it for another recipe (not sure if I’ll blog that, not crazy about the photos). I was halving the other recipe, but chose to make the full amount of caramel, for obvious reasons. Besides, anytime a recipe calls to boil sugar & water, I hate to halve it, because I always seem to have a hard time having enough liquid for the candy thermometer to even register.
This salted caramel sauce is the perfect consistancy for drizzling atop ice cream. Especially bourbon ice cream. But it also is an excellent topping for brownies & cheesecake. Or, you can go with my preferred method of consumption, and just eat it straight from the jar. It keeps really well refrigerated, as long as you try to hide it from yourself after each time you eat some. I have to put it way in the back, behind the pickles or something, or else every time I open the refrigerator I want to eat more!
Salted Caramel Sauce
Ingredients:
1 cup water
2 cups sugar
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
1 teaspoon grey sea salt or fleur de selDirections:
Add water to a 2-qt saucepan. Gently add the sugar to the center of the pot - it will mound, that's fine. Cover the pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Once boiling, uncover the pot and insert a candy thermometer. Continue cooking until the mixture registers 300 F and is just starting to develop some color, about 15 minutes. Reduce heat under the pot to medium and cook until the syrup is amber and registers 350 F on the thermometer, about another 5 minutes. Meanwhile, pour the cream into a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. If it simmers before the syrup is ready, just take it off the heat and set aside.
Remove the caramel from the heat and add about 1/4 of the warm cream to the pot. It will bubble furiously so be careful. Once the bubbling subsides, add the remaining cream. When it stops bubbling, whisk gently to incorporate fully. Add the butter and the salt and whisk to combine.
Refrigerate up to 1 month.
adapted from Cooks Illustrated via Tracey's Culinary Adventure's
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