Sugar Special | How to Make Salted Caramel

Hello bakers! It’s September and it’s Saturday, which means it’s time for the first of four special sugar posts! This week I’ll take you through the basics of making caramel, salted or regular. It’s perfect for drizzling on fruit tarts or cheesecakes or even mixing into ice cream, and it’s far simpler to make than you think.

You’ll find quite a few variations on the recipe for salted caramel. They tend to involve sugar, butter and double cream, but even that can be substituted and the quantities are all up for grabs. Below is my recipe for it which my family love, so give it a try and I hope you’ll love it too.

Recipe

250g golden caster sugar
2 tablespoons of water
50g unsalted butter, diced
200ml double cream
1 teaspoon salt

I start by measuring out and preparing all my ingredients. When you make caramel the whole process happens quite fast and with a lot of bubbling, so it’s handy to have everything you need easily to hand.

Then, heat the sugar and the water together in a pan over low heat. Stir it so it doesn’t stick to the bottom and all gets the chance to melt. I’m usually an impatient person, but when it comes to melting sugar or making custard I’ve learned the hard way that a low heat and a bit of waiting is the only way. Once your sugar gets going melting, it’ll turn to a golden gooey liquid fairly quickly.

Once the sugar is all melted, add in your diced butter. I advise standing back while you do this, because when the cold butter meets the hot sugar it will bubble like crazy and could spit. Hot sugar burns badly so make sure you add the butter carefully and from a safe distance. Stir it in until melted.

Next, pour in your double cream. Again, please do this with care as the bubbling and spitting molten sugar will burn. Stir this thoroughly as the caramel will first form blobs with the cream and then become lovely and smooth. If you just want caramel, you’re done! To make it salted, add about a teaspoon of salt or more/less to taste.

I hope you enjoy my recipe for caramel. There are plenty out there to try but this one is very smooth and rich, and I’m a big believer that caramel should be indulgent. Add these to your bakes or puddings and you’ll be sure to impress. If you’ve enjoyed this, stop back next Saturday for a honeycomb how-to.

Looking something to team this with? Try the salted caramel pretzels that I posted here and let me know what you think!

In the meantime I’ll see you next Thursday for another bake!

Lauren x

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