Salted Caramel Sauce

With a shiny dime clutched in my hand, I carefully studied the snack bar offerings. As children, we regularly accompanied my father to the curling rink on Sunday afternoons. Dad, probably the only Holocaust survivor who mastered the sport of curling, bribed us with a treat to sit patiently and stay out of trouble while he slid back and forth on the ice rink with his coworkers, sweeping, gliding and cheering as the curling stones found their mark. Every week I chose the same confection: a rectangular bar of sweet, creamy, caramel toffee. Eaten slowly, it would last the entire afternoon.

Salted Caramel Sauce

My passion for caramel hasn’t abated in the least, but it’s the latest culinary trend for salted caramel that now satisfies my sweet tooth. Salted caramel was created in an obscure confectioner’s shop in Northern France more than three decades ago, and more recently has become the flavor of the moment all over the Western world. According to Dr. Cammy Crolic and Professor Chris Janiszewski, marketing researchers at the University of Florida, the salted caramel flavor induces a a rare phenomenon called “hedonic escalation”, which is a scientific way of saying “betcha can’t eat just one!”. Sugar can signal the release of the feel good brain chemical serotonin. Salt enhances the flavor of foods by reducing bitterness and enhancing the sweet taste of sugar. Put sugar and salt together, and their ability to induce cravings can increase exponentially.

Salted caramel sauce is the perfect addition to desserts as diverse as cheesecake, ice cream and rice pudding. With only six ingredients, this golden, buttery caramel sauce with a hint of salt, can elevate the simplest snack to stratospheric levels. Making caramel can be tricky but with a few helpful tips you can get perfect results every time in only 10 minutes. This recipe is from culinary phenom Dorie Greenspan from her oeuvre, Baking Chez Moi: Recipes from My Paris Home to Your Home Anywhere.

Assemble your ingredients. If you have ever attempted to make caramel sauce and found yourself staring down into a pot of dried crystallized sugar, or worse, smoking, blackened, burnt sugar, you’re not alone. Today we’re making “wet caramel” whereby water is added to the pan with the sugar. Adding a little water helps the sugar distribute more evenly around the pan, so it will melt and caramelize evenly. The addition of corn syrup in this recipe helps prevent crystallization of the sugar. Brushing the sides of the pan with a damp pastry brush halfway through the caramelization process also helps prevent the caramel sauce from becoming grainy.

Stirring caramel as it cooks isn’t necessary, it can even be detrimental, so simply swirl the pan as the caramel begins to color. When the caramel is a medium amber color (or the color of a penny), turn off the heat, stand back and prepare yourself for a little drama. When the cream and butter are added to the caramelized sugar syrup, the mixture will bubble vigorously but will soon settle. Stir the sauce with a wooden spoon or heat-proof spatula until it is smooth and creamy. Add the vanilla. Allow the caramel sauce to cool and store in the refrigerator. 

Print Recipe

Salted Caramel Sauce

Cookies, Cakes, Pies and Desserts

By Dorie Greenspan – Serves: 1 1/2 cups

Prep Time: 2 minutes – Cooking Time: 10 minutes – Total Time: 12 minutes

Golden, buttery caramel sauce with a hint of sea salt

Ingredients

• 1 cup (220 grams) sugar
• 3 tablespoons water
• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
• 3/4 cup (180 ml) heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt, (I used fleur de sel, Maldon salt also works well)
• 2 tablespoons (28 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature if possible
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Instructions

1

Add the sugar, water and corn syrup to a 2-quart saucepan with a heavy bottom.

2

Place the pan over medium-high heat and cook without stirring. As the sugar syrup start to color, you can swirl the pan with your wrist to evenly distribute the caramelizing sugar. If sugar crystals start to form along the side of the pan, carefully wash them down using a pastry brush that has been dipped in water.

3

When the caramel syrup is the color of a penny, a medium amber color, turn off the heat, stand back and add the cream, salt and butter. The mixture will boil vigorously but settle quickly as it cools. Stir with a wooden spoon or heat-resistant spatula until the caramel sauce is smooth and creamy.

4

Stir in the vanilla extract.

5

Pour the caramel sauce into a heatproof jar and store in the refrigerator.