Salted Caramel Sauce (15-minute recipe) The Art of Food and Wine (2024)

FAQs

How to thicken salted caramel sauce? ›

To thicken a caramel sauce, use one tablespoon of cornstarch or tapioca starch (sometimes known as tapioca flour) and one tablespoon of water per cup of caramel. Then simmer the caramel, stirring it constantly with a wooden spoon until it becomes thick.

These are sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami. Salted caramel combines two of these, giving an effect that chefs call “flavour layering”. Salt also acts as an enhancer of flavour (that's why you sprinkle it on your chips, for instance), so that's why it makes caramel taste even better.

Refrigerate for up to 1 month. The caramel solidifies as it cools, but you can reheat in the microwave or on the stove so it's liquid again. You can freeze the salted caramel, too. Freeze in an airtight container for up to 3 months.

To help prevent the caramel from crystallizing, you can add an acid to the sugar before you begin: add about half a tablespoon of lemon juice to each cup of sugar and mix it with your hands; it should be the consistency of wet sand. Heat the sugar over medium-high heat until it melts.

Add more sugar to the sauce.

Most caramel sauces are made by caramelizing sugar and adding milk and a little salt. If you increase the amount of sugar in the recipe you'll end up with a thicker caramel. Try increasing the sugar by about 1/3.

Overheating the mixture. Be very careful as you heat your caramel. Follow the recipe carefully, and never melt your caramel on your stove's highest setting—it will cause the caramel to scorch and taste burnt. Once it gets a burnt or bitter flavor, it can't be saved.

If you're using heavy cream, note that it contains more water (less butterfat) than double cream. If your caramel sauce ends up too runny, cook it for a few minutes longer to remove some of the moisture – this will thicken it up. (And next time, try using a slightly smaller amount of heavy cream.)

Sometimes during this phase the cold fatty additions make the sugar mixture seize up. That can result in chunks of hardened, candy-like caramel and it can be discouraging. Avoid this by using room temperature butter and cream so the temperature contrast isn't as great.

As the sauce needs to be refrigerated you do not need to sterilise the jars that you transfer the sauce to, but make sure that the sauce has cooled down and is warm rather than hot before decanting it as if a very hot sauce is poured into a non-pyrex glass container it could cause the glass to crack.

The combination of salty and sweet flavours, plus fat, found in salted caramel releases an unusually intense rush of morphine-like endogenous opioids – or endorphins – in the brain. It does so, moreover, in a way that never gets boring, say scientists at the University of Florida.

Why does salted caramel not freeze? ›

“The salt prevents it from freezing completely, so melts faster and doesn't keep its shape as well," she says, “If people are getting two different scoops, I always suggest salted caramel as the top, so they don't have to worry about it melting.” Hold.

Add acid. Acid ingredients (like vinegar or lemon juice) can help prevent re-crystallization which causes caramel to become grainy. Acid physically breaks the bonds between the glucose and fructose molecules that form sucrose and ensure that it stays apart.

Swirl, don't stir: While slow, deliberate stirring will help the sugar dissolve evenly, you want to stop stirring once it has fully melted.

Just a half teaspoon of lemon per cup of sugar will prevent crystals from forming and ensure that your caramel remains smooth and velvety. You can add the lemon juice to the dry sugar when you put it in your melting pot.

Reheat low and slow: If your caramel sauce has seized up with the butter/cream additions or still has crystalized sugar at the end of making it, place it on the saucepan on low heat for a good 15-20 minutes. This usually clears up most of my issues and results in a melted, smooth sauce.

If the sauce cools down and you still find it to be too thin, then it's undercooked. You can place it back on the heat for a bit to let it thicken up even more. If it's too thick, gradually add a bit more cream until it reaches the desired consistency.

If caramels are too soft, that means the temperature didn't get high enough. Again place the caramel back into a sauce pan with a couple of tablespoons of water and heat to 244°F. If you don't have a candy thermometer, you can test with a cold water test. Details on how to use this method can be found here.