Another recipe with Guest Baker Amy! Amy was out making cheesecakes. As the first one was in the oven, check it out here, we started the caramel sauce needed for the second cheesecake.
Being in an adventurous mood I thought we would try making homemade caramel sauce. I read many recipes and watched several videos, it looked really easy. Very few ingredients and very little work. All the recipes seemed to be quite similar, but I decided to go with one from ‘A Teaspoon and A Pinch‘.
When purchasing all of our ingredients, I did get a jar or caramel sauce ‘just in case’ things went terribly wrong. We were optimistic we wouldn’t need it though.
Vanilla Bean Caramel Sauce
1 c. sugar
1¼ c. heavy cream
¼ tsp. coarse salt or sea salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
1 Tbsp. unsalted butter, optional
1. Measure out the heavy cream in a liquid measuring cup and add vanilla bean paste. Microwave for one minute and set aside.
2. Spread the sugar in an even layer over the bottom of a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Place over medium-low heat, watching carefully.
We both watched the pot of sugar quite curiously as we did not believe it would melt down.
3. When the sugar begins to liquify around the edges, use a heatproof spatula or wooden spoon to gently stir it towards the center. Continue stirring very gently until all the sugar is melted, taking care not to over stir or allow sugar to clump up
I will admit we got very excited at the sight of liquid forming, we didn’t believe it would happen.
Mine did not liquify around the edge, it did so in the centre, then clumped. This didn’t happen in any of the videos I watched! I am thinking I am glad we bought the jar of sauce!
It stayed like this for quite some time before all the sugar melted
4. Once the caramel reaches a deep amber color, immediately remove the sauce pan from the heat. We were optimistic, it was looking and smelling wonderful!
5. Carefully and quickly, stir in half of the heavy cream.
6. The mixture will steam and bubble violently. Stir until the cream is well incorporated
*this is when things start to go down hill rather quickly!
In the original recipe the author posts pictures and comments about what to do if the caramel hardens…
Of course mine did!! A giant clump of candy in a discoloured milky soup, mmmmm delicious! Blah!
I followed the disaster directions which basically said to bring back to the heat and stir until the clump dissolved, which it did. We are optimistic once again!
7. Stir in the remaining cream. Stir in the salt and optional butter. If any sugar has hardened, place the saucepan over low heat and whisk until smooth. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. If needed, it can be rewarmed in the microwave or in a saucepan over low heat. Makes 1 1/2 cups.
This looks nothing like the original recipe (or any other that I looked at)
It is grainy and gloopy,not runny at all. IT was like lava, so we allow it to cool
When it had cooled enough to taste, I grabbed to spoons and we dug right in.
As I am tasting mine I glance over at Amy, she was wincing in pure disgust! It was quite funny. It was horrible! This time it is not just me being hard on myself wanting it to be perfect, it was awful! Amy agreed. Amy made a good point, she said usually you can eat a dessert maybe a comment about it being too dry, not sweet enough, but this is disgusting and inedible! (something to that effect anyway)
It went directly into the garbage! Ewww
Thank goodness I bought the backup jar of sauce 😉
