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

FAQs

What is the difference between salted caramel and caramel sauce? ›

Salted caramel is often used as a topping for desserts or as a filling for candies and chocolates. In summary, the main difference between caramel and salted caramel is the presence of salt in the latter. Caramel is sweet and has a rich, buttery flavor, while salted caramel has a slightly savory edge to its sweetness.

Simmer the sauce on your stove.

If you've just finished making a caramel sauce and think that the sauce is too thin, let the caramel sauce simmer and cook down on your stovetop. Try cooking for about 10 minutes for a thick sauce. As the liquid in the caramel sauce evaporates, you'll be left with a thicker sauce.

Like dry caramel, you want to gently move the sugar mixture in that same side-to-side paintbrush-like fashion until the sugar dissolves. Then, as soon as the mixture comes to a boil, it should not be stirred, as the agitation can cause crystallization.

The Science Behind The Flavour

Salt, on the other hand, stimulates the taste buds responsible for detecting sour and umami flavors, which can enhance the perception of sweetness. The addition of salt to caramel not only enhances the sweetness, but also adds a savory element to the flavor profile.

Caramel can be produced in so many forms such as, sauce, a chewy candy, or a hard candy because of how much of an ingredient is added and the temperature it is being prepared at.

Caramel and dulce de leche might look and taste somewhat similar, but they are actually pretty different. While caramel is made from slowly simmering water and sugar until it caramelizes, dulce de leche is made from simmering milk and sugar super slowly until it turns into a creamy, caramelized substance.

The butter, sugar and syrup are melted together and should form a smooth sauce. When the sauce cools it should remain amalgamated. If the butterfat separates out then usually this is due to the mixture being either heated or cooled too quickly, which "shocks" the mixture and causes the fat to separate out.

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.

Sugar Note: Most chefs say that only granulated sugar can be successfully caramelized; other sugars — such as brown sugar and unrefined sugar such as cane sugar — contain impurities that can inhibit caramelization. It's those impurities that can burn before the sugar has time to caramelize.

The temperature of the caramel can rise so rapidly that it is hard to keep it in the desired temperature range, shown above. As a result, the caramel could burn and taste bitter.

What flavor goes best with salted caramel? ›

Stir in sugar

Just look at the delightful marriage of flavors in salted caramel sauce or sea salt brownies. It's this flavor synergy that makes adding sugar to an over-salted sauce a common and effective remedy.

Caramel is a candy created when sugar is heated to 340 degrees Fahrenheit (170 degrees Celsius). As sugar is heated slowly to this temperature, the molecules break down and form new compounds that have a deep, rich flavor and dark golden brown color.

When creating caramel, there are typically two different versions: wet caramel and dry caramel. Wet caramel refers to caramel that has been made by adding water to the sugar during the heating process.

For those who are uncertain, Caramel Sauce is not the same as Caramel syrup. The syrup is sweeter and thin, the sauce is richer and thick. (The sauce is the one we use to make our signature Caramel Macchiatos.)

Caramel sauce results either from cooking sugar until it browns or by thinning melted caramel candies. When a recipe calls for melting caramel candies, you can use a homemade caramel sauce to replace the melted caramels.

Similar to caramel, butterscotch is made by heating sugar. The main difference between the two is that butterscotch uses brown sugar instead of white. The ingredients are also combined in a slightly different order for butterscotch: your start out by melting butter with brown sugar.