Countdown to Christmas #7: Caramel

Can you believe that it’s only a week until Christmas?! Wow.

There are SO many different kinds of caramel, and it’s often rather confusing what kinds can be used in what way. This is caramel that you can use in something, like in turtles or covered apples, not caramel to be eaten by itself.

When you make caramel, always have cold water handy. Caramel can really burn if it splatters you; ask me how I know.

You start out with a stick of butter. Melt it in a saucepan over LOW HEAT.

Pack a cup of brown sugar, light or dark. And I mean really pack it in there.

Once the butter is melted, carefully sprinkle the brown sugar over it. If there are any lumps, crumble them now.

Still over low heat, completely dissolve the sugar in the butter, stirring occasionally.

Grab some light corn syrup,

And get 1/2 cup.

Pour in the corn syrup and stir.

Now: here is what I think is the ultimate caramel ingredient: sweetened condensed milk.

You should only pour in half the can; I poured almost the whole thing in. This made the caramel a whole lot lighter than normal caramel, and also the finished product was softer than it should have been. I did this because I really prefer the taste, but for a regular caramel taste, as I said, use only half the can.

Stir in the milk…

And then turn the heat up to medium low. Stir the caramel constantly until it bubbles around the edges, then turn it down again to low heat. And now you must stir and cook for a LONG time, between 20 and 30 minutes, until the caramel passes the cold water test. (I don’t do the thermometer thing). I could tell you about the cold water test, but if you Google ‘caramel cold water test’ you will get far results.

Now you are ready to do anything with your caramel! I made caramel apples with mine, but my second choice would have been homemade turtles. I was going to make some, but Someone In The House Ate The Nuts. (smile)

Sydney