How to make caramel sauce that doesn't taste bitter?

Question

Tonight I made a simple caramel sauce by using:

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 6 tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup cream

I caramelized the sugar (without any water), stirring constantly. When it was fully melted and had no lumps in it, I put in my butter and stirred until it fully melted. Finally I took the mixture off the heat, slowly added cream, and whisked until the mixture was smooth.

At no point during the process did I smell burnt sugar, but when I tasted the caramel sauce, it tasted a lot more bitter than I was expecting.

Is there anything glaringly obviously wrong based on how I made my caramel sauce, or is there something else I can do to ensure my caramel sauce tastes less bitter?

Asked by Jay

Answer

I would say there are 2 problems here: the lack of water, and the constant stirring. Try adding 1/4 cup of water to the sugar - this should stop it catching and burning.

You should avoid stirring caramelising sugar because you run the risk of flicking bits of it onto the side of the pan. These isolated bits cook faster and thus burn, then drop into the rest of the sugar. Result: bitter caramel. Stirring also promotes crystallisation, which is not what you want for a smooth sauce.

If you have to stir it, do it slowly, carefully, and infrequently - only as much as necessary to distribute the water evenly through the sugar.

I would also use a sugar or probe thermometer to ensure you're not over-cooking the sugar - get it to 350ºF, then take it off heat. This will take 6-8 minutes, and it will be a dark amber colour. Let it stand for 1 minute before whisking in your cream (I normally gently heat the cream beforehand by the way, and add a teaspoon of sea salt to it, because salted caramel is effing gorgeous).

Answered by ElendilTheTall

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Why does boiling cream have such a drastic effect on my salted caramel?

Question

We have a recipe for a salted caramel spread that is basically a big pan of sugar, glucose, milk and butter, cooked until it becomes a thick paste, then mixed with double cream to achieve a smooth consistency and a glossy finish. Our only problem was that we kept having big variations between batches -- some ended up as thick, sticky spreads (like we intended), others were runny and sauce-like.

After some experiments we discovered that the final stage of the process -- pouring the double cream in -- was responsible. Pour the cream cold and the caramel would come out runny; heat the cream before pouring and the final result would be thick and rich.

Although we feel we're in control of the process now, I was wondering if anyone could explain to us why does heating or not heating the cream have such a big impact on the thickness of our spread.

Answer

You don't tell us neither the ratio of double cream to caramel, nor the time you heat the completed mix, so this is just a guess. But it sounds logical that your problem is evaporation.

Double cream consists mainly of fat and water. I don't remember the exact percentages, but more than half of it is water. So, if you heat cream, part of it evaporates during the heating, and it continues evaporating after being added to the pan with bubbling caramel. But if you use cold cream, its water hasn't evaporated during a heating phase, and if you add a large amount of cream to a hot caramel mixture, the whole mixture cools considerably. If you don't heat it and let it simmer for long enough afterwards, the water content of the cream continues thinning the spread. You end up with a runny sauce instead of a sticky spread.

Instead of pre-boiling, you should be able to just simmer for longer time after adding the cream, if you find it more convenient. But you'll have to try it a few times until you have found the cooking time which gives you optimal consistency.

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Why can't whole milk be substituted for cream in caramel sauce?

Question

I learned to make caramel sauce pretty recently and for a while was on a serious sauce-making kick.

Anyway, the day after Christmas I went to make a batch and noticed I didn't have any cream. I did a quick Google search and a few sites said I could substitute whole milk for the heavy cream in my recipe. When I got to that stage and added the milk it very quickly became apparent that those sites were wrong. Instead of thickening and becoming creamy the melted sugar simply dissolved away and I was left with a really nasty smelling pot of sweet warm milk.

So obviously I can't use whole milk instead of cream, but I'd really like to know, for curiosity's sake, why it doesn't work.

Thanks!

Answer

Quite simply, it's the fat content.

Whole milk or "full-fat" milk is 3.25% fat by weight. Heavy cream is 36-40% fat by weight. These two products are at opposite ends of the fat spectrum, and there's very little difference between 1% and 3% when it comes to an item such as caramel sauce, for which the optimal ratio is about 50% fat. (A little butter can boost the fat content from 40% to 50%).

You might be able to substitute standard/single cream (18-20%) or maybe even coffee cream/half-and-half (10%), but any lower than that and you're just making sugary milk.

You could of course get it thicker by using much less milk; I'd advise not attempting a direct substitution, just find a recipe based on milk. Even the best milk-based caramel sauce will still be substantially runnier and/or grittier than a cream-based sauce.

Alternatively, considering that butter is 80% fat and homo milk is 3.25%, you could use a mixture of (approximately) half milk and half butter that would emulate the fat content of heavy cream. I've never tried this personally, and I suspect that the flavour might be a little off, but at least it would be closer to the expected texture.

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How do I get caramels to turn out grainy?

Question

Yes, I know the opposite of the usual question. I've been making candy since I was a little kid. My caramels are always smooth and creamy. My partner's father thinks they taste good but that the texture is all wrong. He liked the gritty/grainy ones his mother used to make. Everything I have ever seen listed as a way to fix grainy caramels I have tried reversing.

I have tried many things, including:

• adding granulated sugar late in the process
• not using corn syrup or other invert sugar
• cooking them at high temps
• cooking them for too short a time
• stirring or not stirring at all the wrong times
• switching recipes
• varying the fat content

I guess I am wondering what makes caramels turn out grainy. It's not as far as I can tell, wholly related to the sugar dissolving/melting. If it was adding some granulated sugar as it cools should cause more crystals to form.

Is it related to the liquid content? Because sometimes after months in a cupboard even ordinarily smooth caramels will have developed some graininess.

Answer

As you mentioned it is all about how the crystals form.

Some of the factors off the top of my head:

• How saturated is the solution - The more sugar packed into the syrup the more easily it will crystallize.
• How quickly it cools - The slower the bigger the crystals
• Interference - Do you have a starch or other sugar molecules gumming up the works?

Obviously you already knew this from your question.

Not using other sugars will help. You might also try adding more sugar to the recipe at the beginning to fully saturate your solution. The fact that you add sugar at the end and it still dissolves in makes me think your solution could take a bit more. Letting the solution cool slowly with your seed sugar at the end should help.

You would think it would be easier to get it wrong. Perhaps you simply have too much experience doing it right.

Ask an amateur to try out your recipe and see if they fail properly.

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