Salted Caramel Sauce
Caramel sauce might be one of Hubby’s favorite things ever. He will always choose a caramel treat over a a chocolatey treat. I’ve just recently gotten more comfortable making my own caramel sauce. It actually is so much easier than I thought it was. Having a candy thermometer is a must for making caramel at home. But that’s really all you need. If you haven’t made your own caramel sauce, do it. Trust me, it’s worth the minimal effort required.
I ended up making a triple batch of this salted caramel during the holidays. I ordered some cute jars online and gave them away as gifts to some family members. Hubby also enjoyed a bunch of this caramel sauce heated up over vanilla ice cream.
One Year Ago: Crunchy Nut Encrusted Chicken Tenders
Two Years Ago: BBQ Chicken Pizza Sticks
Salted Caramel Sauce
Salted caramel sauce is easier to make than you could ever imagine. And it makes a great gift!
Yield: 2 cups
Ingredients:
1 cup water
2 cups sugar
1 cup heavy cream
2 Tbsp cold unsalted butter
1 tsp fleur de sel
Directions:
Add water to a 2-qt saucepan. Gently add the sugar to the center of the pot - it will mound, that's fine. Cover the pot and bring to a boil over high heat.
Once boiling, uncover the pot and insert a candy thermometer. Continue cooking until the mixture registers 300 F and is just starting to develop some color, about 15 minutes.
Reduce heat under the pot to medium and cook until the syrup is amber and registers 350 F on the thermometer, about another 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, pour the cream into a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. If it simmers before the syrup is ready, just take it off the heat and set aside.
Remove the caramel from the heat and add about 1/4 of the warm cream to the pot. It will bubble furiously so be careful. Once the bubbling subsides, add the remaining cream. When it stops bubbling, whisk gently to incorporate fully. Add the butter and the salt and whisk to combine.
Refrigerate up to 1 month.
Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, as seen on Erin's Food Files
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
honey and thyme sound like amazing additions! and i had to laugh at 50 granules of yeast 🙂 will definitely have to try this!
beantownbaker — May 23rd, 2013 @ 9:03 pm
Yea, it’s definitely comical. I feel bad for the people who didn’t read the comments to find out that you really shouldn’t try to count out 50 granules of yeast!
This sounds awesome 🙂 I’ll have to pass this recipe on to my husband!
beantownbaker — June 10th, 2013 @ 1:08 pm
It’s seriously so spicy and awesome. I can’t wait to try more flavor combinations.
Hi, I hope I’m not too late to receive a response. I read just about every post on Jeffrey’s blog and I’m a bit confused. Are the given quantities weight or volume (i.e. fluid ounces). I’m used to ml and grams… :-S
Thanks Susan
beantownbaker — September 14th, 2013 @ 1:32 pm
I can’t comment on what is in Jeffrey’s blog. The recipe in this post is referring to liquid ounces.
CAUTION!!! I made my first two bottles this past Monday and followed the instructions exactly. I even purchased the flip top bottles recommended on this site from Amazon. Tonight, after exactly 48 hours, I pulled them out of my kitchen cabinet and placed them in the fridge. Not 10 seconds after I shut the door, I heard a loud pop. Both bottles had exploded in the fridge! There was glass and ginger beer everywhere. My fridge walls are dented from the explosion. If those bottles had been in my hand when they exploded, I would be in the ER right now. I STRONGLY RECOMMEND THAT ANYONE MAKING THIS RECIPE USE PLASTIC BOTTLES. DO NOT TAKE A CHANCE WITH GLASS.
beantownbaker — May 12th, 2014 @ 4:52 pm
Oh wow. Sorry to hear that. I have only made this ginger beer twice and both times I used glass bottles with no issue.
Hey friends!
So how much raw ginger did you end up needing to extract 2 oz of juice?
Also in relation to the glass bottles, you could do this in a glass wine making carboy container with a valve on the top to allow the fermentation a little release. Then transfer to glass bottles and refrigerate to avoid explosion. Check at the wine shops, these materials aren’t too pricey, but can save some disasters!
Thanks!
beantownbaker — September 2nd, 2014 @ 7:01 pm
I really can’t remember how much ginger I needed. It was quite a bit though.
A couple tips for those of you wanting to make this in glass bottles. Use only flip top bottles ( I use a dark green bottle of Trader Joe’s ginger brew- good stuff by the way). Also, during the 48 hours, open the cap a few times which let’s a little bit of the carbonation out (even just every 12 or 16 hours should be enough)Then shake it gently a few times before storing on the fridge. This way, they is much less chance of any explosions.