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. 
Just beautiful! Buttercream sings to my soul. Or possibly my thighs, but either way, yum!
I love a good vanilla frosting. What I find odd though, there is only 2.5 cups powdered sugar along with 2.5 sticks of butter. Wow, that is not much powdered sugar. I would be adding like 5 or 6 cups sugar with enough milk or cream to moisten. But hey, you said this was a terrific icing and it looks damn good so I shall try it. Thanks for the white cake recipe too! Good combo: white cake/white icing.
Frosting is the best part of cupcakes and cake so I definitely think it deserves its own post 🙂
This frosting looks yummy. I don’t know how I miss this.
I agree Heidi, it does seem like a small amount of sugar to butter. But it’s quite tasty. Let me know if you try it.
Thanks for all of the go-to recipes! I can’t tell you how many variations of these things I must have bookmarked because I don’t know which is best, but now I can delete all of those! These allow those of us who aren’t really good at testing things to know that we have a good homemade basic. So much less stress!