Homemade caramel sugar. Caramel at home
Making caramel at home is not that difficult. However, it can be used in many cases. It is suitable for decorating culinary products, as a filling for cakes, pies, sweets, and beautiful caramel figures. Some gourmets even put caramel in meat dishes!
How to make caramel at home: preliminary preparation
Before you decide to make caramel, first make sure you know enough about what it takes to make it.
1. Arm yourself with the right utensils
It is best to make caramel in a cast iron frying pan with thick walls and bottom or in an aluminum pan (also with a thick bottom). A standard non-stick frying pan may work for you if nothing else is available.
2. The right sugar
How to make caramel truly tasty and of high quality? You need to use good sugar. Good caramel requires real cane sugar.
Due to the cane molasses included in cane sugar, it contains many useful substances - calcium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus.
3. Safety precautions
If you are making caramel in a frying pan, be sure to protect the exposed parts of your body with clothing. Wear an apron and gloves. Make sure the heat isn't too high so that the melted sugar doesn't accidentally get on you.
Caramel is burnt and melted sugar. There is a lot of debate about the “right” color of caramel. Some say it should be as bright as amber. And some argue that the color should be dark, chocolate brown.
The caramel is melted almost until it burns. However, the taste of proper caramel is sweet.
There are two types of caramel: liquid and dry.
Liquid is made from water and cane sugar. Used as dressings and sauces.
Dry caramel is drier and harder in consistency. It is prepared only with sugar. It is included in pralines, lollipops, and pies.
Very soon you will learn how to make caramel. It's not that difficult, although you will need some practice. The main thing is to follow safety precautions. Melted sugar can cause serious skin burns!
1. For caramel, you need the right pan - for example, aluminum with a thick bottom, colorless, so that the difference between the bottom of the pan and the changing color of the caramel is clearly visible.
2. This quantity is enough to make crème caramel for six people or six creme brulee. Heat the pan over medium heat for a few seconds, then add 175g white sugar without removing from the heat. Brown sugar is usually recommended, but in this case it is better to use white as it is easier to see the color change. Leave the sugar for a while, keeping an eye on it until it begins to melt.
3. After 5 minutes, the sugar should begin to melt and become liquid around the edges. Then you need to shake the pan and leave again until about a quarter of the sugar has melted.
4. Then, using a wooden spoon, stir lightly and continue to simmer until all the sugar becomes a liquid the color of dark runny honey - dark amber. Everything should take about 10 minutes from start to finish, and it's important to be patient and not rush the process - this is the easiest thing to do wrong when making caramel. You need to keep it on medium heat all this time.
5. Then, remove the pan from the heat and add 2 tablespoons of warm tap water - the caramel will sizzle and splashes will appear, so you need to protect your hands with a towel. Stir well - you may need to return the pan to the heat and heat gently again to melt any lumps. Caramel is ready to eat.
Here is the simplest recipe on how to make caramel. For it we only needed sugar and water.
But for the next recipe we will need a few more components.
I suggest you get acquainted with how to make milk caramel.
You will need milk, butter, cane sugar.
Half a liter of milk, 100 g of butter and 3-4 cups of sugar is enough.
After an hour of cooking caramel according to this recipe, you will get a cream or sauce. After an hour and a half of cooking, you will get wonderful boiled condensed milk. After two hours - real milk caramel. And after 2.5 hours, sugar, butter and milk will turn into toffee.
How to make milk caramel?
First bring the milk to 80 degrees. Then carefully pour sugar into it in small portions and cook, stirring, until the sugar turns brown. Then add softened butter. After mixing all the ingredients, the caramel will need to be cooked for from an hour to 2.5 hours - it all depends on your taste and the desired end result.
Where is caramel used?
You can use caramel almost anywhere in the kitchen! It can be used as a sauce for desserts, you can eat fruits and morning porridge with it. Yes, even meat (it is included in some special dishes). You can also caramelize the entire dish. For example, caramelized bananas are a very delicious product. Apples are also good.
Caramel is a well-known delicacy. Caramel is used to make toffees, lollipops, and decorations for confectionery products. A How to make caramel yourself at home?
A simple recipe for making caramel from sugar
Compound:
- Water - 125 ml
- Sugar - 500 g
Preparation:
Place all ingredients in a saucepan. Place it on medium heat and wait until the sugar is partially dissolved. We begin stirring the liquid with a wooden spoon until the caramel darkens to the desired color. But keep in mind, the darker the color of the caramel, the more bitterness it will taste. After all, it is burnt sugar that gives the rich brown color. Besides, The darker the color of the caramel, the less sweet it is. and may burn to the pan. Therefore, if you do not want to get bitter caramel, make it as light as possible.
Creamy caramel recipe
Creamy caramel is a delicacy no less familiar to us all. Creamy caramel is used to make candies such as “Korovka”, “Golden Key” toffee and “Kis-kis”.
Compound:
- Sugar - 200 g
- Milk - 50 ml
- Butter - 100 g
- Honey - 2 tbsp. l.
- Vanilla sugar - 2 packs
Preparation:
Very carefully, heat the sugar over low heat until melted, then add the milk. Cook the mixture for ten minutes, stirring all the time with a wooden spoon. After the specified time has passed, add butter, honey and vanilla sugar to the pan. Continue cooking the caramel until it thickens. Place the finished mass on a sheet of parchment paper, wait until it hardens a little, and cut into small pieces - candies.
How to make caramel “Cockerel on a stick”?
“Cockerel” is a caramel on a stick that we have known since childhood, the grandfather of the currently famous Chupa Chups. Is it possible to cook "Cockerel" on a stick at home? Certainly!
Compound:
- Water - 100 g
- Sugar - 300 g
- Food coloring (if you want to get a colored “Cockerel”)
Preparation:
Place all ingredients in a saucepan and cook over low heat until the sugar is completely dissolved. Once the sugar has dissolved, continue to simmer for about ten minutes. But, under no circumstances, do not bring the caramel to a golden, much less brown color. It should remain transparent.
After the caramel is ready, we remove it from the heat and pour it into a special form. You can use cut-off cocktail straws as sticks. Grease the mold into which the caramel is poured with vegetable oil. We keep the caramel poured into the mold in the cold until it hardens completely.
Salted caramel or salted caramel sauce is an indispensable attribute of chic desserts. A successful combination of sweet and salty allows you to take a different look at pastries, cakes and even ice cream. Caramel is prepared very quickly, products for it are easy to find in any store. The thicker the cream and butter used, the tastier the caramel turns out.
France is the birthplace of truly exquisite desserts. One of them is amazingly delicious salted caramel. The cooking recipe seems unusual, because not every housewife would dare to mix sugar and salt in one dish. However, there is no need to be afraid. French chefs have found that salt softens the sugary quality of caramel, but also enhances its great taste.
To some, the combination of sweet and salty in one dish seems wild, while others will readily say “Delicious!” The latter will just like it salted caramel, in which the traditional sweet taste is elegantly combined with salty notes, giving an unforgettable pleasure. Salted caramel is easy to make at home, and we bring to your attention 3 incomparable recipes below.
Salted caramel is one of the most delicious sauces that can be used for making cakes and desserts, a wonderful delicacy loved by many, vaguely reminiscent of boiled condensed milk. Salted caramel sauce is served with pancakes, pancakes, cheesecakes, and is also quite successfully used to decorate cakes, various desserts, and added to pastry creams and other fillings. It's great for ice cream, pancakes and tarts, and salted caramel can also be used to coat fruit - apples or bananas. Preparing the sauce is very simple; the entire cooking process takes about 15 minutes.
Homemade salted caramel can be stored in a jar in the refrigerator for 1 week. Take it out in the morning and use it for breakfast.
Classic salted caramel
- sugar - 300 g
- water - 75 ml
- cream 33% – 300 ml
- butter - 50 g
- salt - 1 tsp.
Preparation
Pour the sugar into a saucepan with a thick bottom and walls. Add water. Boil the syrup until it turns light brown (amber). Remove from heat for a while.
While the syrup is cooking, heat the cream in a separate saucepan. The cream should almost boil.
Return the sugar syrup to the heat, add salt and butter. Stir. Add hot cream into the resulting homogeneous mass in 3-4 additions, stirring the mass intensively each time.
Cook the resulting caramel, stirring, until its temperature reaches 108 °C. At this stage, the caramel can be removed from the heat and immediately poured into glass jars/vases. Cover the caramel with cling film so that it touches the surface of the treat and leave to cool. Then put it in the refrigerator. After a few hours, the caramel will thicken and be ready for use.
To prepare you will need:
- sugar - 300 g
- creme fraiche – 335 g
- butter - 65 g
- salt - 1 tsp.
Preparation
In this recipe, the maestro uses crème fraîche, a French analogue of sour cream. Therefore, you can safely replace this ingredient with not too sour sour cream 30% fat.
Divide all the sugar into 6 equal portions - 50 g each. Take a saucepan with a thick bottom, pour 1 portion of sugar into it and melt it. Please note that sugar should not be stirred!
When the sugar has melted and acquired a pleasant amber color, add another portion of sugar. Melt again. Repeat for remaining portions. To make the sugar melt faster, help yourself by tilting the pan in different directions.
When almost all the sugar has melted, heat up the crème fraîche (sour cream). Remove the melted sugar, which has caramelized to a deep amber color, from the heat and add the butter and salt, followed by the creme fraiche. Add creme fraiche in portions.
Return the mixture to the heat and cook until its temperature reaches 108 °C. Without a culinary thermometer, it will not be possible to accurately determine the desired temperature, but you can use the cooking time as a guide: from the amount of ingredients specified in the recipe, the caramel should be cooked for 6 minutes (if the saucepan has a thin bottom, then less - 4-5 minutes).
Salted caramel without cream
To prepare you will need:
- sugar - 100 g
- water - 1 tbsp. l.
- sea salt - a pinch
Preparation
A simplified salted caramel recipe that does not use cream or butter. The recipe can be used in a vegetarian diet or during religious fasting.
Melt sugar in a frying pan over medium heat. When the sugar has melted, remove the pan from the heat and add salt to the sugar, followed by water. Stir vigorously.
The finished caramel will have a liquid consistency; it is convenient to pour it over some pie.
Bon appetit!
Incredibly delicious caramel sauce recipe. Salted caramel is a great addition to almost all desserts.
Salted caramel can be added to cream, cakes, or simply scooped with a large spoon while no one is looking :)
Classic French recipe for creamy caramel sauce
Salted caramel came to us from Europe. A simple recipe is presented below. The French claim that the secret to preparing the dish is in exquisite ingredients:
- brown sugar - 300 grams;
- sea salt - two thirds of a teaspoon;
- cream 33 percent fat - 190 milliliters;
- water - 25 milliliters.
French recipe. Cooking method
First, add sugar to a thick-bottomed bowl and mix it with water. After this, the solution must be put on high heat and, stirring, bring to a boil. Then you should stand for a couple of minutes and pour cream into the resulting mass. Then you need to add salt and cook the dessert until the sugar crystals are completely dissolved. Next, the sweet mass should be allowed to cool in a convenient container with a lid. This is how salted caramel is prepared in the French version. The recipe requires some skill, because caramel is a capricious substance and can curl at any moment.
- Cream for preparing dessert should be 33 percent fat. Milk, full-fat sour cream or cream of a different consistency are not suitable.
- Dessert doesn't always turn out right the first time. It happens that the syrup thickens in a matter of seconds and turns into a lump of sugar. Don't be discouraged and try again.
- It is quite easy to clean the ladle from frozen syrup. It needs to be filled with water and left for a while until the syrup dissolves.
- Salt is added to reduce the sweetness of the caramel. It can be anything - small or large - but it will still completely dissolve.
- Don't be afraid to experiment. Our recipe uses cream in a 1:1 ratio with sugar. This produces salted caramel of medium viscousness. You can use this option for a cake. However, depending on your goals, you can make the dessert thinner or thicker by adding a little more or less cream.
Conclusion
The above dessert tastes great. It is tender and viscous, like toffee, but with a slight salty aftertaste. Homemade caramel is especially good - after the first spoon you want to eat everything else. Since the mass is thick, it is ideally combined with many products. Its consistency is similar to boiled condensed milk, which makes it an excellent topping for pancakes, muffins and pancakes. The dessert is also delicious as a topping. Each recipe described above can be modified at your own discretion. Experiment and you will come up with amazing dishes. Arrange an exquisite tea party for your friends and acquaintances. Bon appetit!
People learned to make sticky and sweet caramel mass a long time ago; caramel is the most popular and accessible type of candy today.
Liquid caramel
Lollipops, monpensiers, hard candies with filling - all these are varieties of caramel familiar from childhood. People learned to cook a sweet, sticky mass a long time ago; caramel is the most popular and accessible type of candy today.
Who invented caramel?
It will not be possible to find a single author of this sweet throughout the centuries, since Indian Dalits were the first to think of roasting sugar cane over a fire more than two thousand years ago. Having chopped the cane into porridge, they used fire to turn it into the first caramel. Since that time, the production of delicious sweets has undergone a lot of changes, releasing thousands of types of caramel onto the food market in all countries of the world.
What is caramel
Translated from French, the word caramel means made from sugar cane. Caramel is a hard or plastic mass consisting of maltose, sucrose and glucose, obtained by heating sugar with starch syrup or inert syrup. Typically, a 2:1 ratio of sugar and molasses is used in the production of caramel. Caramel cooked with inert syrup is more hygroscopic and contains more fructose. Freshly made caramel is elastic and can be given any shape.
How to make caramel at home
The simplest caramel can be made from water and sugar. This will require ¾ cup granulated sugar and three tablespoons of water. Pour water into a small saucepan, add sugar and bring the syrup to a boil while constantly stirring. As soon as it starts to darken, the caramel is ready. You can’t leave it in the pan: after it cools, it sticks tightly to the walls of the pan. Secrets of making caramel.
Hot liquid caramel is used to decorate cakes, fruits, sweet salads, desserts, ice cream, and is used to make a beautiful lattice. To do this, grease a flat dish or a round glass cup turned upside down, a salad bowl (depending on the desired shape of the lattice), and pour the caramel in a thin stream in the form of threads with a tablespoon, giving it the most unusual shape - lattice, dome, splashes, and so on. As soon as the mixture has cooled, carefully remove it from the dish and decorate the dessert.
How to avoid crystallization
Heat the sugar over low heat, without stirring, until it is completely dissolved. Bring the syrup to a boil only when the sugar has already dissolved, and do not stir after boiling.
You can squeeze a little lemon juice. Or - as stated above - you can apparently add a little vinegar for this, preferably homemade apple cider vinegar, of course.
Dip a pastry brush into hot water and brush the crystals off the sides of the pan until they dissolve into the syrup.
Many products are wrapped in caramel: apples, nuts, citrus fruits, creating a completely new dish. The inventive thought of the German pharmacist Karl Soldan in 1899 helped produce candy caramel with bitter medicinal herbs. His little daughter Lucy became ill and refused to take the tasteless medicine. Then the doctor resorted to a trick, making sweet caramel from the same herbs. This is how the Dr.C.Soldan’s trademark appeared, known throughout the world for its medicinal syrups and caramel with eucalyptus and menthol. Currently, in Germany, the pharmaceutical factory in Adelsdorf produces up to one hundred tons of medicinal caramel.
Candy Recipes
Caramel “Cockerel on a stick” is familiar to most buyers since childhood. The good thing about candy molded caramel is that it doesn’t need any introduction. “Cockerel on a stick” is a brand that has been in demand by Russian children for centuries.
On a note
Traditional recipe for making “Cockerel on a stick”:
– Melt granulated sugar in a saucepan over low heat, add vanilla sugar and cognac. Keep on fire for no more than 1 minute, stirring thoroughly all the time. Remove from heat and add a few drops of lemon juice and mint oil.
– Pour the syrup into small molds and cool.
Recipe 1
100g water + 300g sugar. Bring over low heat until dissolved. Cook for about 10 minutes. But here it is determined experimentally (depending on water and sugar). Under no circumstances should it turn brown. It appears if you overcook and the sugar begins to burn. If you don’t cook it enough, the candy will not harden and will be like toffee. Instead of wooden sticks, you can cut cocktail straws. Grease the mold with vegetable oil before pouring, and be sure to keep it in the cold after pouring. The most difficult thing is to make a purely transparent cockerel without dye.
Burnt sugar candies
Almost all generations, without exception, who grew up in the former Soviet Union have childhood memories of red cockerels on a sugar stick and homemade burnt sugar lollipops, but here is another recipe for such a nostalgic delicacy.
Required Products:
- 250 g granulated sugar,
- 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar or powder,
- 1/3 cup cognac or brandy,
- a couple of drops of lemon juice and mint oil.
Cooking method:
Melt granulated sugar in a saucepan over low heat, add vanilla sugar and cognac. Keep on fire for no more than 1 minute, stirring thoroughly all the time. Remove from heat and add a few drops of lemon juice and mint oil.
Pour the syrup into small molds and cool. Lollipops are not only tasty, but also useful for dry coughs.
Place the stick in the mold so that it sticks when the caramel hardens.
Recipe 2: Homemade “Hearts” lollipops
Ingredients – Homemade “Hearts” lollipops:
2 cups sugar
2/3 cup light corn syrup
3/4 cup water
1 tsp flavoring
1/4 tsp. liquid food coloring
candy thermometer
In a large saucepan, stir together sugar, corn syrup and water. Stir over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Let the mixture simmer without stirring. This syrup is very hot. Don’t let children get close to the fire, let them watch from afar!
When the syrup temperature reaches 260°F (about 127°C), add coloring. Do not stir: the boiling process will color the syrup itself.
Remove from heat when temperature reaches 300°F (about 148°C). Watch carefully, from 260°F to 300°F (about 127°C to 148°C) the temperature rises very quickly. When the boiling stops, stirring gently, add flavorings. Then carefully pour the warm syrup into a ceramic jug or glass container. This makes it easy to fill the molds. This will also allow you to gently microwave the mixture if it cools too quickly. Immediately pour the syrup into the mold.
You need to wait until the lollipops have cooled completely and remove them from the mold. Stick a beautiful pencil into the plastic holder.
Surely you have an idea of how to make caramel at home: what could be simpler - take sugar and heat it in a saucepan! However, there are small but very significant tricks in making homemade caramel. They will help avoid “sticking” of the substance to the dishes, burning and crystallization of sugar. So…
To complete this you will need:
- Sugar 1 cup
- Water 1/3 cup
- Vinegar or lemon juice 1/2 teaspoon
- Pot
- Plate
- Molds (if you don’t have them, regular tablespoons will do)
Method for making caramel:
- Fill a deep plate with cold water and place the molds next to it - everything should be at hand.
- Place the pan over medium heat, add sugar and heat it until liquid. Do not stir the substance until most of the sugar has dissolved.
- When the sugar has completely melted, switch the switch to the lowest heat and lower a spoon or mold into the solution. As soon as it is full, place it in a plate of water for 10 seconds, then place it on a damp towel and move on to the next form.
- Fill the pan with water to scrape up any remaining caramel and remove the finished treats from the molds. Making your own caramel from sugar turned out to be easy, didn’t it?
And now - little tricks that will help make your sweet treat even more attractive and tasty.
Trick 1.
To prevent the sugar from rolling into pieces, add a drop of vinegar or lemon juice to the pan during heating, then the caramel will turn out homogeneous.
Trick 2.
To get transparent and voluminous caramel, pour 4-5 tablespoons of hot water into dissolved sugar. During the simmering process, a ball will swell from this water, after which you need to catch it and just wait until it cools down.
Trick 3.
To give the caramel a piquant taste, after removing from heat, add cognac or any citrus juice into it; if you add herbs, you will get homemade cough drops.
Are you wondering how to make caramel from sugar to make lollipops? This is also quite simple - you will need wooden sticks, for example, from ice cream, or, as a last resort, toothpicks (for mini caramels). When the pan is on low heat, simply wrap the thick mixture around these sticks and wait for the excess to drip off.
So we learned how to make caramel from sugar, spending a minimum of time and available materials. Now you can please both your little guests and your friends with a delicious dessert - who said adults don’t like lollipops? In the future, after good practice, you will be able to cook cockerels and other complex figures at home.
Master class on making shaped lollipops
Figured sugar caramel lollipops can be a wonderful gift for both adults and kids. You can make caramel figures, package them individually and decorate them with ribbons.
Ingredients for 9 lollipops:
- 1 tbsp. Sahara
- 2 tbsp. vinegar
- 2 tbsp. water
- Red food coloring
- Vanillin
- Barbecue sticks.
- Vegetable oil
Method for preparing figured caramel on sticks:
1 Combine sugar, vinegar and water in a saucepan. Mix everything well and put on low heat. While the mixture is on the fire, it must be stirred continuously so that the sugar does not burn to the pan.
