Staple in a Dessert Diet – Salted Caramel Sauce

Salted Caramel Sauce

It’s simple and easy to make your own salted caramel sauce!

Ingredients:

2 cups granulated sugar
12 tablespoons (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter (at room temperature and cut into tablespoon or smaller pieces)
1 cup heavy cream (at room temperature)
1 tablespoon of sea salt

You can halve the recipe for a smaller yield.

You will need a heavy saucepan and a candy thermometer.

Directions:

Evenly spread out the sugar in the heavy saucepan at medium-high heat with candy thermometer measuring the temperature.
Use a wooden spatula or heat resistant spatula to stir as the sugar begins to melt (you can also use a wooden spoon or whisk, but a spatula allows you to easily scrap the bottom of the saucepan).
The sugar will begin to form clumps, but it will eventually melt down to a thick liquid and brown in color as the temperature continues to rise.
The sugar will start to turn into an amber color and once the sugar reaches 300-325 degrees, quickly take it off the stove (caramel can burn easily, so it is important to watch the temperature, it increases exponentially).
Stir in the butter until completely melted.
Stir in the heavy cream (if the heavy cream is still too cold, the sugar will start to clump – this will be fine soon).
Place the saucepan back on the stove at slow heat and stir in salt.
Continue to stir until the mixture is smooth
At this point, you have salted caramel sauce!
Depending on how thick you want the sauce to be, you can continue to cook the sauce down on low heat – the sauce will bubble, but not overflow as long as the heat is on low.
Continue to stir while the sauce is on low heat.
Usually I keep the sauce on the stove for another 5-10 minutes for a thicker sauce (since I cook down the sauce, this recipe usually yields about 600 ML or approximately 3/4 Quart).
Let the caramel sauce cool completely and place into a container to store.
Keep refrigerated.