Salted Butter Caramel Recipe

I've always wanted to make caramel: I see myself heating sugar until they bubble and turn brown, setting batches in trays and running a hot knife through the bars to make perfect little squares of freshly-made caramel. 

Ingredients for a basic caramel recipe are pretty standard: sugar, maybe some cream and butter, and you're set to go. The only caveat is, well, caramel-making requires a candy thermometer. Seeing I don't exactly invest in baking equipment, this was my one sticking point. 

Pun intended. 

It was a happy day when I learnt that one of my friend has a candy thermometer, and she's more than happy to get down to make caramel. It also definitely helped that she's had some experience working with caramel before. Nothing gets me down more than a failed baking experiment, and I'm always glad for someone to show me how things are done. This was a new recipe for both of us from the ever-trusty David Lebovitz, but basics are basics and I was raring to go once I gathered the ingredients. 

As this recipe requires corn syrup, I went hunting for it, which took me a while to locate. Because of all the Western media hype about how "corn syrup will kill you" (this decade's food boogey-man), I thought it was a Western ingredient, and searched many Coles' supermarkets, but to no avail. Finally, I lucked out at an local Asian grocers, where the salesperson led me to one at the Korean section. I asked for a non-Korean brand - because Korean=premium prices, right? - but he looked at me with a slight puzzled appearance, shrugged his shoulders and told me only Koreans use corn syrup. 

It was a blessing in disguise that there wasn't a cheaper version available, as I might have ended up with that one. I read Lebovitz's blog again, and he suggested only using the most-premium, over-the-top ingredients for this recipe. I dutifully trotted out my secret stash of salted butter and Maldon flaked sea-salt. I didn't know how much faith to put into Devondale's claim of being Australia's 2015 Grand Dairy Champions for salted butter, but I love their milk (which tasted like it's been mixed with cream), so I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.  

Contrary to what I read, making caramel is pretty simple. Maybe it's the experienced hands of my friend, but we had no splutters or accidents. Just be sure to keep safety precautions on. (Like not making caramel when you're butt-naked. You know who you are.) Wear a long-sleeve shirt, and even oven mitts if you're concerned. David L has some more tips, which can be found here and here. 

Sure, it is a rather time-consuming process. But most of it is down-time, waiting for the caramel to get to the right temperature, then to cool to room temperature. We stood around and chat and wait, like the world's two laziest bakers. 

And then, like my friend said, the most difficult part of the task begins: portioning the caramel into nice even squares. 

It's a pretty great way to spend a Saturday morning. The best way to enjoy these slightly-soft, malleable, sticky caramels is to keep them away from your teeth. Keep them on your tongue. It may take a while to get it down right, but practice has never been so fun. 

Salted Butter Caramel

Original recipe from David Lebovitz here. 
This recipe doesn't make as much caramel as you think it would. A pan size of about 27x18cm would be a good size. 

INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup (180 ml/200g) heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, paste, or powder
rounded 1/2 teaspoon + 1/4 teaspoon flaky sea salt, preferably fleur de sel
1/2 cup (160 g) light corn syrup, golden syrup (such as Lyle's) or rice syrup*
1 cup (200 g) sugar
2+2 tablespoons (30g+30g) salted butter, cubed, at room temperature

STEPS
1. Line a 9-inch (23 cm) loaf pan with foil and spray the inside with cooking spray, or rub it down with butter.

This is an easy way to do it: wrap the aluminium foil outside the pan size to get the rough shape, then flip the pan over and fit the aluminium into the pan. 

2. Heat cream with 2 tablespoons of the butter in a small saucepan with the vanilla and 1/2 teaspoon sea salt until the mixture begins to boil. Remove from heat, cover, and keep warm while you cook the syrup.

3. In a medium, heavy duty saucepan (4 quarts, 4l), fitted with a candy thermometer, heat the corn/golden/rice syrup with the sugar, and cook, stirring gently, to make sure the sugar melts smoothly. Once the mixture is melted together and the sugar is evenly moistened, only stir is as necessary to keep it from getting any hot spots.

4. Cook until the syrup reaches 310ºF (155ºC). To get an accurate reading while the syrup is cooking, tilt the saucepan to make sure the bulb of the thermometer is fully submerged in the syrup, tilting the pan if necessary.

4. Turn off the heat and stir in the warm cream mixture, until smooth.

5. Turn the heat back on and cook the mixture to 260F (127C).

6. Remove the pan from the heat, lift out the thermometer, and stir in the remaining 2 tablespoon of butter, until it’s melted and the mixture smooth.

7. Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf pan and wait ten minutes, then sprinkle 1/4 teaspoon of the sea salt over the top. Set on a cool rack and let cool completely. (It took about 20 minutes for me.) 

8. Once cool, lift out the foil with the caramel, peel away the foil, and slice the bar of caramel with a long, sharp knife into squares or rectangles. (I stuck my knife in boiling water to heat it up, then wipe it off before cutting the caramel once or twice before it cools. The most efficient way is to get two knives/pax. Keep one in hot water, and swop after every couple of cuts.) 

Storage: Store in an air-tight container, and they’ll keep for about one month. These caramels can be individually-wrapped in cellophane or waxed paper. Once cut, they may stick together if not wrapped. As EJ and a few others found out the hard way, they stick well to tissue paper too. 

A word on equipment: 
A copper pot is ideal for caramelising, as would a heavy-bottomed saucepan. I didn't have any, and we used my $5 non-stick giant pot from Kmart. Just be sure the pot is large enough to prevent spillage, and that the walls of the pot are high enough to stop any splutters.

A silicone spatula is not heat-proof. Mine held up well during the caramelisation process, given that stirring is kept to a minimum. During cleaning, however, I poured boiling water into the caramel-coated pot, stuck the spatula into it and set the pot on a stove to boil merrily away. I returned to find a deformed spatula. Darn! Next time, I'd have used a wooden spatula, or clean a silicone one the hardworking way. Maybe just soak it in a jug of boiling water instead of letting it boil over a fire? Anyway, lesson learnt. 

Bright side: I just bought my new spatula from Wheels and Barrow after a bit (okay, a LOT...) of comparative shopping. It looks and feels amazing, and its design is similar to Le Creuset's acclaimed Silicone Spatula Spoon. (I haven't been baking with it yet, because I'm still too much in love with it.)