“It was an instinct to put the world in order that powered her mending split infinitives and snipping off dangling participles, smoothing away the knots and bumps until the prose before her took on a sheen, like perfect caramel.” –David Leavitt
How to Make Carmel
Everybody has had carmel at some point in their lives. They may have had it on top of ice cream or in their coffee. They may have had the soft caramel candies from the store. This sweet treat has left many wondering how they can make it for themselves. Luckily for these people, making caramel is easy.
Carmel Ingredients
How to Make Carmel
The ingredients necessary to complete this project are simple–four tablespoons of water and eight tablespoons of caster sugar.
If this is your first time making caramel, stick with white caster sugar; it will be much easier to detect the caramelization through the changes in the sugar color. As experience is gained from making this recipe, try brown caster sugar as well. As can be expected, the brown caster sugar can be difficult for first time makers of caramel, since it would be difficult to decipher when caramelization was occurring, since the caster sugar is already brown to begin with.
Carmel Making Equipment
As for equipment, making caramel requires a large heavy duty aluminum pan, an oven mitt, a wooden spoon and a glass jar. The heavy duty aluminum pan is for cooking. The oven mitt is to keep your hand from burning, since aluminum pans tend to heat up their handles as well. The wooden spoon is for stirring, while the glass jar is for storing.
Make sure the glass jar is intended to hold warm or hot liquids; glass does not take kindly to high temperatures. If one cannot be found, however, it should be okay to continue onwards.
Carmel Making Instructions
To make caramel in its most basic form, which is useful for adding to certain other things such as ice cream or perhaps even coffee, warm the saucepan at about medium heat. When it is warm, pour in the caster sugar until it melts, which should not take too long. When it has melted, stir it to make sure it is fully melted. Remove the pan from the heat and slowly pour in the water, stirring all the while. Allow this mixture to cool down before pouring it into the glass jar, and with that, there is instant caramel.
To make the little soft candies that are often found in any candy store, follow the same recipe but include half a cup of cream, two tablespoons of butter, and half a cup of corn syrup to the mixture before beginning to heat. Wait for the butter to melt and stir it. Afterward, do not touch or stir the mixture until it reaches 248 degrees. Once it does, pour the mixture onto a ceramic dish, letting it cool and then cutting it into bite sized pieces.
There are other varieties in which to try using caramel. Try dipping some apples into the basic caramel dip, coating them completely. This is a good alternative to making hard coated candy apples.
Other ways to make caramel include making quince caramel or even creme caramel. Add some butter and cream to make a sauce for whatever is desired. Many different possibilities are available when making caramel.
Caramel is an easy treat to make while maintaining all sorts of variety, ranging from straight up caramel to bite sized soft candies and even as a topping for apples.
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