Salted Caramel Sauce (foolproof recipe!)- The Chunky Chef (2024)

FAQs

How do you make salted caramel sauce thicker? ›

If you're using heavy cream, note that it contains more water (less butterfat) than double cream. If your caramel sauce ends up too runny, cook it for a few minutes longer to remove some of the moisture – this will thicken it up. (And next time, try using a slightly smaller amount of heavy cream.)

This can happen if sugar crystals form on the sides of the saucepan or if the sugar syrup is mixed too much while cooking. Adjust the Heat: If the caramel cooked at a high heat, causing it to crystallize or burn, lower the heat for future batches.

Add more sugar to the sauce.

Most caramel sauces are made by caramelizing sugar and adding milk and a little salt. If you increase the amount of sugar in the recipe you'll end up with a thicker caramel. Try increasing the sugar by about 1/3.

To help prevent the caramel from crystallizing, you can add an acid to the sugar before you begin: add about half a tablespoon of lemon juice to each cup of sugar and mix it with your hands; it should be the consistency of wet sand. Heat the sugar over medium-high heat until it melts.

The liquefied sugar is then cooked, without stirring, until it darkens in color, taking on additional flavor notes the longer it remains on the heat. You want to hit the sweet spot here: If the caramel is too light, it won't have much flavor, but if it gets too dark, it will taste burnt and bitter.

Add acid. Acid ingredients (like vinegar or lemon juice) can help prevent re-crystallization which causes caramel to become grainy. Acid physically breaks the bonds between the glucose and fructose molecules that form sucrose and ensure that it stays apart.

Sure, there are additional ingredients that add flavor like vanilla extract, butter, and heavy cream, but the real star of the show is the cooked sugar. This means that in order for your caramels to develop a robust flavor, the sugar needs to be cooked until it's deeply caramelized.

It makes sense to stir your pot, but you have to resist the urge. The reason that caramel turns back into sugar crystals and becomes grainy is because too much moisture has been lost in the cooking process. When sugar is dissolved in water it loses its structure and becomes the liquid that develops into caramel.

What can go wrong when making caramel? ›

If caramels are too hard, you can try placing them back in a saucepan, adding a couple tablespoons of water and stirring until the thermometer reads 242°F. Pour back into a prepared buttered pan. If caramels are too soft, that means the temperature didn't get high enough.

Caramel is the correct spelling if you're talking about food or colors. Carmel is a misspelling when used in those contexts, but it is a word that can be used as a name for people or places.

To thin caramel, just add some cream or water over heat. Melt caramel loaves in the oven. You can also add corn syrup or lemon juice to caramel sauces to prevent them from crystallizing.

If the sauce cools down and you still find it to be too thin, then it's undercooked. You can place it back on the heat for a bit to let it thicken up even more. If it's too thick, gradually add a bit more cream until it reaches the desired consistency.

If the caramel is too thin, simmer the caramel on medium heat for 5-10 minutes to thicken it (the caramel will not continue to darken). Keep in mind that the caramel will thicken significantly once cool. Likewise, if the caramel is too thick, thin by stirring a tablespoon or two of heavy cream.

You can try using ingredients like arrowroot powder, tapioca starch, or potato starch as natural thickeners for your sauce. Another option is to reduce the sauce by simmering it for a longer period of time, which can help it naturally thicken as the liquid evaporates.