27
votes
Accepted
Is adding butter to caramel sauce essential?
Yes, you can make a caramel sauce without butter, but you have to add either water or... something else.
If you use water, you'll get a pure caramel syrup that looks like honey. Personally, this is ...
- 5,204
23
votes
Accepted
If cookies are made with enough sugar, will they just be chewy caramel?
There are no similarities between the process of making caramel and making cookies.
Pure caramel has one ingredient, sugar. This sugar is cooked on the stove and brought to a high temperature until ...
- 16.5k
16
votes
If cookies are made with enough sugar, will they just be chewy caramel?
Yes and no.
There isn't a point at which they will ever be pure caramel - the flour would alter the texture enough to prevent it from being "pure", not to mention the chocolate would burn before that ...
- 11.8k
13
votes
Is adding butter to caramel sauce essential?
If you don't add the butter, it won't be a sauce, it will be pure caramel. Caramel is not a sauce, and is not suited as a cake glaze - it will stick more to your teeth than to the cake if soft, or be ...
- 137k
11
votes
Accepted
Is it possible to make caramel that does not taste sweet?
It is very simple, you just have to heat it long enough. It can even happen by accident :)
The taste is a mixture of bitter and sour, while the smell component is mostly towards something burnt.
...
- 137k
11
votes
Accepted
How can I thicken/firm up this caramel?
The problem with quick caramel recipes is that they aren't reliable due to the variations of water content in the butter and brands of condensed milk. Butter can vary between 15-30% water, if your ...
- 75.4k
11
votes
Making caramel sauce with yogurt instead of milk
The issue I foresee with heating yogurt up to high temperatures is curdling. The results may not be totally objectionable, but I would expect a certain amount of graininess in the final texture.
We ...
- 5,204
10
votes
Accepted
Making caramel sauce with yogurt instead of milk
I can't see a reason why it wouldn't work. Caveat, I haven't made it with yogurt myself, but it sounds definitively worth trying out, and I'd estimate the risk of unpleasant surprises as quite low.
...
- 137k
9
votes
What is real caramel?
When heated, sugar will caramelize and turn into caramel. No other ingredients are required.
According to Harold McGee in On Food and Cooking published by Scribner, 2004, p. 688:
Caramel is first ...
- 2,474
8
votes
Caramel Sauce vs Caramel Syrup
Caramel syrup, as the name says, it is a syrup, so it is composed mainly of sugar and water, then cooked to concentrate the water and caramelize the sugar.
Caramel sauce on the other hand, usually ...
- 2,848
8
votes
Is adding butter to caramel sauce essential?
It is possible to make caramel sauce without butter, but you'll need something instead, and that's likely to be another fat.
For example here's one that uses lots of cream.
Vegan recipes of course do ...
- 43.8k
7
votes
How can I thicken/firm up this caramel?
First off, to fix the caramel, I would recommend microwaving it a little bit longer. Start with an extra 30 seconds, then take a small amount and spread it on a cold plate to let it thicken and test ...
- 5,204
7
votes
Accepted
how to make "Creme Caramel" coffee flavored?
Your question suggests you want to make the caramel syrup part coffee-flavoured. I'd simply replace the water used in making that with espresso (if you can get real espresso). You don't need much so ...
- 43.8k
6
votes
Accepted
What is the function of salt in chocolate?
Salt tends to enhance tastes, and make flavors pop, and is used in many foods for this purpose. Even most sweet foods, desserts or baked goods, will have some amounts of salt added for this purpose. ...
- 11.8k
5
votes
Why do I have lumps in my caramel? (NOT crystallized sugar.)
I have failed many times to make that kind of recipes. They contain false direction, especially when it comes to melt the sugar.
Here is a quote which helps me. It's not accurate but you'll get the ...
- 1,081
5
votes
Accepted
Why do I have lumps in my caramel? (NOT crystallized sugar.)
So.... I've finally figured it out.
My cream's been curdling because I get my syrup too hot and too dark.
Most caramel recipes recommend heating the initial sugar syrup to no more than 380 degrees, ...
- 5,204
5
votes
What is the difference between toffee and caramel?
In short, Butter. Toffee has Butter, caramel does not.
Of course there are lots of variations, and there are some candies called 'Caramels', which may in fact be hard toffees. The softness or ...
- 1,865
5
votes
What is the Key Difference Between Nougat and Meringue?
The basic difference is consistency: meringue tends to be lighter, airier, and drier, while nougat is more chewy.
This is achieved by different ratios of sugar to egg whites. Nougat has significantly ...
- 8,392
4
votes
Accepted
Scraping Caramel for Flan
(note : I'd have posted this as a comment because I don't have personal experience w/ this, but people keep complaining when I do as this might have enough information to be considered an answer)
I ...
- 80.1k
4
votes
Accepted
Attempt to make praline paste failed -- what should I do differently?
Upon reading those instructions, I can picture vividly the scenario you describe. It seems like the caramelized sugar would of course solidify and cleave to the bottom of the (relatively cold) food ...
- 7,082
4
votes
What is the function of salt in chocolate?
Salt is a bit special because of its action on the tongue. The sea salt, in this case, is a major ingredient added to be intended to be an independent flavor, but it is also a flavor enhancer. Often ...
4
votes
How to keep caramel from hardening prematurely?
I'm sorry, but what you are asking for is not possible. Caramel is a hard substance (I mean pure caramel here, not the stuff which has added dairy or acid and never hardens). You cannot even keep it ...
- 137k
4
votes
How can I fix my caramel sauce?
Okay. Yes you can save your sauce if it's crystallized without seriously impacting flavor. You can always start over with sugar, so to speak. Unless you burn the whole dang pot, candy can always be ...
- 5,204
4
votes
Accepted
What is the difference between toffee and caramel?
"Caramel" is a substance which is created by heating sugar. It is hard at room temperature, aromatic, and has many uses as an ingredient. It can be used "pure", for example poured into very thin ...
- 137k
4
votes
How to stabilize soft nougat?
In my own practice, I just cook the sugar to a higher temperature in order to make a nougat firm enough to not spread.
However, I have recipes suggesting the use of rice paper, and have eaten store-...
- 461
4
votes
The role of fat (butter, oil) in caramel-required recipes?
I am coming rather late to this party, but here's my answer:
Caramel made by heating sugar in fat (oil or butter) will never completely harden like caramel made in water or just melting sugar and will ...
- 41
4
votes
Making caramel sauce with yogurt instead of milk
Asker here -- I went ahead and made some yogurt caramel, and it turned out wonderful! The tartness happened to come out confident yet blended with my amounts, and I like it much better than I would a ...
- 661
3
votes
Why do I have lumps in my caramel? (NOT crystallized sugar.)
kitukwfyer I looked at the photos on the recipe site you gave and her caramel sauce has large and small lumps in it. The only thing I can think of when the cream was added to the caramelized sugar and ...
- 3,963
3
votes
What is real caramel?
caramel (n.)
1725, "burnt sugar," from French caramel "burnt sugar" (17c.), from Old Spanish caramel (modern caramelo)caramel origin
This suggests that what is commonly called Caramel is the burning ...
- 61
3
votes
If cookies are made with enough sugar, will they just be chewy caramel?
As others have pointed out you won't get "caramel". What you do get can be pretty good though.
I once messed up a cookie recipe by copying it down wrong. I inverted the sugar and Flour. I added 3/4 ...
- 481
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