The salted caramel sauce is another great, simple recipe from Jacquy Pfeiffer, featured in his online The Butter Book Pastry School. Looking for a ridiculously easy-to-cook dessert sauce? Then you should make the Butter Book’s salted caramel sauce.
The Butter Book—online baking lessons for the home. Saveur magazine just recently recognized The Butter Book as the best overall online platform for baking. The Butter Book is the only online baking platform you will ever need.
Read more about the Review here: Saveur Magazine: Overall best online baking classes.
Creating Pastry Masterpieces at Home.
Chefs have perfected the fundamentals of pastry for centuries. The Butter Book teaches you these fundamentals first so you can perfect the basics before experimenting with recipes, textures, and flavors. Each of the online baking classes makes it clear why you should use particular ingredients, why the techniques work, what can go wrong, and how to correct it if it does. Developed by Sébastien Canonne, M.O.F., and Jacquy Pfeiffer, James Beard Award-winning author, both are recipients of the French Legion of Honour.
As far as I’m concerned, joining The Butter Book is the deal of the century. The annual membership gives unlimited access to a growing library of hundreds of expertly tested recipes, step-by-step training videos, and fundamental baking techniques. It will give you ideas, and it will motivate you to be a better baker and create better pastries for your customers, friends, or family.
Great Memories from a Galaxy Far Far Away:
I worked with Jacquy years ago at the Fairmont Hotel Chicago. He was the Executive Pastry Chef, and I was the Executive Chef. He created, along with his team, the most amazing pastries: from freshly baked scones with clotted cream to Macarons for afternoon tea, and all cakes, chocolates, and desserts for the fine dining restaurant Entre Nous and the Primavera Italian restaurant.
His book, The Art of French Pastry, is a treasure; it has taught pastry novices for years. The book and online baking videos are simply amazing. The recipes are accurate and have ingredients scaled by weight – no more cups, teaspoons, or tablespoons, and for serious bakers, this is the only way to go.
Salted Caramel Sauce:
Making caramel sauce is not a complex process. A traditional recipe that is easy to follow and requires a little more than 4 common ingredients: heavy cream, sour cream or cream fraiche, sea salt, and granulated sugar. The sauce is easy to make and so much better than the store-purchased product. The Butter Book salted caramel sauce is sweet, sticky, nutty, and tastes so good.
Perfect for milkshakes, dessert toppings, coffee drinks, brownies, and ice cream toppings. Adding sea salt gives the sauce a more distinctive taste; it balances the sweetness, making this the best salted caramel sauce ever. Most caramel sauces are cooked with butter. The butter reminds me too much of a butterscotch sauce, which is a great sauce but just too buttery for me.
Figs in Bourbon, Quark, and Salted Caramel Sauce
A perfect simple holiday dessert
Why make a Gift rather than buy it?
Creating an edible gift is more personal than running to a store to purchase a bottle of wine. Most of the time, it’s cheaper than buying from a store, and it means so much more. The salted caramel sauce is not only a mindful seasonal gift, it can be gifted any time throughout the year.
Interesting Caramel History:
The Arab community has always been noted for its love of sweets. Kurat al milh — a ball of sweet salt was the name they gave to a sticky product extracted from thickened cane syrup.
In the 11th century, the Crusaders returned to Europe with accounts of mouth-watering sugar-based sweets and desserts served at weddings and religious celebrations.
Caramels were one of the earliest types of sugar-based sweets. It was Brittany, in northwest France, that became famous as long ago as the 14th century for its caramel au beurre salé (salted butter caramel).
Figs in Bourbon, Salted Caramel Sauce,
A perfect simple holiday dessert
Salted Caramel Sauce as a Topping:
In all the confusion over what to eat, what not to eat, and how much to eat, I believe that it’s important to take a balanced approach to nutrition.
The salted caramel sauce has a fair amount of calories per serving; 2 tablespoons equal 125 calories. So, frequently adding salted caramel sauce to your meal plan may cause your midsection to get bigger :) Mindful eating is a powerful tool to get control over your eating habits, and it’s the key to a well-balanced lifestyle. So yes, of course, I do enjoy salted caramel sauce – in moderation.
If you want to know more about mindful eating, please read the Mindful Eating 101 – Beginners Guide.
How to store Salted Caramel Sauce:
Cover tightly and store for up to 1 month in the refrigerator. Adding fat, like sour cream and heavy cream, makes the caramel sauce elastic. However, as it cools in the refrigerator, it slightly solidifies. You can reheat it in the microwave or over low heat on the stove so it’s liquid again.
The Taste
A rich texture and sweet, smooth, satisfying taste.
That sauce is just itching to be poured over ice cream or drizzled over a great brownie
The Process
Easy to make and very rewarding
The Verdict
Adding sea salt gives the sauce a more distinctive taste,
it balances the sweetness, making this the best salted caramel sauce ever
Chef’s Tips
Make it an edible gift for the holiday season
Creating an edible gift is more personal
then running to a store to purchase a bottle of wine.
Salted Caramel Sauce
Recommended Equipment
Ingredients
- 14 oz Heavy cream 30 - 40 % fat
- 3.5 oz Sour cream 35 to 40 % fat
- 0.35 oz Vanilla paste
- 0.17 oz sea salt fine
- 17.5 oz Sugar granulated
Instructions
- Method
- Scale the ingredients precisely and bring them to room temperature.
Heat the Cream
- In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the heavy cream, sour cream, vanilla, and salt. Bring to a simmer, whisking occasionally. Once simmering, cover and set aside.14 oz Heavy cream , 0.35 oz Vanilla paste, 0.17 oz sea salt, 3.5 oz Sour cream
Caramelize the Sugar
- Sprinkle a thin, even layer of sugar in a saucepan on low heat. Let it dissolve, occasionally stirring. Then, sprinkle another thin layer of sugar on top and allow it to dissolve. After the fourth layer of sugar, begin stirring after each new addition and repeat until all of the sugar is in the saucepan.Continue to cook the caramel sauce on low heat until all of the sugar is completely dissolved and tiny bubbles begin to form on the surface occasionally whisking. The color should be a deep, golden brown.17.5 oz Sugar
Add the Cream
- Slowly and carefully pour the hot cream mixture into the caramelized sugar. Whisk continuously until the sauce is smooth and thoroughly combined.Work with care: Caramel is extremely hot. When combining the cream and hot caramel, the mixture will bubble up and create steam. Pour slowly and use a long-handled whisk to protect yourself.
- Strain the caramel into a bowl and cool. Emulsify for about 20 to 30 seconds using an immersion blender.
Chef Notes
- Use a heavy-bottomed pan: This helps to distribute heat evenly and prevents the caramel from burning.
- Avoid crystallization: While caramelizing the sugar, resist the urge to stir. Swirling the pan is acceptable, but stirring can cause the sugar to crystallize.
- Adjusting the saltiness: Different sea salts have different strengths. You can adjust the amount of salt to your taste by adding a bit at a time after the sauce is made.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate
So you don’t add any water… how thick is this sauce? Or is the ratio with cream/sc sufficient for viscosity?
Kyle,
The recipe doesn’t call for water. The sauce should have a syrupy consistency.
Remember that caramel thickens as it cools. If you prefer a thicker sauce, reduce the amount of heavy cream by a few tablespoons. Conversely, if the caramel is too thick, stir in a tablespoon or two of heavy cream to thin it out.
Best NB
The best caramel sauce ever!