How to make caramel

Knowing how to make caramel will help with many different sweet recipes that call for caramel’s sticky glazed goodness. The following ‘how to’ shows you the simplest technique. Caramel is made by cooking sugar until it changes colour. It’s made with very little water and sets incredibly hard.

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Steps

1- The ratio. Quantities will vary according to how much caramel you want to make. 300g of sugar can be made into hard caramel with six tablespoons of water.

2- Stir over heat. Stir the sugar and water together in a deep, heavy-based saucepan over a medium heat. Once the sugar is dissolved, stop stirring.

3- Remove grains.  Use a pastry brush dipped in water to get rid of any crystals of sugar clinging to the sides of the pan. If not removed, they can turn your caramel grainy.

4- Boil to desired colour. Increase the heat and bring the syrup to a boil until the sugar turns golden-brown. Caramel can burn very easily, so watch it carefully.

5- Cool quickly. When the caramel is done, plunge the base of the pan into a sink full of cold water for a minute. This stops the caramel from cooking further and getting too brown. It can now be used to top meringues or as the base of a crème caramel.

Tips

Try different types of sugar for different tastes and colours. I’m a particular fan of all thing dark muscavado.