Yummilicious Salted Caramel Sauce

  Makes 2 cups

I am in love with salted caramel!  It was love at first taste (bite?) when I sampled a cup of salted caramel hot chocolate in a Williams Sonoma store a couple of years ago.  If you love caramel, then you will love this.  If you love chocolate AND caramel, then this makes the perfect topping for brownies or ice cream!  If you love apples, this makes the perfect topping or dipping sauce for fresh, crisp apples.

I found this to be a bit labor intensive, but it’s well worth the effort.  I don't have a candy thermometer (yet!), so I just eyeballed the color of the sauce and it turned out perfectly.  It required more time and stirring that I had anticipated so my stirring arm got quite a work-out!  Verdict?  I LOVE this sauce!  I could eat a jar of it by the spoonful... but I won't.  I'll save this decadence for brownies, pies, apples, and such.  I am one happy girl.

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups granulated sugar

12 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1 cup heavy cream, at room temperature

1 Tablespoon Kosher salt

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Be sure that your ingredients are ready because your close attention is required to make the sauce so that you don’t burn it.  Heat the sugar over medium high heat in a heavy, non-stick, 2 to 3 quart sauce pan, with deep sides.  When the sugar begins to melt, whisk or stir the sugar with a wooden spoon.  You will see that it begins to clump together, but continue to stir.  It will continue to melt and break down into a liquid.

2.  Continue to cook the sugar until it reaches a deep amber color, sort of like the color of maple syrup.  Continue to stir and don’t take your eyes off the pan!  You can use the whisk to get rid of any remaining clumps.  Be sure to watch carefully as you don’t want the caramel to burn.  Ideally, the caramel should reach 350 degrees F. 

3.  Once the sugar turns to the dark amber color, very carefully add the butter, a few chunks at a time.  Whisk or stir with a wooden spoon until the butter is melted.

4.  Remove the pan from the heat and very slowly pour in the heavy cream, stirring until the cream is well blended and the caramel is smooth.  Stir in the Kosher salt.

5.  Cool the sauce to room temperature before pouring it into jars. 

6. Store the sauce in the refrigerator and warm up a bit to drizzle.  It will be good for about a month.

Notes:  Be sure to use Kosher salt and not table salt; it makes a difference.  I found that 1 Tablespoon salt worked well... you can adjust more or less to  your taste.