Caramel Sauce

Apples have been on my mind recently and one thing led to another and I soon found myself thinking about caramel sauce or rather apples drenched in caramel sauce. Apples and caramel are a classic flavour combo and with good reason. I have made caramel sauce a few times but always as a part of a larger recipe and this time I wanted to make it to use as a condiment, or to just eat it by the spoonful. Caramel sauce is pretty simple in concept; you just heat sugar until it turns a nice golden brown. The trouble is that it can quickly go from a nice golden brown to burnt. There seems to be two main ways to make caramel sauce, a dry method and a wet method. With the dry method you heat the sugar until it melts and with the wet method you dissolve the sugar into something wet, like water and then heat it. I found this recipe for a wet caramel sauce on epicurious which sounded pretty easy and good.

The caramel sauce turned out really well! I got it off the stove and cooled it down with the cream after it had turned a nice amber colour but before it burned. Waiting for it to cool was like an eternity but it was well worth it in the end. The caramel sauce was so good! I enjoyed it on some honey crisp apple slices and then I enjoyed cleaning out the pan as well as I could with my fingers. My only problem with this recipe is that it does not make much and it will not last long. I will definitely be making this caramel sauce again. I was thinking that it might be nice to experiment with different flavours in the caramel like salt or vanilla bean.

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt (optional)

Directions:
1. Mix the sugar and water in a small sauce pan, bring to a boil over medium heat and let simmer until it turns a medium amber colour.
2. Remove from heat, carefully pour in the heavy cream and stir the mixture until it is smooth, returning to heat to melt and lumps that may have formed.
3. Stir in the butter, allow to cool for a few minutes and stir in the vanilla extract and salt if using.

Similar Recipes:
Vanilla Bourbon Caramel Sauce
Blueberry Caramel Sauce
Dulce de Leche
Vietnamese Caramel Sauce

Use in:
Apple, Cheddar and Bacon Fritters in Caramel Sauce
Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake
Vanilla Apple Crisp with Caramel Sauce
Pumpkin Cinnamon Role Pancakes with Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting
Pumpkin Greek Yogurt Banana Bread
Rolo Cheesecake Bars
Pumpkin Pie Pancakes
Slow Cooker Pumpkin Pie Steel Cut Oatmeal
Apple Crisp Pizza with Caramel Sauce
Pumpkin Pie Quinoa Parfait with Gingersnap Pecan Streusel
Slow Cooker Apple Pie Steel Cut Oatmeal
Caramel Apple Grilled Cheese Sandwich (with Bacon)