Caramel
Ingredients
- 700g caster sugar
- 600g double cream
- 9g salt
- 12g vanilla bean paste
Method
- Add 700g caster sugar to a very large saucepan
- Cook at 140C (pan temperature) with a glass lid until caramelised and is a dark brown (somewhere between acacia and mahogany - end result will be much lighter)
- Add cream to saucepan (mixture will rise violently, but will calm down within 20 seconds)
- Heat until mixture reaches 122C, then turn off heat
- Add 9g fine salt (not low-sodium salt) and 15g vanilla bean paste; mix in
- Leave to cool for a few hours, then place in jars (should be fine left out if jars are sterilised and un-opened, but often easier to just keep in the fridge)
If sugar starts to crystalise, wash down with water using a silicon brush. If crystals can’t be diluted quick enough with water brushing, dump a pint of water in the saucepan to dissolve all of the crystals, cook off the water and resume from step 1.
If the caramel is a bit too hard once it has cooled, you can warm it up gently (pan temperature about 90C for an hour) and slowly mix in some Baileys (if wanting to avoid alcohol, near-boil some cream to try to sterilise it before mixing in), leave to cool, re-assess and repeat if needed.