Ingredient

Caramel

Caramel is sugar cooked until it breaks down into hundreds of new compounds, and it is the one kitchen preparation that goes from perfect to ruined in about fifteen seconds. It is also molten sugar at well over the boiling point of water, so it deserves genuine respect.

Wet and dry

A wet caramel starts with sugar dissolved in a little water. The water boils off, the syrup gets hotter and hotter, and once it is dry the sugar starts to colour. It is slower, more even and much more forgiving, which is why most recipes use it.

A dry caramel is sugar alone in a pan. It is faster and tastes marginally cleaner, but the outside melts and browns before the middle has melted at all, so it needs constant attention and a pan that heats evenly.

Use wet unless you have a reason not to. The extra two minutes buys a great deal of margin.

The colour stages

Colour is the only reliable guide, and it develops fast.

Clear and bubbling

Still just syrup. Nothing has happened yet.

Pale straw

Caramelisation has started. Sweet, barely any bitterness. Right for sticking things together and for nut brittle.

Amber

The useful all-purpose stage. Sweet, nutty, a little bitter. Right for caramel sauce, crème caramel and toffee.

Deep copper

Noticeably bitter, complex, less sweet. Excellent against cream, chocolate or salt. This is where the best caramel sauce lives.

Dark brown, smoking

Burnt. Acrid and unusable — see caramelisation for why the bitterness arrives so suddenly.

Making a caramel sauce

Read the whole method before starting. Once it colours there is no time to consult anything.

1. Put the sugar in a heavy pan with just enough water to look like wet sand. A heavy pan matters — a thin one has hot spots and hot spots burn first.
2. Heat gently without stirring until the sugar has dissolved completely. Stirring now is what causes crystallisation.
3. Once clear, turn the heat up and let it boil. Still do not stir. If you must move it, swirl the pan.
4. Brush the sides of the pan down with a wet pastry brush once or twice, to dissolve any stray crystals clinging above the syrup.
5. Watch it. When it turns pale straw it will go to amber within seconds, and to copper within a few more. Judge by eye, in good light.
6. The moment it is the colour you want, take it off the heat and add warm cream or butter — standing back, because it will erupt violently. Adding cold liquid to caramel is how people get burnt.
7. Stir it smooth off the heat. If it seizes into a lump, return it to a low heat and it will melt back in.

Why caramel crystallises, and how to stop it

A grainy caramel is sugar that has reverted to crystals. One crystal seeds the lot.

• Do not stir once the sugar is dissolved. Stirring throws crystals from the sides back into the syrup.
• Wash the pan sides down with a wet brush, or put a lid on for the first minute so condensing steam does it for you.
• Add a little acid — a squeeze of lemon or a pinch of cream of tartar. Acid splits some of the sucrose into simpler sugars that physically obstruct crystal formation.
• Or add a spoonful of glucose syrup or golden syrup, which does the same job more reliably.
• Use a scrupulously clean pan. A speck of undissolved sugar from last time is a seed crystal.

Safety, briefly and seriously

• Caramel is far hotter than boiling water and it sticks to skin rather than running off. It causes worse burns than anything else in a domestic kitchen.
• Keep a bowl of cold water beside the hob. If caramel touches you, it goes in the water immediately.
• Never leave it unattended, and keep children and pets out of the way while it is on the heat.
• Add liquid off the heat, warmed, and pour it down the side of the pan with your face away from it.
• Clean the pan by filling it with water and bringing it to the boil. Do not chisel at it.

Common questions