Bourbon Caramel Candy Recipe - A Spicy Perspective (2024)

FAQs

What is the difference between caramel sauce and caramel candy? ›

Caramel sauce ends up being a soft-set caramel candy in the fridge, and if you let caramel candy sit out in a warm room, it becomes almost a thick caramel sauce. The two are on a continuum that starts with granulated sugar and ends with carbonized sugar.

Temperature matters when making caramel. How hot the liquid mixture gets will determine its consistency once it cools.

The water evaporates, leaving sugar crystals behind. If even one sugar crystal falls back into the pan of cooking caramel, it starts a chain reaction of sugar crystals and the entire pan will harden. The result? Gross, grainy caramel that is unusable in most recipes.

When we add milk and butter to the hot, hot sugar - the proteins (remember, proteins are made of amino acids) in the milk and butter undergo Maillard reactions with the sugar to generate additional flavors. SAFETY REMINDER: The temperature at which sugar reacts to form caramel is very high.

Once the sugar has all dissolved and turned brown, we add butter. The heat of the caramel will melt the butter and create even more wonderful flavors. Finally, after the butter has melted, we add heavy whipping cream. This will allow the mixture to be loose enough to be used as a sauce.

The typical formula for caramels is C24H36O18 , so the elements of water have been removed from the sucrose.

Crystallization may be prevented by adding an interferent, such as acid (lemon, vinegar, tartaric, etc.) or glucose or corn syrup, during the boiling procedure.

To thicken a caramel sauce, use one tablespoon of cornstarch or tapioca starch (sometimes known as tapioca flour) and one tablespoon of water per cup of caramel. Then simmer the caramel, stirring it constantly with a wooden spoon until it becomes thick.

If your caramel becomes gritty or grainy, the sugar probably crystallized. If the melting sugar splashes up onto the sides of the pan, it quickly loses its moisture content and forms back into crystals. That can set off a chain reaction that can cause caramel to seize up, ruining the entire batch.

The more it cooks, the more bitter it starts to get, and this bitterness is what balances out the sweetness and gives it that toasted flavor. As long as the sugar doesn't burn, a little bit of extra time on the stove can go a long way in reducing the overwhelming sweetness of your caramel.

Why is my caramel burning? ›

Once the sugar has melted, continue cooking it until it turns into a rich amber color. It should be removed from the heat source when it begins to smoke and foam a little around the edges. Burning most commonly occurs when the caramel is left for too long on the heat source or when the temperature is too high.

The more the sugar is cooked, the less sugar and sweetness remain, and the darker and more bitter it gets. To achieve caramelization—and flavor—we first have to cook the sugar to a temperature of at least 320°F (160°C).

Heat until the syrup reaches 240 to 245 degrees Fahrenheit. The lower the temperature, the softer the resulting caramels will be.

This recipe today is the dry caramel version which means sugar melts over direct heat in a dry saucepan as opposed to dissolving sugar first in water to create a syrup before caramelizing. This method seems daunting as the sugar clumps initially, but then as it gets hot enough it will all melt into an amber syrup.

Caramel sauce results either from cooking sugar until it browns or by thinning melted caramel candies. When a recipe calls for melting caramel candies, you can use a homemade caramel sauce to replace the melted caramels.

When creating caramel, there are typically two different versions: wet caramel and dry caramel. Wet caramel refers to caramel that has been made by adding water to the sugar during the heating process.

Caramel can be produced in so many forms such as, sauce, a chewy candy, or a hard candy because of how much of an ingredient is added and the temperature it is being prepared at.

Dulce de leche directly translates as 'caramel sauce', which felt like the perfect name for this 1 ingredient caramel. With origins in Argentina, dulce de leche is a thick caramel originally made with reduced sugar and milk.