Being single has its pros and its cons. Spending my Friday night at home, drinking wine not needing to shave and making salted caramel sauce is a pro, in my book. Especially, the not needing to shave part (ladies, can I get an AMEN on that one?!) but I digress. A friend recently made an amazing salted caramel frosting and I obsessed over making my own salted caramel for over a week. After I looked up the ingredients and realized how god-damn easy it is, I knew I had to make it for myself. I looked up tons of recipes on salted caramel sauce made about 3 different ones, then I did my own thang and came up with my own recipe that I liked best.
Makes about 16 oz of Salted Caramel Sauce
- 1 Cup of heavy cream
- 5 Tablespoons of salted butter
- ½ Teaspoon of sea salt
- 2 Teaspoons of vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups of granulated sugar
In a small pot, gently heat the cream, butter, and salt until the butter has melted and the salt has completely dissolved. Remove from heat, add the vanilla and whisk til combined.
In a larger pot, pour the sugar then heat over a medium high flame, swirling the pot occasionally to distribute the heat evenly.
Continue to boil the sugar until the bubbles get smaller and it becomes a rich amber color. Be careful not to over cook, check your phone or walk away. You have to watch the sugar like a damn hawk because you'll go from caramel to burnt sugar in just a matter of seconds.
Reduce the heat to low, and pour in the warm cream mixture SLOWLY! If you dump it in all at once the mixture will bubble and overflow leaving you with a huge fucking mess (I learned this the hard way, unfortunately #DePinga) As you slowly pour the cream mixture, continue to whisk constantly to avoid lumps or crystals.
Once it has all been well incorporated, immediately transfer the hot mixture to a heat-safe vessel and cool completely. I used mason jars, but any heat safe container will do.
Once the mixture is completely cooled, you can throw it over some ice cream or stick a straw in it and just drink it straight up, whatevs. It will be good for about a week, but you and I both know it won't last that long.
Ha, you weren't kidding on Twitter when you said you were making this! Now I feel inspired...