Creating Caramel A master pastry chef shows how to make and use this irresistible flavor BY JOE McKENNA hink about this: I can take a basic kitchen sta- Tple with almost no taste of its own, heat it to 320°F, and produce a flavor that many people find irresistible. It’s that simple, and that mysterious. I’m talking about caramel. Making caramel is easy, the results are great, and you can use it in many ways. USES FOR CARAMEL Caramel is an uncommonly versatile ingredient. It can be used as a main flavor additive, as a decora- tion, and as a finish. For example, you can press granulated caramel onto the sides of an iced cake for a crunchy garnish. Caramel flavors many classic desserts, from simple ones like crème caramel or bananas Foster to complicated masterpieces such as a gâteau St.-Honoré or a Dobos torte. By adding juice or cream to caramel, you can make a sauce to spoon over ice cream or poached fruits, to spread between cake layers, or to flavor a mousse. You can give any ice-cream recipe a totally different flavor by cara- melizing three-quarters of the sugar. Brittles are largely caramelized sugar and nuts. You can dip fruits in caramel, which hardens to form a glaze that crackles when you bite into it. And caramel is also used in savory dishes, such as roast duck à l’orange and candied brown potatoes. Caramel goes well with many other flavors. I especially like it with fruit. The slight acidity of the Color is the key to correct flavor. Because caramel sauce is used as the main flavoring of desserts such as mousses and soufflés or by itself as a delicious topping, it’s especially important to get the taste just right. The color of the sauce at right indicates that it will have a rich, fully developed flavor with no burnt taste. FEBRUARY/MARCH 1994 Copyright © 1994 - 2007 The Taunton Press fruits and the sweetness of the caramel complement one another. Other great combinations include caramel with cinnamon, nutmeg, nuts, or rum. Dark rum is very compatible, and my favorite when adding a spirit. Chocolate and caramel are good to- gether, though the pairing sometimes comes off a little too sweet for my taste. When marrying other tastes with caramel, I prefer to keep the blend sim- ple, because caramel itself is an elemental, though resonant, flavor. To mask it with too many other fla- vors doesn’t make good cooking sense. I’m going to explain the process of caramelizing sugar. Then I’ll describe how to make a caramel mousse, a soft nougat that can be molded into dessert cups to hold the mousse, and a luscious Adding liquid ingredients or butter stops the process of caramel sauce to finish it off. Throughout, the sugar caramelization. Because of the intense heat of the caramel, I’ll refer to is white, granulated cane or beet sugar. liquids also start to evaporate immediately. When adding alcohol, like the orange liqueur going into the sauce (shown GETTING THE FLAVOR RIGHT above), it’s especially important to avoid the fumes, which can Probably the most crucial part of making caramel is burn your eyes and nose. getting the sugar to the right stage. Stop the cooking too soon and the flavor doesn’t have a chance to ing. Adding liquid ingredients will also stop the fla- develop. Take it off too late and it’s burnt. Once vor from developing any further. caramelization starts, it develops very quickly—the How dark is too dark? That depends in part on syrup can go from colorless to burnt in under a your taste and in part on how you’re going to use the minute. Within this kind of time frame, another six caramel. If the caramel flavor has to carry the dish, or eight seconds can make a big difference. it should be rich and pronounced, but not so dark To complicate matters further, simply taking the that it starts to pick up a bitter, almost burnt taste. I Caramel-dipped fruits caramel off the stove doesn’t stop the process. Resid- think it’s especially critical for the flavor to be just are easy to make. ual heat in the pan and in the caramel itself contin- right when making a caramel sauce, which can be Following the wet ues the cooking, what I call carryover cooking. The used either as a delicious topping or as a major fla- method, cook sugar greater the amount of caramel I’m making, the more voring ingredient (as in the mousse recipe on p. 39). just until it has the carryover cooking there will be. To compensate for When there are other ingredients to mellow the barest hint of color. this, I’ll stop a large batch a couple of shades shy of caramel flavor—for example, if I’m going to grind Then dip clean, where I want it. Plunging the bottom of the pan up the caramel and put it into ice cream, or if I’m perfectly dry fruits and into a metal bowl of ice water will take the heat out adding nuts to make a brittle—I can get away with let them set up on a of the pan but not the caramel. For a small amount, having the caramel a little on the dark side. cool surface. this icy bath will pretty much curtail further cook- If the inside of your saucepan is dark, or if you’re cooking a lot of caramel, the degree of carameliza- tion can be difficult to distinguish. A simple way of monitoring the caramel is to test it against a piece of white paper (I use kitchen parchment). I tear the paper in half, lay one piece next to the stove, and tear the other into five strips, which I then twist into tight spirals. Once I detect color in the syrup, I dip a paper twist into the pot and dab a little syrup onto the paper. As the color deepens, I repeat with another twist. It’s easy to “read” the caramel stage against the white paper (see photo at right). HOW TO MAKE CARAMEL Although sugar dissolves in liquids even at low tem- peratures, it doesn’t actually begin to melt until it’s heated to 320°. At that point it also starts to pick up caramel flavors and colors. There are two ways I cook sugar to make caramel: a wet method and a Photos except where noted: Ruth Lively dry method. 36 FINE COOKING Copyright © 1994 - 2007 The Taunton Press The wet method—To cook sugar using the wet To halt the cook- method, I combine it with about one-third of its ing of a small weight in water (say, two cups of sugar to two-thirds batch, plunge the of a cup of water). Then I bring the mixture to a boil pot into a bowl of while stirring gently over high heat. ice water. During cooking, I repeatedly wash down the in- sides of the saucepan with a clean pastry brush that get a little bit less has been moistened with cold water (preferably one of that violent that hasn’t been used with oil). This is a very impor- sputtering and re- tant step. If crystals of sugar are allowed to form on duce the chance of the inside of the saucepan, the entire mixture may getting burned if you crystallize (for an explanation, see “Crystallization heat the liquids before and how to control it” on p. 39). you add them. Bring milk Once the mixture boils, I stop stirring and add or cream to scalding, and corn syrup. The exact amount will vary depending juice to lukewarm. (Warming on the recipe. I continue boiling the syrup until it the liquid is a good idea for anoth- reaches the desired stage of caramelization. er reason. Cold liquid can turn the The dry method—With this method, I combine caramel to a solid. It will eventually melt the sugar with lemon juice. One tablespoon of again, but this slows you down.) It’s interesting that, lemon juice per pound of sugar is usually sufficient. off the heat, if you pour liquid straight into caramel The acid in lemon juice helps the sugar caramelize at without disturbing it, it won’t do anything. As soon a more even rate and discourages crystals from as you stir it, however, it will start to sputter. Avoid forming. I rub the sugar and lemon juice together hovering over the pan when adding alcohol. The very well between my hands to ensure that the juice fumes can really burn your nostrils and eyes. is evenly distributed. Then I cook the sugar, stirring continually with a wooden spoon, until it cara- EQUIPMENT TO USE melizes. It isn’t necessary to wash the sides of the Any type of heavy-bottom saucepan will work for pan when using this method. cooking sugar. Copper is best because of its superb You can caramelize sugar completely dry (no heat conductivity, followed by aluminum, and water, no lemon juice) simply by letting it sit in a finally stainless steel. A candy thermometer allows heavy pan over heat without stirring. I don’t like you to accurately monitor the temperature of the to do this, though, because the caramel cooks un- caramel as it cooks. evenly and tends to have lots of dark flecks in it. Some recipes call for spreading caramel out thin Either of the methods described above gives good or flattening it with a rolling pin.