About Anne Welch Expertise I can answer all questions relating to baking theory and science, troubleshooting, ingredient questions, presentation, technique, and most importantly, cake and pastry decoration.
Experience I am a professional pastry chef with 16 years of experience. I have done practically everything in the industry, but specialize in wedding and occasion cakes.
Education/Credentials Certificate of Merit, Culinary Arts, Lake Washington Technical College, Kirkland, WA
Certificate of Merit, Commercial Baking, Lake Washington Technical College, Kirkland, WA
Certificate of Merit, Refined Pastry Arts, Lake Washington Technical College, Kirkland, WA
Awards and Honors Best in Show, Seattle Carrot cake Bake-off, 1993
Best Display, Redmond Trade Show, 1993
Question Hi Anne,
I would like to ask you a few questions about making home made creamy caramel that I'm using for my brownies.
1.) When do I start adding the milk/cream when making the caramel?
2.) How long should I cook the caramel after adding the milk? Should I use medium or low heat?
3.) I've seen some tv shows and read a few recipe books and most of them would recommend not stirring the the sugar once it starts boiling. The problem that I usually encounter with this method is that there are some parts(bits) of the caramel which are very dark in color and other parts that are translucent. If I stop stirring, it won't cook evenly. Do you have any solutions to this problem?
4.) My caramel is usually light in color, grainy and it doesn't smell as good as the commercially made caramels. May I know what's wrong?
Thanks,
Brian
Answer Hi there!
I've been making caramel for so long, I don't even have a recipe anymore.....meaning I always wing it. But I'll tell you, what I do always works.
For one thing, don't caramelize the sugar with water. Just
caramelize it dry (if you aren't already doing so.)
*Pour the amount of sugar you want in a heavy saucepan and
turn it on med-hi heat. When you see the edges of the sugar
start to brown, stir it up a bit. It will be lumpy, but it will keep melting. Stir it around,(and don't worry about stirring, that "no stirring rule" only applies when you are boiling sugar and water together) and when all the lumps are melted and gone, the caramel will be a nice dark amber.
This is when you add the cream. Stand back! It will splutter up at you like crazy and the steam can burn you, so be careful. Add a little cream at a time, because it bubbles up high, and you don't want it to boil over. Add as much cream as you desire, depending on how stiff you want the caramel to be...the less cream you add the harder it will be as it cools. I wish I could tell you exact amounts....I just eyeball it everytime I make it, I never measure (sorry I can't be more specific).
After you add the cream, let it cook a bit....maybe about 3 minutes or so. Then, take it off the heat, add a couple pats of butter (maybe about one ounce or so), and a couple tablespoons vanilla. Stir and let cool.
You should have a nice, smooth, dark, creamy caramel...not grainy.
