Salted Caramel

I spent much of the day cooking a big pan of lasagna and an apple pie to serve with vanilla bean ice cream and salted caramel sauce. Drake's birthday was the first week of August, but this is the first time he's been home so we celebrated tonight. I bought him handcuffs and a belt holster. I hope he plays with them responsibly.

I haven't shared a recipe here in a while, so it's time again. Lasagna is too easy. Everybody can make that, although I've heard some people use sauce from a jar. I don't judge. Really, I don't .... use sauce from a jar, I mean. Even with homemade sauce, I think lasagna is one of those things most people know how to make without a recipe. It's time consuming, but not hard.

What's even easier is the salted caramel sauce, but I don't think most people know how to make it. So here's the recipe I used. You can throw some butter in too if you like, but it's pretty good this way.

Salted Caramel

Put a cup of water in a saucepan. Set it on the stove burner. Pour 2 cups of sugar into the middle without getting any on the sides of the pan.  Cook it on med high heat without stirring it even once until it turns golden brown. It takes 20-30 minutes. Don't fucking stir it. (It's chemistry.)

In the meantime, warm up some heavy cream in the microwave for 45 seconds or so. When the sugar mixture changes, pour the cream into it in a thin stream, whisking it madly the whole time. It will bubble up and try to crawl up your arm. Don't be afraid and don't call the police. And don't scrape the sides of the pan or you'll end up with crystals.

Bring it back to a boil if it isn't already bubbling. Then take it off the heat. Stir in some coarse salt. I used about half a teaspoon. Taste it after it cools and see if you want more. If you want less, bring that first batch to me and start over.

Cool the sauce. It will thicken more as it cools. You can use this sauce on ice cream, cake, pie, or pancakes. The consensus around my house is that it's pretty damn good eaten straight off your finger.

I don't have photos. It looks like caramel sauce, although the batch I made tonight was kind of light. You could probably use evaporated milk if you didn't have cream. I haven't tried it, but it couldn't hurt to try if that's what you have in your pantry. I'd definitely throw in some butter though. You can't go wrong with butter.

That's it. If you try it, let me know how you like it.