A couple weeks ago my friend Ruth and her husband hosted the dessert portion of a progressive youth supper, and Leon and I helped them. (the church's youth go around to different people's places, from church, and get served a portion of supper, like salad and appetizers, main dish, and dessert.) Well when I got to Ruth's she told me that she had made homemade caramel sauce, and not the condensed milk kind! (I'm going to go off on a short tangent here)......
A few summers ago Leon I and some friends went camping, including Ruth and her family. Ruth had brought a can of caramel. At this point I was new to the whole Mennonite thing and thought Mennonites could can anything in anything, like caramel in a tin can. I was amazed and asked her how she got the caramel into the can?!?!?! And she chuckled a little and said it is just a can of sweetened condensed milk that you boil for 3 hrs. I was so excited, that I too could make caramel in a can :) and I have several times since then!
Anyways back to the story... :) Back at Ruth's house, I had to try this home made, not condensed milk in a can, caramel! O MY WORD, was it absolutely DELICIOUS, and I am sooooo not exaggerating, I am 100% serious, BEST. THING. EVER!! She told me how she did it, and I promised my self that I had to at least try to make it sometime, so I did, a week or so ago....
I found a recipe that sounded like the one Ruth used and when reading it there was multiple warnings about not having any thing underfoot, like little children or pets or anything, to have all your ingredients ready to go right by your side, and to use an over sized thick bottomed pot .All of this warning scared me, but I did as it said. The recipe also said to turn your burner onto a moderately high heat. I got my heavy bottomed over sized pan, and all ingredients and utensils ready to go!! I set my stove to a 7 (scale of 1-8) that's moderately high right???? I followed all the directions down to a T. However in the directions it said to melt the sugar until clear and light amber, then add butter. My sugar never got there, it got medium colored amber, but not all the sugar melted, so I kept stirring it over the heat, then I thought it looked clear enough and I followed the rest of the directions. When I tasted it, it tasted bitter and nasty. I cooked the sugar until it was too dark to taste good anymore.
I was sad, I'm not gonna lie, I thought it would just be absolutely perfect caramel because I followed ALL the directions perfectly! (FYI: if you have ever talked to Leon about my cooking he will tell you that I never follow ALL the directions in ANY recipe. I really don't know why, but that is just the way it is.)
In all my disappointment I decided to try it again, and this time I was going to wait until my melted sugar was CLEAR! (when I say clear, I mean fully dissolved) I got out another batch of ingredients and started all over again. This time when my sugar melted I kept it over the heat until I thought it was time to take it off, like when the sugar was all clear (dissolved). The sugar just kept getting darker and darker ,and I was now getting really worried..... (DUH! continuing to heat sugar on the stove will make it more and more darker, not lighter and lighter)...This time I had to take the pot off the stove not because the sugar was clear, but the color and consistency of tar and was smoking TERRIBLY BAD!!! My tiny little house very quickly got all smokey and I ran outside with my bubbly, extremely hot black sugar tar!! I didnt know what do do with it, but the bubbles were burning my hand and I didnt want to set it down just anywhere, so I ran over to my faucet and put water in it. That stopped the boiling burning bubbles, but it still smoked for about another minute.
I was really disappointed now, we were having company that night and I really wanted caramel and apples. Looking back now though, I wish someone had a camera, It probably would have made for some really interesting funny pictures :) I later told Ruth about my disaster and she suggested putting my burner on a lower temperature.
Today was a caramel success!!! And I didn't even follow the recipe ;)
Here is MY recipe :)
- 1 Cup granulated sugar
- 6 Table spoons of butter
- 1 cup cool whip
So I turned my burner onto medium put 1 cup of sugar into a thick bottomed 3 Qt. pot. I stirred the sugar until the sugar looked like the perfect caramel color (that was also Ruth's suggestion) looking back now I think I may have jumped that gun a little too quick, because after tasting it, not all the sugar fully melted, but it is still delicious :)
Anyways... When the sugar is at that perfect caramel color add the butter and whisk until the butter is melted. When you add the butter the mixture will bubble a lot so this is why you need an over sized pot. Take the pot off the burner and add the cool whip and whisk that until smooth. Then I poured the caramel into a pint jar and let it sit out for like 10 minutes, and then I put it into the fridge.
WARNING: I am not the best photographer, but here is my caramel success! :)
Hey Chloe,
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OK....dad can confirm the lack if ability or shall we call it deep rooted need to be creative with recipes come directly from your mother.
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