Making Caramel - Tips, not recipies.?

Question

I have a recipe for caramel sauce, but it is not working.
5 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 cup cream

Heat sugar and water, boil until amber coloured/hard ball stage
Add cream and stir until combined.

*The recipe worked once with smaller proportions, but I can't get it to work again ... either the syrup crystalizes or when I add the cream I get a lumpy/separated mess that is too light and doesn't taste like caramel.

I'd love an answer from someone who has actually made caramel sauce with any tricks that work (so I can stop wasting time and cream!)

Thanks.

Answer 1

it has to do with purity and stirring. that crystallization you're talking about messes up everything, but there are ways of avoiding it.

we have made caramel tons of times and learned to make it from our hero, alton brown, so here's the episode where he makes caramel. we do it just the way he does and it works perfect. after a bit on the history of sugar, he gets to caramel at about 7:00 minutes. he's very thorough and you'll probably recognize your mistake:
part 1 http://youtube.com/watch?v=ymkcqoRul9Q
part 2 http://youtube.com/watch?v=2uVdUjvwEPI

have fun!

Answer 2

You can boil cream; it will not curdle or separate like milk. I'd suggest whisking all 3 ingredietns together THEN boiling.

Or, heat up your whipping cream before adding it to the hot sugar-water mixture.

Here's an alternate recipe you may have more luck with.

** Caramel **

1 cup butter
2½ cups brown sugar
dash of salt
1 cup light corn syrup
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla

Melt butter in pan. Add sugar and salt; stir thoroughly. Stir in corn syrup and mix well. Gradually add milk stirring constantly over medium heat till candy thermometer reaches 245ºF.

Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Put into a buttered 8X8 pan. Cool and cut.

Answer 3

My recipe calls for adding the cream a little at a time. It reduces the amount of the water in the cream while still cooking the sugar without reducing the temp of mixture too much as if you added all the cream at once.

Answer 4

Add a little bit of the sugar mixture at a time to the cream , and then once it warms up (after a cup or so of the sugar mixture into the cream) Add it all back into the pot.

Answer 5

Your body thinks you're starving so it is holding on to the weight. You are going to have to eat more. Try not skipping breakfast. Eat atleast a piece of fruit. Then maybe a salad for lunch. Then all the other things you are already doing minus the purging.

Answer 6

Try brown sugar,maybe?

Answer 7

A candy thermometer at this point is your very best friend.