Salted Maple Caramel Sauce (easy recipe!) (2024)

FAQs

How do you thicken salted caramel sauce? ›

To thicken a caramel sauce, use one tablespoon of cornstarch or tapioca starch (sometimes known as tapioca flour) and one tablespoon of water per cup of caramel. Then simmer the caramel, stirring it constantly with a wooden spoon until it becomes thick.

Heating sugary solutions to very high temperatures can also cause them to caramelize, which is a complex chemical process that gives some foods a characteristic brown color and nutty/caramel flavor. For example, sucrose, which is the primary sugar in maple syrup, becomes caramelized at 320°F.

Caramel syrup is thinner and a little sweeter – less rich- than caramel sauce because it is made with just sugar and water. It doesn't have the same richness because there is not butter or cream added.

The key difference between caramel and salted caramel lies in their ingredients. The main ingredient of caramel is sugar whereas salted caramel has two ingredients: caramel and sea salt. In fact, the only difference between caramel and salted caramel is that the salted caramel, as its name implies, contains salt.

Add more sugar to the sauce.

Most caramel sauces are made by caramelizing sugar and adding milk and a little salt. If you increase the amount of sugar in the recipe you'll end up with a thicker caramel. Try increasing the sugar by about 1/3.

Maple syrup that is boiled too long will crystallize and maple syrup that isn't boiled long enough will spoil quickly and will be watery because the concentration of sugar in the syrup will be too low.

Re-heating your syrup to 180°F should kill any mold or bacteria in your syrup and make it safe to eat. The sugar content will increase a little bit as some of the water evaporates from the maple syrup, but this probably won't be an issue for most folks.

Finished maple syrup will be 7°F above the temperature of boiling water at your elevation. Your syrup or candy thermometer will tell you this. If you have a larger operation you may get a syrup hydrometer and testing cup which will tell you when the syrup is done.

When making a wet caramel, water is added to help dissolve the sugar before cooking. Like dry caramel, you want to gently move the sugar mixture in that same side-to-side paintbrush-like fashion until the sugar dissolves.

There's a reason we use caramel sauce in so many of our recipes: It's rich, creamy and brings a special sweetness to a cup of coffee. Follow this simple recipe and enjoy the taste of caramel in your favorite Starbucks^® coffee.

Is caramel sauce the same as melted caramels? ›

Caramel sauce results either from cooking sugar until it browns or by thinning melted caramel candies. When a recipe calls for melting caramel candies, you can use a homemade caramel sauce to replace the melted caramels.

The best caramel starts with regular granulated sugar. This refined white sugar is made from sugarcane or sugar beets, and it melts more evenly than unrefined sugars. Some recipes call for brown sugar as a shortcut because its dark color looks like caramel as soon as it melts.

Caramel and dulce de leche might look and taste somewhat similar, but they are actually pretty different. While caramel is made from slowly simmering water and sugar until it caramelizes, dulce de leche is made from simmering milk and sugar super slowly until it turns into a creamy, caramelized substance.

Salt, on the other hand, stimulates the taste buds responsible for detecting sour and umami flavors, which can enhance the perception of sweetness. The addition of salt to caramel not only enhances the sweetness, but also adds a savory element to the flavor profile.

Caramel is a deliciously sweet sauce that can turn up the volume on any dessert it's added to. But if you're hoping to drizzle caramel over vanilla ice cream or getting ready to dip apples for a fall celebration, you need a sauce that's not too thick. To thin caramel, just add some cream or water over heat.

If the sauce cools down and you still find it to be too thin, then it's undercooked. You can place it back on the heat for a bit to let it thicken up even more. If it's too thick, gradually add a bit more cream until it reaches the desired consistency.

Tip: To thicken stovetop dulce de leche, make a slurry of 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch with 1 1/4 teaspoons milk. Bring it to a very slow boil over medium heat, whisk this slurry into the dulce de leche, and continue to boil slowly for five minutes before removing from heat and cooling.