How to make Real Caramel Sauce

There is nothing better than a Real Caramel Sauce served with a dessert. Sure, you can by a readymade caramel sauce, but its often a sweet, unexciting copy of the real thing. And not only is this fantastic as a sauce, but it can also become and ingredient as well in ice creams or baking.

The process is simple but does need care and attention. The key to a good caramel is toasting the sugar to develop the caramel flavour and neutralise some of the sweetness. Now just like making toast, just enough heat turns boring bread into a taste sensation. Too much heat makes a bitter, black disaster.

Safety: Please be careful.

This process requires the use of high temperatures and the risk of burns from the sugar and steam.

Before starting to make a caramel sauce, I would recommend you have long sleeves and wear rubber gloves to protect your hands.

The sugar and the pan get extremely hot, roughly 180˚c. Hot sugar can give you a very nasty burn, and it’s almost impossible to remove if it drips onto the skin. Having   A large bowl of cold water on hand is also a good idea. Not only can you dip your hands into the water if you do get sugar on them. Its handy to cool the pan down if it gets too exited when cooking the sugar.

Read these instructions though before stating to make your caramel. The key to success if keeping your eyes on the pan, not the recipe. Watch the video below a couple of times, which will help judge when the caramel is ready.

You will need.

• Wide thick bottomed pan.
• Heatproof spatula
• Measuring jug
• Scales
• Bowl to hold the sugar
• Fine sieve
• Pyrex bowl for the caramel

Real Caramel Sauce.

• 375g                            Castor Sugar
• 500ml                          Double Cream

Weigh the sugar, making sure there are no lumps formed in the bag. Sieving the sugar makes life a lot easier !

You need a wide pan that has a strong, thick base to disperse the heat. The width of the pan allows the sugar to be added thinly. Having the raw sugar too deep in the pan can allow lumps to form in the caramel, which are difficult to remove.

Real Caramel Sauce – 1st Stage.

Place the pan over a medium heat and let it warm up completely empty. When the pan is nice and hot, sprinkle in a layer of sugar, using about a third of the bowl.

It should begin to melt as soon as it comes in contact with the bottom of the pan. As it melts, add more sugar until it’s all in the pan.

Avoid stirring at the beginning, as this will form clumps of solid sugar, but towards the end you can give it a careful stir if needed, until all the sugar is completely fluid and very hot. Have the jug of cold cream and heatproof spatula ready by the hob for later.

Don’t be tricked by the colour of the melted sugar. Using caster sugar makes melting the sugar easier but has one drawback.

To help avoid lumps forming in the sugar during storage an anti-caking agent is added to the sugar. When the sugar is heated this darkens giving the impression of caramelisation.

Its not! Adding the cream at this point will just give you a sweet creamy syrup with no character. Read on to get the key tip on knowing when your sugar is ready.

Real Caramel Sauce – 2nd Stage.

Now watch the pan carefully. As the liquid sugar heats up the colour begins to change. Your eyes and nose will be our guide to the doneness of the caramel.

Don’t stir the pan, this is a common mistake. Stirring the caramel hides the tell-tale signs of the caramel been ready.

As the sugar toasts and becomes caramel foam will begin to appear. You will see a blue haze coming off the pan, and a whiff of caramel will be in the air.

Real Caramel Sauce – stopping the caramelisation

You now need to act quickly, pull the pan off the heat. Stand well back and pour two thirds of the cream into the pan.

The pan will erupt with boiling sugar and cream, immediately give the pan a stir, working from the side of the pan, not on top. The steam is superheated so keep your hand off to the side until the pan cools a little.

It’s important that you stir the pan at this point, otherwise, trapped steam can cause the boiling hot sugar to spit across the room. Do be very careful when stirring though.

As the pan calms down, return it to a medium heat then add the rest of the cream, stirring all the time. Let the pan return to a simmer and allow and small lumps of caramel that have formed dissolve.

Real Caramel Sauce – finishing the sauce.

Don’t let the pan simmer more than three minutes or you may end up with toffee, not caramel.  Strain the sauce into a Pyrex bowl to cool. It’s a good idea to put a little sauce onto a cold plate to judge its consistently when cold. If its too thick a little hot water can be added.

The sauce can be served hot or cold. To store it I like to keep it in plastic squeezy bottles ready for use. It will be fine in the fridge for at least a week or can be frozen. To serve bring the sauce back up to room temperature at least or it will be too thick.

Enjoy life!

John.

©John Webber2025