Caramel sauce is used in a variety of desserts and garnishes many dishes, from creme brulee to leche flan. Sweet and delicious, this sauce is actually quite easy to make if you have the right ingredients and technique. Read the following article to learn how to caramelize sugar on the stovetop in minutes. Choose the wet caramelization method, which adds water, or the dry method, which uses only sugar.
Method 1 of 3: Wet caramelization method
- This method is often preferred by housewives as it is easier than the dry method because it is easier to prevent the sugar from burning.
- The wet method takes longer than the dry method, but allows more complex flavors to develop.
Prepare your ingredients. To make caramel using the wet method, you will need two cups of white granulated sugar, half a cup of water, and a quarter teaspoon of lemon juice or cream of tartar.
- If you require no a large number of caramel, use half the amount of ingredients listed above: one cup sugar, a quarter cup water and 1/8 teaspoon lemon juice or cream of tartar.
- Depending on the desired thickness of the caramel, the ratio of sugar to water will vary. The thinner the sauce you want, the more water you need to add.
Mix sugar and water in a saucepan. Use a high-quality metal pan with high walls and a thick bottom.
- Cheap pans with thin bottoms have hot spots that can burn the sugar and ruin the caramel.
- Additionally, it is best to use a pan made from a light-colored metal such as stainless steel. This will allow you to see if the caramel is darkening properly.
Place the pan over medium heat. Stir the mixture constantly wooden spoon or a silicone spatula until the sugar begins to dissolve.
- To turn sugar into caramel, it must first dissolve or melt, which occurs at a temperature of 160°C.
- At this stage, the sugar syrup should be clear.
Add lemon or cream of tartar. Add lemon juice or cream of tartar (which you should dissolve in a little water first) to the sugar syrup. This will prevent the sugar from recrystallizing.
Bring sugar and water to a boil. Once the sugar has completely dissolved and the mixture begins to boil, stop stirring.
Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 8-10 minutes. The sugar syrup should be simmered and not boiled.
- Cooking times will vary depending on the proportion of water to sugar, various cooking and other factors.
- So when you caramelize sugar, it's best to use the color of the mixture as a guide.
Do not stir. It is important not to stir the mixture as the water evaporates and the sugar begins to caramelize.
- Stirring will enrich the syrup with air. This will lower the temperature of the syrup. This way the sugar will not darken properly.
- In addition, hot caramel will simply stick to the spoon or spatula, and this is very difficult to clean.
Watch the color. The best way To evaluate the progress of caramel, look very carefully at the color. The mixture will turn out from white, light golden to dark amber. This can happen very quickly, so don't leave the pan unattended! Burnt caramel is not edible and should be thrown away.
- Don't worry if the dark amber color seems to come in parts. All you have to do is carefully lift the pan by the handle and swirl the contents to distribute the color.
- It is also important to refrain from touching or tasting the caramel while cooking. Caramel usually reaches a temperature of about 170 °C, and if it comes into contact with the skin, it will burn it.
Know when caramelization is complete. Watch the mixture carefully until it reaches an even, rich, Brown. When the entire contents of the pan reach this even tone and the consistency becomes slightly thick, you know that the caramelization process is complete.
- Once the caramel reaches the desired color, immediately remove it from the heat.
- If you keep the caramel on the fire for too long, it will turn out almost black in color and have a burnt, bitter smell. If this happens, then you need to throw it away and start preparing a new one.
Stop the caramelization process. If you want to make sure that the cooking process has stopped and the sugar in the pan is not burned by residual heat, place the bottom of the pan in ice water for about 10 seconds.
- However, if you remove the pan from the heat too early, simply leave the caramel to continue cooking for a minute.
Use the prepared caramelized sugar for dessert immediately. Garnish the top of a flan with caramel, make candy canes, string sugar, or just drizzle on ice cream!
- After cooling, the caramel hardens very quickly. If you wait too long to garnish your dessert with caramel, it will be too hard to pour or drizzle.
- If this happens, simply place the pan back over low heat and wait for the caramel to melt again. It is better to rotate the pan with caramel rather than stir with a spoon or spatula.
Understand the wet caramelization method. The method involves dissolving sugar in water and then heating the mixture until the water evaporates and the sugar darkens.
Method 2 of 3: Dry caramelization method
Method 3 of 3: Colored Caramelized Sugar
Place organic sugar in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Place the pan over medium heat.
When the sugar is hot, add a drop of food coloring. Drip every 5 minutes.
- Use the lowest temperature regime, which allows the sugar to caramelize. This gives the greatest level of control and prevents the caramel from scorching or burning.
- When you are making caramel sugar and the process is nearing completion, the caramel can burn very quickly. Keep a close eye on the caramel mixture and when it is ready (or almost ready), immediately remove from the heat.
- Add a little lemon juice to the water and sugar mixture. This will add a subtle flavor to the caramel and prevent the caramel sauce from hardening.
Warnings
- Caramelized sugar can reach very high temperatures and can burn your skin if it splashes. Put on gloves and a shirt with long sleeves when cooking, or keep a bowl of ice water nearby so you can dip your hand in the water if you get burned.
- Do not cook in a pan that has not been thoroughly cleaned. Any remaining particles at the bottom of the pan can cause crystallization.
- Caramelizing sugar requires your full attention. Do not cook other dishes that require your time and attention while you are preparing the caramel, or this will most likely cause the caramel to burn.
What you will need
- Beaker
- White granulated sugar
- Lemon juice (optional)
- Thick-bottomed saucepan
- Silicone spatula or wooden spoon
- Ice water (optional)
The word “caramelization” often comes up in recipes. But not everyone knows how to do it and why. Why caramelize fruits? Should vegetables be caramelized? How to caramelize correctly?
Let's take things one by one, because this process can take your dishes to the next level and bring out many new flavor perspectives from common foods.
Caramelization is the process of melting sugar contained in foods, or added sugar, when heated. The caramelization process improves the taste and appearance of the product. Today it is fashionable to decorate desserts with bright elements, but in Lately the prevailing tendency is to move away from bright, unappetizing and harmful mastics to more healthy nutrition, so caramelized fruit is the solution. Caramelized fruits are preserved longer due to the natural preservative sugar, syrup gives them shine, and of course they have a sweeter taste.
Vegetables often contain some amount of sugar, and to improve the taste of a soup or other dish, vegetables can be caramelized, which is why vegetables are fried. Vegetables can be combined and simmered in one bowl.
How to properly caramelize fruits and vegetables?
Caramelization is carried out in dishes with a thick bottom, mainly cast iron frying pans. It is cast iron cookware that helps create the simmering effect when high temperature, which means to melt more sugar and create more caramel.
Caramelize apples, pears, pumpkin, carrots, onions, garlic, meat and even nuts. In other words, almost all vegetables, fruits and berries. They emphasize and shade the taste of caramel with all sorts of spices. For example, it is ideal to caramelize apples, pears, and cherries with cinnamon or star anise; sugar and wine vinegar will help make onions sweet and sour.
Additional ingredients for caramelization can be butter or sunflower oil, sugar or water. They can be used both together and separately. For example, butter and vegetable oil in a 1:1 ratio will create an amazing effect: butter will give a delicate taste, and the vegetable will give a golden color. Often only water and sugar are used; water is taken three times more than sugar.
There are several ways to caramelize
Method No. 1: Heat oil in a frying pan, fry fruits or vegetables until golden brown, then add sugar and continue caramelizing until the sugar melts. Depending on the size of the products, caramelization time can be 5-10 minutes.
Method No. 2: Pour water into a frying pan, add sugar, bring to a boil and lower the food into boiling sugar syrup. Fruits can be simmered in this syrup for 10-20 minutes; the finished product is considered when heat treatment has penetrated it, and this always changes color, giving slight transparency to the slices.
The only rule is not to use a grater when preparing food, but to cut it into pieces. If you chop fruits or vegetables in a blender or on a grater, most of the juice will be lost, but we need juice in order to create the right caramel crust, the sugar will melt and together with the juice we will get a sweet syrup.
And for those who want to quickly try to cook something using caramelized fruits or vegetables, we offer a recipe for carrot cupcakes with decorative edible carrots. By analogy, various figures, symbols and letters are cut out from bright vegetables and fruits for decoration.
Alexander Gushchin
I can’t vouch for the taste, but it will be hot :)
1 Mar 2017
Content
Caramelized fruits are a very popular dessert. Apples are especially often prepared in this way because, in addition to their amazing taste, they are distinguished by their spectacular appearance. Eat different ways the preparation of this delicious dessert, which all lovers of sweets should get acquainted with.
How to caramelize apples
The process of making dessert can be called moderately labor-intensive and troublesome. It is necessary to select suitable fruits: juicy and dense, it is desirable that they are not damaged. As for size, it is preferable to use small or medium fruits. They are washed and carefully dried, pricked whole onto sticks, then dipped in caramel. There is also a method for caramelizing apples in a pie pan in slices. Mainly, all recipes differ in the composition of the glaze.
Caramel for apples
The syrup is prepared from various components. The traditional composition includes granulated sugar and water, but other products can be added. The syrup is boiled in a thick-walled saucepan, stirring continuously. To make sure it is ready, you need to drop a little into cold water. A neat, firm ball should form quickly. So, to give apple caramel a particular color, add a little food coloring. Fruits with multi-colored glaze look even more original. Syrup is also made from toffees, but this option is more complex.
Machine for caramel apples
The dessert is very popular, so you can set up mass production and sell it on the street and in in public places. You will need to purchase a machine for caramel apples. It resembles a massive saucepan where you can make a very large volume of syrup at a time. Additionally, the caramelizer can be equipped with a device that automatically threads fruit onto skewers or sticks.
Caramel Apples Recipe
There are a lot of options for this dessert. You can take the recipe for caramel apples whole or in slices, in a frying pan and in the oven, Chinese style. It is worth noting that they all differ only in what products the syrup will be made from. Fruits can be served either simply glazed or with some kind of topping. They are decorated with sweet crumbs, a web of melted chocolate, and crushed nuts. Remember a few good recipes.
Apple in caramel
- Cooking time: half an hour.
- Number of servings: 1 person.
- Calorie content of the dish: 311 kcal.
- Purpose: dessert.
- Cuisine: Western.
With a high degree of confidence, we can say that both little gourmands and adults will not refuse a delicious apple in caramel. In this recipe, the glaze turns out to be viscous, it does not have a hard crust, which is very important for those who are afraid that the dessert will damage their teeth. If you want to make the dish original, add any coloring to the syrup. For example, cuttlefish ink will color the glaze black.
Ingredients:
- apples – 2 small;
- salt - on the tip of the knife;
- sugar – 45 g;
- citric acid - a pinch;
- cream – 15 ml;
- water – 25 ml.
Cooking method:
- Wash the fruits and dry them thoroughly with paper towels so that not a drop of water remains on them.
- Pierce them with wooden sticks from the handle side.
- Pour sugar and salt into a thick-walled saucepan, citric acid. Fill with water and place on the stove. Bring the syrup to a boil. When it turns brown, remove from heat.
- Pour in the cream and stir vigorously.
- Dip the apples into the syrup, swirl them around to coat evenly, and place them on a wire rack with some paper or a plate underneath. This is necessary to ensure that excess caramel glass.
- Caramelize the fruit several times until the glaze is gone. Leave them to set for half an hour, then serve.
Apple slices in caramel
- Number of servings: 6 persons.
- Purpose: dessert.
- Cuisine: Chinese.
The recipe for apple slices in caramel cannot be called simple, but the result is definitely worth the effort. They turn out very tasty, suitable as a filling or decoration for pies, cakes, or as an independent dessert. The glaze comes out crispy and has a pleasant brown-golden hue. Thanks to this, the dessert looks very beautiful.
Ingredients:
- honey - 2 tbsp. l.;
- water - half a glass;
- sugar – 350 g;
- apples – 6 pcs.;
- lemon juice – 2 tbsp. l.
Cooking method:
- Wash and dry the fruits, remove the peels. Remove the core and cut the pulp into slices.
- Pour sugar into the water, add honey and place on the stove. Cook, without stopping stirring, over low heat. Halfway through the process, add lemon juice.
- Pour the resulting syrup over the fruit slices, let cool slightly and serve.
Caramelized apples in a frying pan
- Cooking time: half an hour.
- Number of servings: 6 persons.
- Calorie content of the dish: 2101 kcal.
- Purpose: dessert.
- Kitchen: homemade.
- Difficulty of preparation: easy.
The process of cooking caramelized apples in a frying pan is simple and will not take you much time. It is recommended to serve this dessert not in its pure form, but with some appetizing addition, for example, fresh berries or chocolate syrup. For the dish, it is advisable to use dense sweet and sour fruits so that the taste is contrasting. Read how to caramelize apples in a frying pan.
Ingredients:
- apples – 6 small;
- butter – 75 g;
- sugar – 75 grams.
Cooking method:
- Wash and peel the fruit, remove the core and cut the pulp into eight slices.
- Melt the butter in a frying pan.
- Place apple slices. Fry them until golden brown and soft.
- Add sugar. Cook the fruit pieces, stirring gently until each is coated with the glaze. Try not to break them into pieces.
- Place on a plate and serve immediately. You can pour the syrup remaining in the pan over the dessert.
Apples in caramel on a stick
- Cooking time: hour.
- Number of servings: 10 persons.
- Calorie content of the dish: 3506 kcal.
- Purpose: dessert.
- Cuisine: English.
If you have a children's party coming up, prepare caramel apples on a stick for the kids. You can decorate them in an interesting way using ready-made sweet sprinkles, liquid chocolate, and custard. Everyone will be interested in trying this dessert. For the dish, you can use sour or sweet fruits, the main thing is that their pulp is dense and not loose. Remember how to make caramel apples at home.
Ingredients:
- brown sugar – 480 g;
- cinnamon – 1 tsp;
- apples – 10 pcs.;
- fatty butter - a tablespoon;
- distilled water – 0.2 l;
- vinegar – 2 tsp.
Cooking method:
- In a deep saucepan, combine water and sugar and place over medium heat. Wait for all the grains to completely dissolve.
- When the syrup begins to boil, reduce the heat. Add oil, cinnamon, vinegar.
- Let the liquid simmer for 10 minutes, but do not stop stirring.
- Pour boiling water into a large container and place on the stove.
- Place the fruit on skewers. First dip them in boiling water for a couple of minutes and then blot them dry.
- Place the fruits in a saucepan with sugar syrup, turn several times and place to dry on a surface covered with parchment paper.
Baked apples in caramel
- Cooking time: 50 minutes.
- Number of servings: 6 persons.
- Calorie content of the dish: 1958 kcal.
- Purpose: dessert.
- Cuisine: Czech.
- Difficulty of preparation: high.
Baked apples in caramel are a delicious dessert that is good for the body. They turn out very fragrant thanks to cinnamon, lemon, ginger. However, if some spices are not your favorite, you can substitute them. A small piece of soft baked fruit in a sugar glaze won’t hurt even infant. Read how to make caramelized apples.
Ingredients:
- apples – 6 medium;
- sugar – 60 g;
- honey – 4 tsp;
- butter – 110 g;
- ground cinnamon – 3 tsp;
- walnuts – 75 g;
- ground ginger – 1 tsp;
- grated lemon zest – 6 tsp.
Cooking method:
- Wash the fruit, cut out the core, but leave the bottom. Put an equal amount of honey, zest, nuts, ginger, and cinnamon into each fruit.
- Place the fruit in a mold, pour a little water into it and place in the oven, preheated to 170 degrees, for 25 minutes.
- Melt the butter in a frying pan, add sugar. Stir the syrup until it thickens.
- Pour the glaze evenly over each fruit, cool slightly and serve.
Apples in caramel in the oven
- Cooking time: half an hour.
- Number of servings: 2 persons.
- Calorie content of the dish: 835 kcal.
- Purpose: dessert.
- Kitchen: homemade.
- Difficulty of preparation: medium.
It’s not that difficult to make flavorful caramel apples in the oven. They are very sweet, soft, and look beautiful. It is advisable to choose red fruits. Their pulp should not be loose, otherwise after baking it will turn into an unappetizing mush. Glazed apples go well with savory baked goods and creamy ice cream. Read on to learn how to bake them correctly.
Ingredients:
- apples – 2 pcs.;
- vanilla sugar – 0.5 tsp;
- butter – 1 tsp. in fruit and 40 g in glaze;
- sugar – 2 tsp. for fruit and 4 tbsp. l. into syrup;
- cinnamon – 1 tsp.
Cooking method:
- Wash the fruit. Cut them in half and remove the core. Leave the bottom thicker.
- Mix cinnamon with two teaspoons of sugar and 1 tsp. butter, vanilla. Fill the cavities in the fruit halves with this paste.
- Place the fruit on a baking sheet and cover with water. Bake at 180 degrees in the oven for 10 minutes.
- Dissolve the remaining butter and sugar in a saucepan. Cook for 5-7 minutes, stirring with a wooden spatula.
- Remove the baked fruit from the oven, pour in the syrup and serve.
Chinese caramel apples
- Cooking time: 1.5 hours.
- Number of servings: 6 persons.
- Calorie content of the dish: 2285 kcal.
- Purpose: dessert.
- Cuisine: Chinese.
- Difficulty of preparation: high.
It is believed that Chinese caramel apples are the recipe that was invented first. Pieces of fruit prepared in this way can often be found on the menu of oriental restaurants. They are first deep fried and only then coated with a sweet, glossy glaze. This dish looks simply amazing, and the taste will satisfy any gourmet.
Ingredients:
- white sesame – 40 g;
- eggs – 2 pcs.;
- sesame oil – 70 ml;
- flour – 200 g;
- honey - 2 tbsp. l.;
- water – 120 ml;
- sugar – 350 g;
- apples – 6 pcs.;
- lemon juice – 2 tbsp. l.;
- vegetable oil – 800 ml.
Cooking method:
- Beat the eggs, gradually adding water and flour. The resulting batter should be homogeneous, reminiscent of pancake batter in thickness.
- Wash and dry the fruits, remove the peels. Remove the core and cut into slices.
- Dip the slices in batter and fry in hot vegetable oil. Place them on a paper napkin to absorb excess fat.
- Heat sesame oil. Pour sugar into it, add honey. Cook, without stopping stirring, over low heat. Halfway through, add lemon juice and sesame seeds.
- Prick the apple slices with a skewer, dip them into the syrup, and then into ice water for a couple of seconds.
- Place the dessert on a plate greased with olive oil and serve.
Remember a few culinary tricks:
- Liquid chocolate will help make caramel apples even more beautiful. Using a pastry syringe, draw openwork patterns on the fruit.
- It is recommended to glaze small fruits; even the ranet variety will do. They will be convenient for children to eat.
- The colder the fruit, the faster the glaze will set on it. In this case, it is better not to completely remove the caramel from the heat, but to transfer it to a water bath so that it does not begin to harden.
- If a recipe calls for corn syrup and you don't have that ingredient, replace it with starch mixed with a little water.
- Keep the heat low when melting the sugar. Then the glaze will be uniform and smooth, with a beautiful shine. If the mixture boils while there are still grains in it, the coating layer will completely lose its gloss.
- If you need to store the dessert for some time, wrap each fruit in foil or parchment and place it in the refrigerator. Keep them like this for no longer than five days.
- Try to make enough syrup to cover several layers of frosting.
- If the mass is too thick, heat it in a water bath.
Video: Caramelizing apples
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Apples in caramel - recipes with photos. How to make caramelized apples at home
A dessert like caramelized fruit became a discovery for me not so long ago. Hard fruits, even slightly unripe ones, are especially suitable for frying in caramel syrup. But bananas, peaches, and grapes can be cooked just as tasty - the main thing is not to keep them on the fire for too long, otherwise they risk turning into a delicious sweet fruit porridge.
There are a lot of recipes for making fried fruits. Sometimes a dry frying pan is used for this, sometimes sugar or honey syrup. In addition, the fruits themselves can be rolled in breadcrumbs or flour before frying. And sometimes cognac is poured over the fruit and then set on fire.
Fruits in caramel can be either independent or an addition to ice cream. Often fried fruits are served with some kind of sauce. Fried fruits can also be a side dish for a meat dish.
To prepare the dessert, I used firm apples and pears, as well as oranges.
Cooking steps:
Fruits are the healthiest dessert filled with vitamins. And despite the fact that this fact is widely known, many of us continue to consume sweets, chocolates and cookies as a sweet treat.
However, once you think about it, you can understand that with a little effort, you can combine your favorite sweets and healthy fruits in such a way as to obtain a unique dessert.
Thus, a popular option for sweets are fruits in caramel. Let's look at how to prepare a sweet treat. Simple and delicious recipe you will find in our article.
How to prepare caramelized fruits?
There are a wide variety of recipes and methods for caramelizing fruits. We will look at the simplest and most basic.
So, in this recipe we will caramelize an apple, pear and orange, but you can add or remove any of the products according to your needs. taste preferences. For frying, take only hard fruits; soft or overripe fruits should not be used.
To prepare we will need:
- butter (3 tablespoons);
- granulated sugar (3 tablespoons);
- nuts of your choice (walnuts, almonds, peanuts or any others).
When calculating the proportions of ingredients, proceed from the rule that for each fruit you will need 1 tablespoon of sugar and the same amount of butter. Accordingly, when increasing or decreasing the amount of fruit, it is necessary to make adjustments to the used volumes of other components of the dish.
So, first of all, you need to prepare the fruit. To do this, they must be thoroughly washed and dried. Then we peel the fruit and cut it into slices (we divide the orange into slices with our hands in order to preserve the integrity of the pulp). And you also need to chop the nuts into small pieces (you can use a blender for these purposes).
Now let's start creating caramel. To do this, put butter and sugar in a heated frying pan. We wait until the mixture acquires a homogeneous structure, the sugar melts and the whole mass begins to acquire a brown tint.
Now it's time to add fruit. This can be done gradually (one type at a time) or one time (all fruits at once). The main thing is that the fruit should be arranged in only one layer (so be guided by the size of your frying pan). Fry the slices for 4-5 minutes on each side (monitor the readiness of the fruit, as this indicator may vary depending on the power of your oven).
After the fruits are ready, remove them from the pan and fry the nuts for 2-3 minutes.
To serve, place fruit on a plate and then sprinkle with nuts. You can also decorate the dish with a few mint leaves or add whipped cream. Bon appetit!
This dessert can be used as an independent treat or added to ice cream, pancakes or pancakes. You can also use caramelized fruits to make a filling for pies and other homemade baked goods.
Thus, in just a few minutes in your kitchen you can create a delicious and interesting dessert that your household will definitely appreciate.
To learn how to properly make fruit in caramel, see below.
