Caramel Sauce

I don't know that I would necessarily describe myself as a chocolate or a caramel person. It seems that for me there is a time for both. But every now and then I just get a hankering for some good ol caramel flavor. This weekend was one of those hankering moments. Brad had told me that for our Valentines Day dessert he wanted me to make Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Squares. To try and make it a little more special I thought I'd try a recipe for caramel sauce I found at http://www.goodeatsblog.com/search/label/caramel to drizzle on top of the cake and then serve it warm with vanilla ice cream. I liked this recipe but again did not love it. So that being said, I have posted my favorite caramel sauce recipe below this one and don't know that I will ever venture from it again. If it ain’t broke, don't fix it right?

Caramel Sauce
from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody (original recipe from Baking: From My Home To Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, Houghton Mifflin 2006)


2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
1-1/2 tbsp light corn syrup
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
Put the sugar, water and corn syrup in a medium heavy bottomed saucepan, stir just to combine the ingredients and then put the pan over medium-high heat. Heat, without stirring , until the caramel turns deep amber., 5-10 minutes. Lower the heat a bit and, standing back from the saucepan add the cream and butter. When the spatters are less vehement, stir to calm down the caramel and dissolve any lumps.

The reason why I didn't LOVE this one as much as I do the one below was because it just wasn't as creamy as I like my caramel. I think in part it is because of the method used to cook it. I found that this sauce had a slightly burnt caramel flavor. Granted I could have slightly scolded it too. My friend however didn't think it tasted burnt when I had her try it. I think if I did decide to try this one again what I would do differently is not let the caramel turn quite so amber before adding the cream and butter to see if that does the trick.

Nats FAVORITE- no fail- Caramel Sauce
Pillsbury.com

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 cup whipping cream

In medium saucepan, combine all sauce ingredients; mix well. Bring to a boil. Boil over medium heat 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; cool to room temperature.