My first experience with making “caramel” was in a high school home ec class. The recipe melted brown sugar, butter, and Karo syrup in the microwave, added baking soda, and then poured the concoction over a grocery bag full of popped corn and microwaved it until coated. It was so easy that when I began to make true caramel sauce, I lacked the trepidation that many people have about melting sugar until it is molten liquid.

As I explain this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, making caramel successfully at home is all about becoming comfortable with the process and using the right tools. A pan that seems excessively large for the project is key to preventing a bubbling volcano of liquid sugar. A sturdy whisk is a must so that you can keep stirring the sugar steadily and constantly. Avoiding multitasking is crucial to controlling the process. But watching the sugar change as you stir—from white granules to tan clumps to pure liquid that darkens the longer you cook it—is part of the fun.

Learn more about making caramel and get the complete recipe for Homemade Caramel Sauce in my column.

Make it, share it.
Tag @twiceastastyblog and #twiceastastyblog

Twice as Tasty

Making caramel can, and sometimes does, go wrong. I’ve had it seize up because I got distracted and stopped stirring. While I was making the batch I poured over ice cream and photographed for my column, my silicone whisk came off its handle and I had to quickly improvise a water bath so that I could finish the sauce without damaging my nonstick pans with my backup metal whisk. So in my experience, if you keep a cool head, your hot caramel sauce will come out just fine.

Once you’ve added the cream to the melted sugar, caramel sauce has many uses. It’s one of my favorite decorative glazes for Triple Ginger Cake. It’s delicious drizzled over grilled apples or peaches or a bowl of vanilla ice cream. If you have a sweet tooth, you might like it on one of these recipes on the blog. You can find more recipes that can handle the sweet caramel in the recipe index.

• Rhubarb–Apple Crisp
• Crumble-Top Deep-Dish Apple Pie
• Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls
• Pumpkin Quick Bread
• Hot Pearl Barley with Honeyed Nuts
• Dutch Baby

Want more Twice as Tasty recipes? Get my books! Click here to order a personally signed, packaged, and shipped copy of The Complete Guide to Pickling directly from me. I also share tasty ways to use pickles in The Pickled Picnic; it’s only available here.