Caramel!

My cravings have been running rampant all week! It's getting bad.... That said, I have made some pretty good stuff because of it. For example, Caramel! For months, I have been wanting to try my hand at making caramel or some other type of butter candy, such as butterscotch or butter brittle. As far as I know, the concept is simple... warm up some butter, and add some sugar. So that's what I did...

I waited until my boys were in the bath (of course!), and then I turned a small pan on medium heat, adding about 1/2 a stick of butter to it. Once the butter was melted, I sprinkled about 1/4 a cup of Sucanat Sugar, 1 lb. to it. (Sucanat stands for sugar cane natural, and is what happens when they take juice from a sugar cane, and dry it without heating it up or removing ANY of the nutrients that naturally occur in it. It is very much like brown sugar, except that brown sugar has been refined - had all of its nutrients removed - and then had a small amount of molasses added back to it to give it the brown sugar flavor.)

I quickly realized that 1/4 cup of sugar was not enough to blend with the amount of butter I had, so I added another about 1/4 a cup to the pan, and stirred. At some point, I reduced the heat to low. On my electric stove, medium = 5, and low = 3. After it was blended as well as it was going to get, I strained it through a paper towel (or two, it was hot! lol), squeezing to get as much of the excess butter out of it as possible.

I spread the mixture out on a sheet of aluminum foil to cool, and poured the butter back into the pan. The mix quickly hardened, and formed... Butter Brittle! Cool... BUT, it was WAY TOO DARN SWEET! I now know why butter brittle is always made using a salted nut, you have to balance out the sweet, or even the biggest sweet lover is going to die from a diabetic shock!

Moving on...

The butter I poured into the pan was almost enough to coat the bottom, so I did not add any more to it. Note: my small pan is what? 6 inches in diameter? Not that the size actually matters, it's the ratios and proportions that count... I think.

To the butter, which at this point might more accurately be described as ghee, I added some cream. Just enough to coat the bottom of the pan. Then I added about 1/4 a cup of Sucanat Sugar, 1 lb. to it, starting out small on purpose figuring I could always add more if needed. I stirred, temporarily returning the heat to medium, and then lowering it again, and the mixture blended beautifully! It turned into a gorgeous looking caramel sauce. I have GOT to learn how to add pictures to my posts!!!!

I tasted it..... Oh. My. GODS! YUMMY! I'm in heaven I'm in heaven I'm in heaven!!! Why oh why do I have to be effin diabetic?

After the mix cooled a bit, it was a good consistency. Like a thick creamy sauce, and just several hairs shy of being that gooey chewy candy consistency. I hear that if I had raised the temp a bit more, and then cooled it off a bit more quickly, I could have made it the consistency I just described. This is bad news; the LAST thing I need is to learn how to make candy! My boys are going to be diabetic, and I am going to die an early and horrible death! But... on the bright side, we are going to be in heaven before we die, lol!