Once you know how to make home made salted caramel, you will never buy caramel again. And this easy-to-follow recipe with step-by-step instructions that will guide you in making the most delicious, soft salted caramel! This caramel makes an excellent macaron or cake filling along side a ganache or buttercream!
Salted Caramel that is Quick and Easy to Make
I remember that before I started making my own salted caramel I thought it would take a lot of time and be easy to get wrong. This caramel is neither of those things! I love how easy this recipe is – it turns out great every time and takes 10 minutes of active cooking time. You will find yourself making it again and again and learning the simple recipe by heart.
Perfect soft and salted caramel consistency!
This recipe makes a caramel that is of soft, pourable and almost liquid consistency at room temperature. Once chilled in the fridge it becomes spoonable, like a very thick yoghurt. Use it as you would a jam or curd in recipes – alongside a thicker filling like a buttercream or a ganache. The image below shows the caramel in use (at room temperature).
Tips and Tricks
Keep an eye out for the dark amber colour!
Watch the sugar syrup as it cooks and remove it from the heat as soon as it turns a dark amber colour. I have tried my best to capture the colour in the image below:
Allow around an hour for Salted Caramel to cool…
… before you use it. Especially if you are planning to use it along side buttercream or ganache. You could pour it on to a dinner plate and put it in the fridge to cool faster if you are in a rush.
Use good quality salt
As caramel has so few ingredients, the quality of the salt that you use matters!
How to fill macarons with this caramel
Here is a link to my macaron recipe I recommend mixing some caramel in with vanilla buttercream to give it a caramel flavour. Then pipe rings of buttercream on to each macaron shell before piping some caramel into the centre of each ring. If you use this caramel alone it will slide out of the macaron shells!
Soft Salted Caramel Macaron or Cake Filling
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Weigh out sugar directly into a saucepan and add the water then swirl the pan to combine220 g Sugar
- Prepare cream and vanilla by combining in a jug or bowl220 g Double Cream/Heavy Cream, 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- Put the saucepan with the sugar and water on a medium-high heat and very carefully and gently move the caramel around by moving the pan occasionally. Heat until the sugar syrup reaches a dark amber colour (see image)
- Remove the pan from the heat, and while whisking continuously, slowly pour in the cream and vanilla mixture.
- Once combined, pour the salted caramel into a heat proof container & mix in salt.1/2 tsp Good quality salt – flaked or ground
- Leave the finished salted caramel to cool at room temperature for around an hour before using it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Once homemade Salted Caramel is cooled it can be stored in the refrigerator in an air tight container for up to 4 weeks.
There are too many uses for Salted Caramel to list them all but here are some ideas! Add salted caramel to greek yoghurt to make caramel yoghurt, use it as an ice cream topping, stir it into lattes, top pancakes with it or fill crepes. Its worth making a batch just to have on hand for these uses!
I haven’t tried it yet myself, but I believe you could use oat or coconut cream in place of double cream.