What to do if the caramel is liquid?

Soft, viscous, perfectly in tune with the taste of many kinds of confectionery, caramel should have a certain thickness, so beautifully flow down the side of the cake or appetizing stretch with a bite of dessert. But, sometimes when you make it yourself, it turns out liquid. What is the mistake and how to cook the "right" caramel? This is what we will talk about below.

Why is caramel thin

Caramel sauce should ideally be thick, so that it flows from a spoon slowly, viscous. It is used for layering cakes, filling cakes, sweets. If the caramel is used to decorate a cake or a pie, it is heated in a microwave oven, placing it in a pastry bag. Then it is applied to the top and sides of the dessert.

Here are a few reasons why the caramel turned out liquid:

1. As long as the mass has not cooled, it is fatter in consistency than it should be.
2. Failure to comply with the proportions specified in the recipe - for example, more cream than it should be.
3. Uncooked mass, which is removed from the fire immediately after the introduction of the cream.

To avoid mistakes, when cooking caramel, you need to accurately follow the proportions of products, weighing them on a scale, rather than relying on "eye". After adding the cream, you need to keep the mass on the fire for 5 minutes, until it begins to boil again. Be sure to let the cooked caramel sauce cool completely and only then use it for its intended purpose.

How to make liquid caramel thicker

If still the caramel turned out liquid and not suitable for dessert, you can fix the situation. You need to dilute a teaspoon of corn starch in a tablespoon of cold water (250 grams. caramel) and after the introduction to the mass, cook over low heat until it thickens. Corn starch can be replaced by potato starch.

For the layer of cakes, liquid caramel can be mixed with roasted, chopped peanuts or walnuts. In this form it is quite suitable for the cake.

Butter can also help to make the caramel cream thicker. It should be a little more than half of the caramel. At first, the butter is beaten until it is white, and then gradually, in portions, the caramel is added. One tablespoon at a time. If you put a lot of caramel sauce at once, the mass will separate.

The perfect caramel recipe

The classic recipe for making homemade caramel includes ingredients such as:

• 150 g. cream, at least 30% fat;
• 220 gr. of sugar;
• 100 gr. of butter, 82.5% fat;
• a little salt.

The first thing to do is to melt the sugar. It is better to use a wide pan with a thick bottom.

Warning! It is not advisable to leave too much sugar on the fire, otherwise the candy will be bitter, and its color will be dark.

To make caramel, take fine-grained sugar, which is added to the pan gradually. You can divide the entire portion into three parts. As soon as the first one is melted, the second one is added, etc. As it melts, the sugar is gently stirred with a silicone spatula.

When the sugar is completely melted, add the cold - taken out of the freezer, the butter. At the same time it is necessary to heat cream on another burner, which is poured into the boiling sweet mass. The cream should be hot, almost boiling. Everything is stirred and salt is added immediately. It remains to cool this masterpiece of culinary art at room temperature and use as intended. If necessary, caramel is better stored in a glass jar in the refrigerator. It does not lose its taste qualities for a month.

Important! In no case you can not change the temperature of heating during the melting of sugar. On a strong fire, it will get burnt, and on a weak fire the process of crystallization will begin.