How to make Salted Caramel sauce, from scratch

How I love the caramel sauce topping on Vanilla Ice cream!    Caramel sauce is done by mixing caramelized sugar with cream.  They are used on toppings of many desserts like creme caramel, flan, pudding, frosted cupcakes etc.  Making them, at home requires careful attention.

Safety precautions, like maintaining a considerable distance from stove-top or wearing gloves is advisable since there are chances of coming in contact with very hot sugar.  But, with little caution and attention - you can make these beauties in less than 30 minutes!

I have written this post with pics, if you have any queries- please feel free to post in the comment section.  If you are a beginner, do read our tips at the end to achieve this godly sauce.  <3

Ingredients required

• 100 grams of caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 45 grams of unsalted butter (If you are using salted butter, you can skip adding salt)
• 1/4 cup of Dairy cream (I used Saudia brand)

Method

Please keep all the ingredients handy.  In a deep and dry saucepan, add the sugar in a simmer flame.  Let the sugar melt on its own.

Please don't wander off, keep a close watch.  Don't stir.   You can tilt the pan, though if you find the sugar to be melting unevenly.  

As we find the sugar melts and slowly is turning into golden amber color.  

Sugar is completely melted and caramelized into a lovely golden brown color. Now add in salt.  

Add in butter cubes as well, and stir them up with a wooden spoon.  

After stirring, add in the cream.  As you add in cream, it may steam up or bubble up, so be careful.  Also, the cream should be in warm condition when you add.  One suggestion is that you may heat them up alternatively when you get all the sugar melted so that by the time you add the cream, it is warm.  

See how it splutters or bubbles.  If you find clumps of caramel, undissolved in cream, don't worry keep on stirring you will get a clear sauce.  

See, how I got a clear sauce.  Switch off the gas.  

I placed them in an air-tight container and refrigerated them.  There are times when you find your sauce to be too runny or too hard.  If you find them runny, you can reduce them in a saucepan.  If found too hard, you can heat them up with a tsp of cream to get the correct consistency. 

Happy cooking :D  :D  

Whole Wheat tutti fruity muffins

Hi friends, I am back with yet another whole wheat delicacy.  With everyday chores and three-course meals- one more confusion gets its way when we need to pack some snacks for kids.  I always pack my kid with fruits, but she insists on getting some sweet other than fruits.  That's how these muffins happened.  I got the original recipe from file section of HBG, twisted it to my own taste and result was amazing.  Unlike other eggless bakes, which often end up fudgy, these muffins were soft, cakey textured with an awesome taste.

I made these with tutti frutti.  You can replace these with almonds, cashews or chocolate chips, whatever you got a stock of, but, believe me, kids really dig the tutti frutti.   Now, my kid takes almost two to three of them, in order to share with her friends.  It's a win-win situation for both because I know that I have packed her something healthy and she ends up having her sweet tooth cravings as well.  

Whipped cream - From Amul tetrapack

Whipped cream is essential in any baking.... sandwich them between cake, pastry or top in your favourite puddings, trifle... this cream enriches every dessert  :P  Though they are also made from non-dairy cream (which is far less expensive and requires lesser time to whip), the latter's  reduced reach or availability makes it an tougher part to execute.

Though, whipped cream is said to be undone with tetra packs due to those  interrupting stabilizers , separating the liquid cream from solid one helps us to recover from the same, also increasing the fat content in the cream.  I just went through the fact, when I had an glance at Nita Mehta's Cakes and Cake Decorations. She has clearly explained that separating liquid cream, and whipping up the solid one might result in good outcome and all thanks to her, it did :D

So, here comes the mighty solution for all-time-bakers.....

You will be needing 200 ml of Amul fresh cream, 2 tbspn of castor sugar (or icing sugar)

Do not shake the Cream, refrigerate for minimum two hours.  Open the Amul Fresh Cream pack, and separate the creamy part, reserve liquid in separate bowl (You can use liquid cream for cooking purpose)

And this creamy part is placed below ice-bath (an large bowl filled with ice-cubes)  and we start to whip using electric blender.  

After five minutes, when volume almost doubles, add icing sugar and continue to whip.

It will take another ten to twelve minutes, and there you get nice stiff peaks.

Aren't they lovely??

DO NOT OVERBEAT THEM, as there are chances of butter separating from the mixture.  Use them as such.  If you want to store, freeze.

Linking this to CCC Challenge, hosted by Srivalli