CathyZ (or anyone who has made her caramel or Gayle's similar version)

M

marilynfl

Moderator
I cooked it to 239, so it didn't set, which is what I wanted: a delicious caramel sauce.

I made half-batch and filled three 1 cup jars. The thing is: I'm keeping them in the frig and the butter has migrated to the surface. Should it do that?

Also, I'm warming it up and enjoying it with tart sliced apples and honey roasted peanuts, but I'm wondering how many times I can keep zapping the jar.

Never having made this before, I'm not sure if this is normal...or if I goofed up the recipe like I goofed up Gayle's chocolate fudge repeatedly by over-heating it.

Thanks.

Oh, do you know what temperature I should bring it to to make caramel apples...get the caramel to STICK to the apple.

 
Can't say I ever had the butter migrate to the surface but I would say

zap it as many times as you want until it is gone. I used to can it and keep it on the shelf, not refrigerate it even when open (it never lasted long- we ate it) and I also used to cook it to just below the soft ball stage (I don't know the temp, Marilyn- I just eyeballed it) and used it as caramel sauce on ice cream and as a drizzle over desserts. Again, I canned and never refrigerated it. We used this sauce in our ice cream shop all the time for ten years. Just experiment with caramel apples- I know you can get it right! By the way, when I used to make caramel apples I learned to use room temp apples and scrub the surface stuff off them. I had the best luck with apples I picked off a friend's tree.

 
First off, you can't keep zapping it - I found this out the hard way, too, cause it crystalizes.

Second, it can separate for different reasons:
1. When initially heating butter and sugar together, they should melt about the same rate, so the temp should be low.
2. If you haven't stirred it constantly when it says to.
3. The temperature has gone up or down too fast at some point.
i.e. you can't put the hot caramel into a jar then into the fridge before it's completely cool

You can just wipe off the top surface and hope it doesn't reoccur.

For coating apples, you have to wash the apples well - squirt some lemon juice or something into the wash water - to get the waxy coating off - this keeps the caramel from sticking.

 
Thank you ladies! I'm almost afraid to make another batch of this stuff. I'm sure it's skewing my

blood sugar in NOT A GOOD WAY. But my taste buds are so very, very happy.

Crisp tart organic Gala (who knew??) with warm sauce and crunchy honey-roasted peanuts. Fiber never tasted this good.

(ah...ya...the fiber in the apple, the protein from the nuts...that's how I'm justifying all this.)

 
cheezz, I used to zap the sauce a lot and it was fine- never had it crystalize.

Maybe I just didn't know it could so it didn't!

 
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