Caramel sugar syrup
Very simple and quick, for cakes and any baking! You can make this caramel sugar syrup in 30 minutes. The key is not letting the caramel set up — there's a trick for that, which you'll learn in the recipe. You can use the syrup to soak cakes, to decorate, or as a sweet sauce.
Cooking method
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Step 1:
How do you make caramel sugar syrup? Gather your ingredients. I recommend using bottled or filtered water. Instead of vanilla sugar, you can use vanilla or vanillin (just a knife-tip's worth).
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Step 2:
Put one-third of the sugar into the saucepan you'll cook the caramel in. It's best to use a heavy-bottomed pan so nothing scorches or sticks to the bottom. Set the saucepan on the stove.
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Step 3:
Over low heat, melt the sugar until it turns light brown. The sugar will hiss and bubble, so be careful.
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Step 4:
Take the saucepan off the stove and pour in the rest of the sugar, stirring the whole mass quickly. The melted sugar will harden and caramelize fast — that's normal.
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Step 5:
Pour the water into the sugar mixture and add the vanilla sugar. Put the saucepan back on the stove. Cook the caramel at a gentle simmer, skimming off any foam that forms. Stir the sugar mass with a spatula or spoon. Keep the caramel on the heat until all the sugar has fully dissolved.
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Step 6:
The caramel sugar syrup should be neither runny nor thick. Reduce it to that consistency for 7 to 10 minutes. If you reduce it too far, the sugar can simply set and turn into hard caramel. The timing will vary — it depends on your stove.
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Step 7:
The caramel sugar syrup is ready! It's amber-brown, clear, and inviting, catching the light in every color of the rainbow!
- Caramel sugar syrup isn't hard to make at all. All you need is sugar and water; to flavor the syrup you can use vanilla sugar or vanillin, or add cinnamon — but ground cinnamon makes the texture uneven and the syrup less clear, so if you want, add a cinnamon stick and then remove it. That said, caramel syrup has its own pleasant "caramel" aroma. It's handy for soaking cakes and pastries, drizzling over crepes, fritters, and any baking, and over desserts made with cottage cheese, fruit, and berries.
- For cooking, it's best to use filtered or bottled water with a neutral taste. If you use tap water, keep in mind it can give the dish an unpleasant off-flavor.
- Be careful when adding the water — the caramel mass is extremely hot, so the water hisses and the syrup foams up.
Caloric content of the products possible in the composition of the dish
- Granulated sugar - 398 kcal/100g
- Sugar - 398 kcal/100g
- Water - 0 kcal/100g
- Vanilla sugar - 379 kcal/100g
