Making caramel

[Cameramankeith]

One of my favourite treats is a Millionaire's Shortbread. Love the texture of biting through a chocolate topping to the caramel beneath then munching on the shortbread! I'm not an experienced baker. I do some pretty reasonable cakes and have experimented with chocolate fillings and toppings etc. I had a recepie for MS from a newspaper and it included how to make your own caramel. My sister thought it was quite an involved process with eight different ingredients for the caramel but I thought I'd give it a go. The recepie gave precise instructions on how to make the caramel including what temperature to mix it at so I went and brought a sugar thermometer.
I've since made the recepie twice and had mixed success. Actually the first time was better than the second but on both occasions I had one problem. The recepie stated that the caramel mix needed to achieve a temperature of 120c. No matter how high I turned up the gas under the small saucepan I was using it wouldn't get up to this, falling some 10 degrees or so short. As a result the mix was always rather runny.
So my question is what do members think I should do. Does anyone have a failsafe recepie for caramel? My sister mentioned something called dulce de leche which is an alternative ready made product.
I look forward to getting some comments.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

One of my favourite treats is a Millionaire's Shortbread. Love the texture of biting through a chocolate topping to the caramel beneath then munching on the shortbread! I'm not an experienced baker. I do some pretty reasonable cakes and have experimented with chocolate fillings and toppings etc. I had a recepie for MS from a newspaper and it included how to make your own caramel. My sister thought it was quite an involved process with eight different ingredients for the caramel but I thought I'd give it a go. The recepie gave precise instructions on how to make the caramel including what temperature to mix it at so I went and brought a sugar thermometer.
I've since made the recepie twice and had mixed success. Actually the first time was better than the second but on both occasions I had one problem. The recepie stated that the caramel mix needed to achieve a temperature of 120c. No matter how high I turned up the gas under the small saucepan I was using it wouldn't get up to this, falling some 10 degrees or so short. As a result the mix was always rather runny.
So my question is what do members think I should do. Does anyone have a failsafe recepie for caramel? My sister mentioned something called dulce de leche which is an alternative ready made product.
I look forward to getting some comments.

Hello @cameramkeith,

eight ingredients sounds like a standard caramel:

• sugar
• water
• salt
• cream of tartar
• corn syrup
• heavy cream
• unsalted butter
• vanilla

Caramel is a lesson in patience. The rise in temperature slows as it increases. The larger the batch, the longer it takes. The more humid the day, the longer it takes to evaporate the water in the caramel. And it never fails when I decide to make a caramel, we have rainstorm. So I stand in the kitchen for what seem like hours waiting for that 10 degrees.​

​

​

It’s really just a matter of waiting it out​