Caramel Sauce

Okay. So the whole making your own Dulce de Leche (aka Caramel Apple Dip) by boiling a can of sweetened condensed milk is pretty cool. But sometimes you want something that doesn't still have a hint of sweetened condensed milk flavor. Sometimes you want something a little more amazing. Something that when people eat it they say, "Did you make this?" And you can say, "Yes. I did." And they may or may not believe you. Because its just that good. That's kind of the way I feel about this caramel sauce. Its REALLY yummy. I've used it on ice cream sundaes and I've also drizzled it over cheesecake (SO good!). One time I even drizzled it all over my pan of brownie batter before I baked them. That was really good, too. Try this. You'll like it!

Caramel Sauce
1 cup sugar
1/4-1/2 cup water (opt-see below)
6 Tbs butter, chopped into small pieces
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/2 tsp vanilla

Have all of your ingredients measured and prepped next to your stove so you can just toss them in when the time comes. Seriously. Otherwise you might burn your sugar while you get it ready. I'm terrible at prepping, so take my word on it!

In a large heavy bottomed skillet or saucepan, heat your sugar and water over medium high heat. Stir constantly. As the water evaporates and the sugar gets dry you may want to stir more gently so you don't get big sugar clumps. It will start to melt. Gently stir or shake the pan. (You don't have to use the water, you can just melt the sugar to start, but the water helped me when I was first making this to reduce the risk of burning the sugar. I do both with and without now.)

Allow melted sugar to reach a caramel-ly/amber color. Err on lighter rather than darker. The darker it is, the more of a burned sugar taste your sauce will have (that may be what you like though!). You might need to move the pan off the heat to stir in any last sugar if its darkening quickly. As soon as sugar is melted and is the desired color, add your butter and whisk until melted. Remove pan from heat. Count to 3 and then add your whipping cream and vanilla. As you stir this in the mixture might foam up a bit. Whisk until smooth. Pour into heat safe container and allow to cool. Can store up to 2-4 weeks in the fridge. Can reheat before serving!

Salted Caramel Variation: Add 1 1/2 tsp ground sea salt for a salted caramel sauce. Stir this in with the cream and vanilla. Its important to use ground sea salt and not course salt--otherwise it will not mix in well.