Caramel or Salted Caramel Syrup

A little over a year ago I came up with a recipe for a homemade caramel syrup for using in coffee, lattes, etc.. I made a butter-less caramel to then add in to a simple syrup of sugar and water. It certainly is a yummy syrup. But I got to thinking recently that I had made that way more complicated than it needed to be. Why not just caramelize the sugar and then add water? Thereby creating a caramel flavored simple syrup. A quick and simple one with no extra steps. And why we should stop at just caramel? Why not salted caramel? It can then be added to a mocha or to this hot chocolate mix to make a trendy coffee-shop type drink right at home! Hope you enjoy these like I have!

Caramel Syrup
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 tsp vanilla

Place sugar in a dry skillet over medium high heat. Allow sugar to melt to a syrup. You should shift the pan around or stir lightly before sugar starts to melt. Once its melting you can lower the heat just a tad and be careful to not stir too roughly. (Too much stirring makes the sugar clump and not melt well.) Once sugar is melted and is an amber color, turn heat to low and quickly add in the water.

BE CAREFUL! It will splatter and pop and the sugar will become almost lava-like! It will settle quickly and you can lightly stir the big sugar blob. Again, if you stir too much it will become a ball and take longer to melt. Turn the heat back up a bit if you want and stir until the candied sugar melts into the water. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Allow to cool.  Store in a recycled bottle or other container at room temperature.

Variation for Salted Caramel Syrup: Add 1/2 - 3/4 tsp sea salt when you add the vanilla. This will somewhat be to taste.