Caramel Sauce

Caramel sauce is my favorite form of caramel. Its satiny smooth, sticky consistency makes it ideal to drizzle over cakes, tarts, and buns. Corn syrup is often added to caramel sauce; as an interfering agent, it helps prevent the caramel from crystallizing when stirred. (However, after the caramel is prepared, do not stir it too much, because it may eventually crystallize, especially on storage.) It also lowers the caramelization temperature. I adore the flavor of caramel, so I like to have as much depth of flavor in caramel sauce as possible without any burned taste. I like to bring the caramel up to 360°F/182°C for maximum flavor and for some applications as high as 380°F/193°C. The darker you make the caramel, the less sweet it will seem, but you risk burning it if you don’t have an absolutely accurate thermometer.