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The Five Ingredients of Real Caramel |
As the weather cools down and the year-end holidays approach, sweet treats seem to be more what many people are craving. While perusing the produce section recently I noticed several products labeled as "caramel" displayed with the apples, and I agree that
caramel and apples are a great combination of tastes. But when reading the ingredients on these "caramel" products, I see that they bear little, if any, resemblance to real caramel. All of which leads to the question:
What is Caramel?
In the simplest sense, caramel is sugar that is heated until it melts and
then heated some more until it begins to darken but not so much that it
scorches. Think crème brûlée; just the slightest hint of bitterness and a
satisfying crack as the spoon pushes through. Real caramel candy (or sauce)
begins the same way but as the end product should be something softer and more
melt-in-your-mouth, cream and butter are added after the sugar is caramelized
and then heated again until the caramel attains the desired consistency.
What is Not Caramel?
Some products found on grocery shelves are labeled as “caramel” but the
ingredients include unnecessary items like oil, thickening agents, coloring
agents, “caramel flavor” or unhealthy sweeteners like high fructose corn syrup.
These products are used to reduce production costs but the end product bears no
similarity to real caramel.
So in a nutshell, real caramel candy contains only a few ingredients:
sugar, cream and butter plus a small amount of “invert sugar” to prevent the
sugar from recrystallizing, and salt. Additional flavorings can be added, like
vanilla, chocolate, or maybe a fruit flavor, but anything else is unnecessary or worse.
Cooper Street Kitchen takes pride in producing our caramel
using the basic recipe that has stood the test of time. Our basic recipe
contains only five ingredients: Sugar, cream, butter, agave nectar and sea salt.
The cream and butter come from local dairy farms in the Hudson Valley and no
artificial ingredients of any kind are ever used in our
caramel. Try some, I think you'll like it!