Salted Caramel Sauce

Before my tryst with cooking, for me Caramel sauce was something that was only available in stores and ice cream shops.The closest thing that I knew of caramel sauce was the caramel custard. I am not much of a restaurant girl or even like eating that much outside....so many of the international dishes like creme brulee or tart or soufle were really alien for me for a long time. The first time I was aware of this beautiful sauce was when I ate a tart in a beach restaurant. Oh my gosh.....that was heavenly!! The sauce had made the tart a total yummilicious. Then I learned to make caramel sauce by watching Siba's Table.

Now the store bought caramel sauces are good...but they lack a somewhat richness in taste. May be this is because I love to make everything from scratch. But trust me this recipe of salted caramel sauce is smooth like velvet and it tastes best. And another reason I make caramel sauces myself because the store bought jars are expensive and they of course has preservatives in it. Alternatively in my version I know exactly what is going in there...and its free of chemicals and preservatives.

My salted caramel sauce is a cross between butterscotch and sweet caramel sauce. However it is delicious and I can't have enough of this, even after mixing it with cereals, milkshakes, lassis, ice creams and puddings.  It is so aromatic and so fragrant that one sniff is enough to remind me of my schooldays, when I loved these caramel candies. I used to put one candy in the mouth and moved that to the farthest corner with the help of the tongue. Thus it melted slowly and gave me lush candid moments. In that way I was able to enjoy those juicy moment a lot longer than it was meant to be. Ma never like this because most of the time I ended up with a scrubbed tongue which itched and burned.

Salted Caramel Sauce
Makes little more than 1 cup of sauce

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of brown sugar (white sugar will also do)
• 30gm butter
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
• 1 cup of heavy cream
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt

Method:

• Heat a saucepan and put in the brown sugar with 1/2 cup of water.
• Put the flame on low and start stirring. You will see the sugar melthing and creating a sauce. This will take somewhat 7-10 minutes of time.
• Keep stiring and you will see the sauce slowly turning brown.
• At this stage immediately add in the butter, vanilla extract, salt and honey. 
• Stir continuously until all the butter has melted and the sauce has taken a silky smooth consistency.
• Now slowly add in the cream little by little. Keep stirring when you are adding the cream.
• Once you have finished adding all the cream, put off the flame and transfer the entire sauce into a jar or bowl. Let it come to the room temperature and store in an air tight container.