Salted Caramel Sauce

Spring seems to have finally arrived. The daffodils my dad planted years ago have bloomed, which adds a lovely note of colour to the front of the house.

I’ve been busy working and, by the time I get home, I’m too exhausted to do much more than throw something in the microwave. On the weekends, I do the bare minimum of housework, mostly laundry, and spend the rest of my time sitting in front of the computer monitor reading and resting for the week to come.

I usually have a container of ice cream in my freezer, for quick desserts, but ice cream is a little bare bones, so I made this salted caramel sauce to dress it up. The recipe was posted several years ago as an accompaniment to a pumpkin pie cheesecake that was … to die for. Since I’m not fond of pumpkin, that’s a great compliment from me.

Salted Caramel Sauce – makes ~ 1 1/2 cups

1 cup white sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup heavy cream (35 % butterfat or whipping cream)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pinch coarse salt (reduced from the 1 tsp recommended)

Add the sugar to a medium sauce pan. Drizzle the water around the edges of the sugar so it washes towards the center of the pan and does not stick to the sides. Heat the sugar and water in a sauce pan over medium heat and simmer it until it turns a medium amber colour. Do NOT stir the mixture in the sauce pan.

Remove from the heat and carefully pour in the heavy cream.

Return to heat and cook until smooth, stirring with a wooden spoon. Stir in the butter.

Allow the sauce to cool for a few minutes and stir in the vanilla extract and salt.

Let the sauce cool and transfer it to a glass jar or other lidded container and refrigerate.

Store your leftover sauce in the fridge and warm it up briefly, in the microwave, before pouring it over your ice cream. Too warm, and it will melt your ice cream … too cool, and it won’t flow well. It’s tricky but even if it doesn’t LOOK pretty, it will be delicious. I used my home made whisky vanilla extract in the sauce, cause that’s the way I roll when I want to indulge in a decadent dessert.