I love caramel anything.
Right up there with vanilla flavored or vanilla scented anything, caramel makes me do the happy dance.
Add a little dark rum to it? Even better.
Try not to just drink this caramel sauce. Because I totally wanted to.
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Dark Rum Caramel Sauce
1 c sugar
1/4 c water
1/2 c butter (1 stick)
1/2 c heavy cream (I used half-and-half)
1 tsp vanilla extract (I used TJ’s bourbon vanilla)
2 tbsp dark rum (or bourbon, whiskey, other rum, or other liquor such as Gran Marnier, Cointreau, etc. – adding alcohol is entirely optional and if you omit, you’ll still have amazing caramel sauce)
Directions:
Place sugar in a heavy sauce pan or medium-sized pot and add the water. Turn stove to medium-high heat and stir until sugar has dissolved (avoid letting sugar burn)
Cover pot, turn heat to high, and boil for 2 minutes.
Remove lid and continue to boil on high heat until syrup turns brown around the edges of the pan. Swirl the pan occasionally until mixture turns a deep amber and begins to smoke.
Remove pan from heat.
Add butter (the mixture will really bubble) and gently stir until all butter is mixed in.
Stir in cream (more bubbling)
Add vanilla extract and rum (or liquor of choice).
Stir until bubbling stops. (If sauce become lumpy, set pan over low heat and stir until smooth then remove from heat)
Pour into glass (or heat-safe) container.
And immediately put your pot and any utensils used into some soapy water so that cleanup is not an exercise in elbow-grease-Hades.
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I admit that it’s a bit scary working with boiling sugar and any time one makes candy, caramels, or sauces that involve boiling sugar, this is a time to be 100% focused on what you’re doing because in 4-5 minutes, it’s all over.
In those 5 minutes, pay attention to what you’re doing so you don’t burn yourself, burn the house down, or worse, waste all that good sugar, butter, and cream.
This is what the sugar + water looks like after it’s dissolved and boiling for 30-45 seconds
Barely browned on the left side of the pot
This is 30 seconds later. Much more browned.
You should be swirling the pot right about now. Not taking pictures!
And this is 1 minute after that.
Browned and ready.
And, it has just created the most luscious scent in your house that will linger and waft for the next 18 hours making sure you remember you have caramel sauce on hand.
Now remove it from the heat and start adding the butter, cream, vanilla, and rum as directed.
Stir and get ready to dig into your caramel sauce which literally only takes 5-10 minutes to make.
I used apples because I had them on hand, but you could dip peaches, nectarines, bread, crackers, cucumbers or kale leaves or a dirty sock in this stuff.
Really, it will work with anything.
And everything does taste better emerging from a caramel bath.
Hungry yet?
Or shall I say thirsty?
Drink up Spoon Up and enjoy!
I thought I’d show you just how much I adore caramel:
In cookies: Vegan GF Peanut Butter Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies (vegan, GF)
In caramel macchiatos (vegan)
In raw vegan caramel form (3 ingredients! and vegan, GF)
and Raw Vegan Caramel Nut Butter Bites are always a hit
And if you want a sweet dessert to get drunk off with a lovely touch of rum in it, try my Vegan Bananas Foster recipe
Combining a caramel-ey finish, flaming bananas, lots of sugar, and lots of rum. Perfect.From my last post, Cookie Monster, it was fun hearing what your favorite types of cookies are!
Questions:
1. Do you like Caramel? Fave ways to eat it?
One of my least favorite ways to use caramel was when a jar of caramel sauce fell out of my cupboard and shattered all over my floor.
What a sticky, glassey, nightmare that went on for hours. Days if you count the miniscule glass fragments that I kept finding. Shudder.
2. Do you ever make any sauces, dips, or recipes with alcohol in them?
Not that I am a boozehound these days, but I do think cooking with a little something-something every now and then can add a nice layer of flavor to a recipe.
All the actual alcohol gets burned off anyway, and what remains is the flavor layer and depth it imparted, which is usually pretty subtle, anyway. Unless we’re talking bananas foster. Not subtle, and I love that.
My Rum Cake Balls (no-bake, vegan, GF) are really tasty and are middle-of-the-road in terms of how much alcohol you can taste.
Nothing like the cake from story I told from our time in the Caribbean that inspired the recipe in terms of alcohol content!
And to each her own. If you don’t drink, aren’t old enough to drink, don’t drink for health or other reasons, rock on. All of my recipes that call for alcohol will still “work” or “turn out” just fine if you don’t add it.
3. Best thing you ate or did over the weekend?
I slurped down some Dark Rum Caramel Sauce, but of course.
And I have plans for Sunday still!
Enjoy what’s left of your weekend!
Know what would go great with this recipe? A frozen margarita! LOL Seriously! There are many other terrific cocktails, to be sure. But when you’ve got an excellent frozen margarita recipe, nothing beats it! My perennial favorite is still the ORIGINAL Jimmy Buffett Margarita – not all the time easy to find as of late, since Mr. Buffett now promotes his own mix and tequila. But it’s out there. I actually have a copy of the recipe (and quite a few more) on my site! Give it a try!
Caramel is a wonderful thing! I love making it from scratch, adding roasted pecans and serving it over cheesecake. Then I mix the leftover sauce (with pecans) into Cool Whip and freeze it. That gets scooped out like ice cream onto cones. DROOL!!!!! Not healthy by any means, but we all deserve some junk food here and there. right?? LOL
This looks like it might also be really good with bananas. I have a plethora of them and have been using them in some recipes on my blog (https://mynaturallyfrugalfamily.blogspot.com/2011/06/hidden-inspiration.html)
Umm speaking of caramel, my friends said those Salted Caramel popsicles at the Viva Pop stand were AMAZING. I had the Strawberry Basil which was so good, I went in & bought a regular size one at the end of the event! :-)
By the time we got to Viva Pops, they were out of everything except key lime. Scott said the key lime pop was probably the best thing he ate all day. And he likes cheese, salty, savory, etc…not a key lime guy..at all. But he loved it!
LOL I totally believe that this stuff could make even a dirty sock taste good. ;) I love caramel but I never bake with it for some reason! But my mom makes an amazing oat, chocolate and caramel bar recipe that I’m dying to try out.
get the recipe and if you blog about it, lmk! sounds awesome!
I still want to make those cookies, but I cannot find peanut flower in my city at all :-(
use almond flour…or really girl, just use any flour :)
i wish there were a way to make vegan caramel sauce. its just not the same. at all. i used to adore caramel with apple slices. mmmm…
You could try almond milk or homemade cashew or hemp seed milk + margarine but really, it’s gonna be tricky.
The best bet is to use brown sugar and Karo syrup and go about that methodology IMO.
Caramel is one of my faves too! Vanilla is number 1 though! :D YUMMY!
When i look at that broken jar of caramel sauce I want to cry…
Best thing I did this weekend is turn 30! Woooo! Big party, lots of family and friends, great food and music = Perfect! PLUS the sun came out and it was singlet weather… We’re in the middle of winter over here! So it was gorgeous!
Oh oh oh and I have a recipe for YOU!
Best thing I made/ate this weekend was White Tim Tam Balls. White Tim Tams, condensed milk and coconut. Whats not to love?! :D
If I hadn’t just inhaled way too many meringue cookies, I’d be all over this right now. As it is, the thought of sugar is enough to make me….well, you know. The photos however, made me drool, and in the sugar-shocked state I am in that is saying A LOT. Normally in this condition, pictures like this wouldn’t be remotely appealing, but theses….you’ve got the goods, friend.
well my photos ALL got rejected.
I resubmitted to FG but yeah, nothing like spending tons of time on…rejection. GrrR!
Thanks for saying you liked them; I truly needed that right now :)
ow! What a great treat! I love caramel flavor with apples- SO good! Best thing I did this weekend? See the outcome of Josh’s sister painting our baby room! Pictures to come tomorrow
This looks and sounds quite delicious! Around the holidays and for gifts in general we make a lot of rum cakes in my house. Sometimes we’ll switch it up and use a different kind of liquor but I think rum is the best!
Yum…that sauce looks amazing! I had fun teaching yoga outside yesterday at a campground. Loved the breeze and eating lunch afterwards out by the lake.