How To Make Caramel

It takes a bit of practice to learn how to make caramel – the skill is in knowing just the right moment to take the pan off the heat.

Professionals make caramel without water, just heating pure sugar. This is quicker, but more likely to end in a burnt mess. For the home cook it’s better (at least initially) to add some water to the sugar so that it cooks more slowly, giving you more time to manage it.

Depending on the pan, the heat level and the amount of water, I’ve had it take anywhere from 8 to 20 minutes for the sugar to caramelise. So patience is another key component.

Most of the time it can be left to its own devices. Just keep glancing at it to see if it’s changed colour. Once the caramel starts to turn golden, it changes quite quickly. That’s when you need to stand by, swirling the pan regularly so it colours evenly. At this stage the bubbles will subside to a tiny froth and it’ll suddenly smell delicious. Then you whip your caramel off the stove and pour it into the waiting dish – whether that’s a ramekin for crème caramel or a cake tin for an upside-down pineapple cake.

To make ¼ cup of caramel, you’ll need:

¼ cup castor sugar
1 tablespoon water

Here’s how to make caramel (scroll down for a step-by-step video).

Combine sugar and water in a small heavy-based saucepan and place over a medium heat.
Cook without stirring until it’s dark golden, swirling the pan as it starts to caramelise so it colours evenly; the above quantity should take around 10 minutes to caramelise.
Once it’s dark golden, remove from heat quickly and transfer to the necessary dish.
Soak the pan immediately to make it easy to clean.

Now you know how to make caramel, use your new skill to whip up desserts as diverse as French crème caramel, Caribbean flan and Vietnamese glutinous red rice with coconut caramel sauce.