Chew on This | Caramel Sauce

Ahhh....fall! I love you so. You speak to me on so many levels. What with your cool breezes, brilliant blue skies, jewel colored leaves and comfort food. It's not hard to get perfectly comfortable with you in a cable knit sweater and a tall pair of sweet leather boots. Football games, apple picking and bonfires. Fall, you're just so scrumptious.

For me, the shift from summer to fall is quietly significant. Even more so than moving from fall to winter or winter to spring. Entering fall means warm soups, fresh baked bread and mulled apple cider. It's packing away your summer clothes and pulling out wooly socks. It's organizing, preparing, putting-up and settling down. It's pulling in closer to one another and getting cozy. 

If you're not quite there, feeling the love for the season's change, let me help you. Rich and velvety caramel sauce slathered over crisp sweet apples will no doubt do the trick. 

Start by pouring your sugar into a dry sauté pan over medium-low heat. Allow the sugar to melt and begin to caramelize. It should take about ten minutes or more to reach this point. Low and slow!

When you see the sugar getting melty and smelling delicious, start swirling with a fork to ensure all of the sugar crystals are liquified. 

When every last sugar crystal is melted, pour in your heavy whipping cream. Wear an oven mitt and whisk continuously. This stuff is going to bubble up wildly! And it is so dang hot!

While you're whisking, the caramel is going to seize up. No big deal. You haven't stopped whisking, your pan is still over medium-low heat and you've got time. Add butter and a few pinches of salt. Keep whisking away until everything becomes smooth and silky. 

Pour that liquid gold into a clean, warm jar and allow to cool a bit before serving. Get your Fall on by dipping some apples or using as a topper for your apple tart. I prefer dipping a spoon, repeatedly. Enjoy!

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Here's our recipe:

Caramel Sauce

1 1/2 C sugar

1 C heavy whipping cream

4 T butter

2 pinches salt

Pour your sugar into a dry sauté pan over medium-low heat. Allow some of the sugar to begin to melt and start caramelize in the pan without stirring. This takes approximately 10 minutes. At this point, using a fork, begin to stir you sugar to allow all of the sugar crystals to melt and become liquid.

Once all of your sugar crystal are melted, prepare to pour in your heavy cream. Wearing an oven mitt and using a whisk or wooden spoon, slowly and carefully pour in your heavy whipping cream. Stir/whisk continuously while pouring in the cream. The mixture will bubble up wildly! Continue to stir/whisk, even when the caramel forms and begins to seize up. At this point you should add your butter and pinches of salt, all the while whisking/stirring away.

You're still whisking/stirring away, over medium-low heat, until the caramel loosens and becomes smooth and silky. Pour caramel sauce into a clean bowl or jar. Allow to cool a few minutes before serving. Your caramel sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for a good long month, if it lasts that long. Warm in the microwave, after refrigeration, to make easily pourable.