Sunday, February 15, 2015

Failed Marmalade Caramel Sauce

Here’s my attempt at a recipe for my favorite caramel sauce. It’s a little hard to explain, since it started out as a mistake. Basically, I cooked my mikan (mandarin orange) marmalade far too long—it went way past jelly to borderline hard candy. Or, that’s what it turned into when it cooled.

But failures do not necessarily end as failures. I love making caramel (because I love eating caramel); I realized that the failed marmalade was quite similar to the beginning stage of caramel, so I “recycled” it into caramel sauce, and it was delicious!


Failed Mikan (Mandarin Orange) Marmalade Caramel Sauce


First, you will need some marmalade, if you don’t want to make a “failed” batch on purpose. You can start with a jar you’ve purchased or canned yourself. (If you are looking for a recipe, this is the one I used. I assure you, the failure was entirely my fault.) Throw it in a saucepan and bring to a boil; cook for about 3-5 minutes until it gets really thick. You will need about 80 ml (1/3 cup). Now, “failed marmalade” having been prepared, let’s move on to the caramel sauce.

Ingredients:
  • 80ml (1/3 cup) “Failed marmalade” caramel base
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 5 tablespoons butter
  • ½ teaspoon salt (optional, but highly recommended)
Directions:

Return “failed marmalade” to the saucepan and add sugar. Melt the sugar and boil for a couple more minutes. The caramel sauce will be harder or softer depending on how long you cook it.

Remove from heat, and add the cream. Return to the stove and stir until combined. Remove from heat and stir in the butter and salt. Keep in the refrigerator until you’re ready to use it. I recommend it for caramel ganache and as a topping for fruit or ice cream… but I have also been known to eat spoonfuls of it straight from the jar.

Caution: caramel sauce is delicious, and you may be tempted to taste as you go. Please don't; it is very hot, and you will burn your tongue and/or finger. I know this from experience. Please wait until the caramel sauce has cooled a bit to taste it.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

This sounds delicious! However, I noticed in the instructions it says to add cream in addition to butter, but it doesn't list cream in the ingredients above. Could you please update the recipe with the proper amount of (I'm assuming heavy) cream? Thank you! :)