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Butterscorch! Help finding the sweet spot between caramel and crude oil!

Hello, I’m so grateful to Milk Street for having a wonderful cooking school in Boston. The last caramel I made was Milk Street’s recipe, Caramel Oranges: the simple magic trick of turning oranges into dessert. It was an exciting moment at Milk Street Cooking School where I tried this first hand, and yes it came out wonderfully. I’ve made this recipe several times with success, since.

In trying the Salt & Pepper Butterscotch recipe my first mistake may have been to assume there was some wiggle room in choosing the exact moment to take the caramel off the heat and add 4oz of water. My 6oz, 1.24 cups sugar mixture went from a sludge-like clump where it remained for awhile, then suddenly changed to liquid, and a black smoking tar so darn fast!

My second mistake I think was subbing moscavado in, because I was out of dark brown sugar in the recipe.

Third although my saucepan is All Clad, it may not have been the right choice for equipment.

in this recipe:

SALT AND PEPPER BUTTERSCOTCH PUDDING

Instructions:

In a large saucepan over medium-high, cook the butter and sugar, stirring, until vigorously bubbling, then continue to cook for 1 minute...

I could not get past the few seconds where my sugar and butter mixture was in a clump, then very briefly liquid and suddenly smoky black bubbles, let alone allowing it to stay in the bubbling state for one minute.

it took 3 highly dramatic tries, setting off the smoke alarms twice, and using 75% white sugar and 25% muscavado sugar to land results that were edible, which I finished up the recipe with.

The result was predictable too sweet as it lacked enough of the bitter notes in dark brown sugar, but edible.

each time it the caramel darkened more when I added the water to it. Lastly the consistency of my caramel after adding the water was very liquid, and barely thickened at all at this point., as you can see,

An overly sweet, watery, burnt colored, dark brown liquid. And this was my best batch.

I’m so grateful for any tips you may have. If you rely on a particular sauce pan you’d like to recommend I’m interestingly to know more.

Thank you,

Susan.

Comments

  • Hi Susan - I spoke with Rebecca Richmond, the recipe developer, and she thinks it may have to do with the Muscovado sugar. The larger grains of Muscovado sugar (as compared to dark brown sugar) will take longer to dissolve and may be burning before they can fully melt. Likely due to the fact that there is more molasses in Muscovado than dark brown sugar. I would also try lowering the burner down to medium heat. It will take a little longer to reach the bubbling stage, but it will give you a bit more insurance against burning. You have a little bit more control over the speed of cooking and, in the event your stovetop runs a little hotter than ours, this will adjust for the temperature difference. I hope this helps! Best, Lynn C.

  • Thanks so much Lynn, I followed your guidelines and found great success and delicious results. I would appreciate a target temperature.

    Changes that made all the difference:

    1. thicker bottom pan, deep cast iron
    2. Lower temp, more gentle warming sugar, took longer but was worth it in the end
    3. Kept to brown sugar as the recipe dictates no moscovado sugar.


    lovely!

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