Decadent, creamy, smooth, salty, sweet, and a touch of ginger-y heat - this Ginger Sea Salt Caramel Sauce is beyond easy to make and will most definitely rock your world.
It truly rocked the world of the Celebrity Judges I presented it to on Food Network's Halloween Wars: Season 12 - Eddie Jackson, Aarti Sequeria, and and Shinmin Li. In Episode 7 - the Semi Finals, I incorporated this caramel into the cake I made. They loved the ginger kick I added to the caramel and loved how it worked with my cake. I had to incorporate elements from the sea in my cake, and I used Sea Salt and Dulse - a Red sea lettuce/seaweed. The judges truly loved the cake, and I even served a gluten free cake to them. I was putting it all out there. Holding nothing back!
Chocolate. Peanut Butter. Sea Salt Ginger Caramel. Toasted Peanuts. Chocolate Covered Fried Dulse. You can't go wrong. YUM.
I almost guarantee that you have all the ingredients needed to make this caramel sauce already in your pantry. Water, sugar, butter, ground or fresh ginger, heavy cream, vanilla, and salt.
I adore caramel. It's butter and sugar. Come on. It's delicious in coffee and lattes, on ice cream, in a cake, atop cupcakes, drizzled on waffles or pancakes, and in other desserts. It is fabulous. I promise that this recipe is easy and practically fool proof. No need to be afraid of boiling sugar and making caramel. We're simplifying it, without losing any quality. IT IS SO GOOD.
Ingredients Needed to Make Caramel Sauce:
- Water : This helps to encourage the sugar to dissolve and get the cooking process started.
- Sugar : You can't make caramel without it. A fine, white granulated sugar helps to decrease chances of crystallization.
- Butter : Every good caramel needs butter. It adds creaminess and helps to thicken the caramel.
- Ginger, ground or fresh : If using fresh ginger, steep 1 inch piece of ginger (peeled and chopped) in the heavy cream before adding it to the caramel. Add the cream and ginger to a saucepan, bring to boil, remove from heat, and let steep for 5 -10 minutes. Remove the ginger and proceed with the recipe. It gives a fabulous flavor, but ground ginger works well, too.
- Heavy Cream : I have tried this with canned coconut milk and oatmilk, and both work fine. However, the caramel is runnier than if it was made with heavy cream. So, just proceed with caution based on your needs.
- Vanilla Extract : Vanilla bean or vanilla bean paste are also great too.
- Salt : This helps to balance the sweetness and to bring out the other flavors.
Ginger Sea Salt Caramel Sauce
Recipe Yield: around 1 cup
Recipe by: Hannah Catherine - Rosemary Whisk
1. Add the water to a small saucepan and carefully add the sugar to the center of the pan. Be sure not to get any sugar on the edges of the pot - and do NOT stir it! This encourages crystallization.
2. Cook over medium heat, until the sugar begins to dissolve and bubbles start to form. This takes 3-5 minutes.
3. Add the butter to the water/sugar syrup and bring to boil. Boil on medium heat until it begins to caramelize and turns into a golden, amber color - about 10 minutes.
4. Remove from heat, add the ground ginger (omit if using fresh ginger steeped cream) and heavy cream, and stir carefully. This will bubble and steam like crazy.
5. Add the vanilla and salt. Stir. And, you're all done.
6. Transfer caramel to a container or jar. Let cool. Refrigerate until you're ready to use.
Enjoy your ginger caramel with a slice of cake, a cupcake, in your coffee, on ice cream, or dunk some churros in.
With love & buttercream,
Hannah Catherine
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