You see caramel many different sweet treats. For example, many sweets contain caramel, but many biscuits, cakes, pies and dessert recipes also contain caramel. Caramel is produced when sugar is heated. You can buy it simple ready-made in different shapes and sizes, but you can also choose to make it yourself. It is important to pay attention here, because if you heat the sugar just a little too long, it is no longer caramel, but a black caked mixture.
What is caramel?
Caramel is a sweet brown mass that is often used in sweet recipes or confectionery. Caramel is made by heating sugar. When the sugar is heated enough, it automatically becomes the brown caramel mixture, no additional ingredients are needed for this. Although you can easily buy ready-made caramel, you can also make it yourself. You do this as follows:
- Pour a small layer of sugar into a saucepan.
- Heat the pan with the sugar on the fire.
- After the sugar has heated enough, it will melt and the brown caramel color will arise.
- Then the sugar / caramel mass starts to fizz and you can smell the sweet scent of caramel.
- At this point, remove the caramel mass from the pan and pour it onto a greased surface, such as a greased baking tray.
- Then let the caramel cool down.
Caramel is seen as a delicacy in its own right, but there are also numerous recipes in which caramel is used.
Recipe for caramel cookies
You can make about 20 cookies from this caramel cookie recipe, so you’ll have plenty to hand out to the whole family. Make sure you cover the baking tray well with parchment paper, otherwise the cookies will stick to the baking tray.
Required ingredients
For the cookie dough:
- 200 grams Self-rising flour
- 150 grams butter (can also be butter, for extra creamy cookies)
- 1 egg
- 60 grams of sugar
- 1 packet of vanilla-flavored sugar
For the caramel glaze:
- 80g sugar
- 80g butter
- 200ml of concentrated milk
- 1 packet of vanilla-flavored sugar
Preparation method
Mix the butter, sugar, vanilla sugar and egg with a mixer until smooth. Then add the self-raising flour and knead into a smooth dough. Make small balls of the dough and press them flat on the baking tray (covered with baking paper). Then bake the cookies for 15-20 minutes in a preheated oven at 180 degrees.
Heat the sugar, butter, concentrated milk and vanilla sugar in a steeplan. Bring to the boil and keep stirring. Let it cook until a thick, golden brown mixture forms. Then pour the mixture over the baked cookies and let it cool down before serving.
Recipe for caramel chocolate cupcakes
This caramel chocolate cupcakes recipe is suitable for 12 cupcakes.
Required ingredients
- 125 grams of butter (can also be butter)
- 125 ml of milk
- 2 eggs
- 200 grams of brown sugar
- 200 grams of self-raising flour
- 1 bag of Rolos or other soft chocolate / caramel candies
Preparation method
Mix the butter and the brown caster sugar with a mixer until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time and keep mixing. Then add the self-raising flour and milk. Then mix the mass with the mixer at high speed to a smooth batter.
Chop the Rolos or other chocolate / caramel candies into small pieces and add these pieces to the batter. Divide the batter evenly among the cake tins. Then bake the cupcakes in the center of a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 20 minutes. Let the cupcakes cool and enjoy!
Vary endlessly
Of course you can vary endlessly with the above caramel recipes. Remember that caramel, for example, can be combined very well with chocolate (milk or dark). Here are some variation tips:
- Give the caramel cookies an extra effect by pouring another chocolate layer over the caramel layer. This is how you get chocolate caramel cookies. You can easily do this by melting 200 grams of chocolate in a saucepan on the fire, it is best to choose between milk or dark chocolate. Then pour the melted chocolate over the cooled caramel layer of the cookies.
- For the cupcakes you can also opt for small pieces of chocolate and soft caramel candies instead of chocolate-caramel candies. By adding these separately, cupcakes are created with pieces of chocolate and pieces of caramel.