My caramel trial

Might as well admit it, I am a stalker. Of food blogs. I have a few regulars that I follow feverishly, reading and re-reading their prose and wishing (and vowing) to cook the foods they cook. Well, they been waxing lyrical over the joys of burnt sugar for years. I never thought caramel could be so, well, sexy. How could I not, really, after seeing all it shine in all incarnations possible - in sophisticated salted butter caramels (or caramel au beurre salé, mind you) , with crème fraîche or espresso, or in a wicked-looking sauce to top vanilla ice cream, or - and this is the one incarnation that I cannot get out of my head - to streak seemingly innocent blondies with.

Let me tell you something.

These writings, they are beautiful. The photos, absolutely mouthwatering. And it's all true. I can vouch for it, because I made some last night. It wasn't all smooth sailing - I had to toss my first batchTrying to follow David Lebovitz's advice on taking it beyond smoking, I waited until the caramel turned the colour I wanted then I took it off the stove. Unfortunately the residual heat was just too much and it took the caramel beyond what I wanted - an almost black, smoking, bitter mess. I tried again, watching the colour changes like a hawk and taking the pan off the stove much earlier than before. I whisked in my butter and salt and milk (can't afford cream). It came out sticky and looking very much like the ones in other people's blogs. And my kitchen smelled like a candy factory for hours later. Which was kinda nice.

But the cleanup, my friends, is no joke.

I ended up spending more time boiling my utensils in water, again and again, to remove all the stubborn traces of hardened caramel. So not only was there the danger of handling the hot sugar itself (more experienced bloggers recommend wearing goggles and oven mitts, not putting your face over the pan of molten sugar), trying to clean a pan with hot water was no walk in the park either. But that's the only way, people, to clean hardened caramel off your stuff. Except your fingers of course.

Tomorrow I am going to bake those Blondies (recipe will be courtesy of Sherry Yard's Secrets 0f Baking), and tell you if it was all worth it.