Caramel Jam.
We're not talking Dulce de Leche, we're talking real salted butter + cream + sugar goodness. Inspired by a French spread a friend shared with me: Pralinella. Think a spread, with the consistency of Nutella, but the flavor of caramel. Delicious on toast. Especially with some rich mascarpone cream on a lazy Sunday. The problem is: you can only get the stuff in Brittany. Merde!
So I decided to learn how to make it myself.
So here it is my "Confiture Caramel au Buerre Salé". Essentially this non vegan version tweaked from Photisserie. Vegan version to come, adapted by me.
One thing about the original recipe, the butter used in it is most likely European style butter. Meaning around 84% fat content (rather than around 80% for American), cultured, and salted (a Demi-Sel is probably ideal). It can be hard and expensive to find. I like Organic Valley's European style cultured butter . You can also find a lot of European (and European Style) butters out there like Plugra or Kerrygold which should also work. Pick up the salted variety. But whenever possible, cultured is more important as salt can always be added. If you must use american supermarket butter, up the butter a bit (to about 250 grams instead of 240) to account for the lesser fat content in the American style stuff.
If your sugar seizes, just reheat gently until all the sugar dissolves again. This is probably caused by adding too much butter which is too cold too fast.
Ingredients:
300g cane sugar
240g European Style Butter (see head notes), cut into small pieces, room temperature -- but not melted.
5g salt
200g heavy cream
1. Spread the sugar evenly in a large, preferably cast iron deep pot placed over medium heat. Watch carefully watch until it becomes a deep amber color. Swirling (and maybe occasionally gently stirring with a high heat proof rubber spatula). If you see wisps of smoke pull the pot from the fire, you've probably overcooked your sugar just a bit.
2. Add the butter slowly and whisk until fully combined (if you've removed from the heat, place it back on the heat now). Add the salt. Cook an additional two minutes after all the butter is added and well mixed.
3. Pull the pot from the heat and add the cream. Mix well to combine. Strain the mixture to remove any remaining undissolved sugar crystals.
4. Let it cool on the counter, stirring occasionally to make sure non of the fat separates out. When cool, store in a jar in the fridge. Checking on it in it's first hour or so to make sure again nothing separates.
5. Once cooled, the caramel jam should have a spreadable consistency like that of Nutella or creamy peanut butter. Eat on toast. As far as I can tell the stuff keeps for months, though I doubt it will be around that long to find out.











