Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Simple gifts - salted caramel sauce

The one project I allowed myself for Christmas was this salted caramel sauce. It is so good and it only requires three ingredients and minimal patience. If you have a large stockpot, you can triple the recipe and it will be just as delicious. I saved little jars all year just for this purpose.

fleur de sel caramel sauce
{fleur de sel caramel sauce}

It isn't actually canned, so it should be refrigerated after you give it to your lucky recipients but don't stress too much about spoilage. I left our personal jar on the counter for a week and it was still fine (granted, our apartment is cold, but it isn't glacial). The recipe says you should eat it within two weeks. I've extended that to a month based on personal experience and one of the people who got a jar last year actually made it last for ten months and it was perfectly fine. I'm not surprised - high sugar, low water content items are normally very stable. I am shocked that he managed to control himself and pace his eating out over the course of ten months. I can eat an entire jar with a spoon in one sitting. I wish that were hyperbole.

gifts boxed
{gifts boxed - partially distributed}

It solidifies when cold, so pop the glass jar (sans metal lid, naturally) in the microwave for 20 seconds to make the consistency just right for pouring over ice cream. 

19 comments:

  1. I made this exact sauce as well! And I used the same washi tape you have on your cookies to add the label I made. What can I say? Great minds think alike :) Happy New Year, Rachel!

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  2. What a great idea! I really need to get more into making homemade gifts and treats. Thanks for the inspiration Rachel!

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  3. What a great gift idea! So sweet, literally. :)

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  4. this is genius! and is making me want ice cream w/ caramel. at 10 a.m. :)

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  5. oooh, this sounds so delicious!! A truly great gift idea.

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  6. i saw these pictures on your flickr site and couldn't wait to see the post that would accompany them - what a lovely idea! i'm impressed that you came up with a label size that suited all of the jars you'd saved - well done! (i've been hoarding mine all year for soy candles, but this recipe looks so lovely; maybe half and half? or i can eat the sauce quickly and reuse for candles?)

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  7. Brilliant idea. Everybody is getting this from me next year.

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  8. Yum, that sounds amazing!

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  9. first time on your site and it is beautiful :) andddd the caramel sauce looks AMAZING!

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  10. @ lauren - maybe I should have mentioned that! I designed the label in Illustrator, measured the approximate width of the jar tops (even with all those jars, I only had three different lid sizes) and then scaled the labels appropriately. Printed them out on regular old paper and cut and spray glued the labels to the lids. Hhmmm ... soy candles vs. caramel sauce. Tough call. Mayve alternate years?

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  11. what a lovely idea! i'm pretty sure i would eat the entire jar in one sitting :-)

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  12. Could I can them if I wanted? To be able to take to friends who are farther away?

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  13. @ Katherine - I haven't canned anything other than jelly, so I'm no expert, but the poking around I've done has indicated that you cannot do home canning on caramel or chocolate sauce. Apparently it's due to the acidity levels and you need more complicated equipment for it. Boo.

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  14. I want to eat my computer screen right now!

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  15. This sauce looks absolutely insane. I've been wanting to make caramel sauce, this is perfect. Thank you!

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  16. YOU are Exceedingly Organized.
    Just saying.

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  17. problem with making tasty gifts like that is my propensity to lick the bowl. And the spoon. And anything else it comes into contact with- leaving very little for my friends and me with a very upset tummy.

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