Caramel Sauce Lessons

A few years ago I found this recipe for what it said was the “best caramel sauce ever.” Well, I decided to try it and sadly ended up with the exact opposite of what it was supposed to look like. Instead of that rich delicious brown caramel sauce I was left with hard rock-like sugar crystals clumped together. I tried my best to salvage it but nothing worked. It ruined my pan completely.

I never again tried to make the same caramel sauce again until a few months ago. Yes, the lockdown has forced me to face many of my fears! 🙂 I found this amazing cheesecake recipe that required a salted caramel sauce. So I decided to give it a try.

This time I was determined to succeed. The recipe seemed easy enough but I knew it could go wrong in the blink of an eye. I gave it my utmost concentration, followed the recipe to a T, and surprisingly this time it worked! It was absolutely amazing! I have made this salted caramel sauce numerous times since then and it has always been a hit. This whole process of making the perfect caramel sauce taught me some important life and faith lessons that I would love to share with you!

Whether your aim is to make the “best caramel sauce” or to live a victorious Christian life here are some important pointers for you and me!

Know the Recipe

The first time I tried to make this caramel sauce, I don’t think I read the recipe well. I just glanced at it and got started. I guess I was overconfident! I’ve now realized that it is extremely important to know the recipe before you begin, especially when you’re making it for the first time. A recipe gives you all the details. It gives you a list of ingredients and tells you how much of each you need. It provides you with detailed steps and instructions to reach the end goal. You must remember that recipes are written by people who have tried and tested them, so it would be wise to follow what they say. If you disregard the recipe and just randomly add half a cup of butter instead of one cup, you will not get the result you hoped for. You need to read your manual, your guidebook, your recipe notes.

The Bible is our guide to live a victorious and joyous christian life. “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” (2 Timothy 3:16) Do we read it enough? Do we know exactly God wants us to do? Do we follow His instructions? “How can a young person stay on the path of purity? By living according to your word.” (Psalm 119:9-10)

If we want to live victorious Christian lives, we must read our Bible. We must meditate on it. “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”  (Joshua 1:8) If we want to overcome temptations that come our way, like Jesus, God’s word must be in our hearts. Can we, like the Psalmist say, “I have thought much about your words and stored them in my heart so that they would hold me back from sin.” (Psalm 119:11)

It’s simple really. If I want to end up with the most beautiful caramel sauce, I must read and know the recipe well. If I want to become more and more like Jesus, to reflect His characteristics in my life, to live a holy life, I must read and know His Word.

Remove all Distractions

Before I started, I decided to give the girls their snack and drink put on a show for them to watch so I wouldn’t be disturbed with “water please” or “can you get me that toy” or anything like that. I cleared off my counter and kept all my ingredients ready. I got the sugar into the pan and turned the gas on medium low heat. Without any distractions, I was able to give my complete attention to the task at hand, which was, making the best salted caramel sauce.

Hebrews 12 says “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.” Let us “lay aside” everything that hinders us from running the race. With the advancement of technology it has become so easy for us to become distracted from God. Distractions may include the T.V., Instagram, money, our cell phones, our families, and anything that can cause us to take our eyes off God. We are distracted by the worries of this world. We are overwhelmed with all the things we have on our plate. When we allow other things to consume our lives, we become distracted from God. I may have to switch off my phone and put it away. I may have to say “no” to certain commitments. I may even have to cut off from some friendships. Anything in my life that gets in the way of my relationship with God has to go. God says “draw near to me and I will draw near to you.” Lay aside everything that hinders you, fix your eyes on Him and run your race.

Don’t look Away

It is crucial that you don’t look away even for second. Taking your eyes off the pan even for a moment can result in burnt caramel and there’s no coming back from burnt caramel. Remember the time the Lord called Peter to come walk on the water with Him? It went well for a while. Peter did actually walk on the water, something no man has ever done, until He started to sink. Because He took his eyes off Jesus and put them on other things. “When he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid.” (Matthew 14:30). Circumstances around us may be terrifying. When you’re in the middle of a pandemic, when your boss calls you to tell you he has to let you go, when you receive devastating test results from the doctor, it can be scary. And it can cause you to take your eyes off Jesus. When Peter took his eyes off Jesus he sank. The principle is clear. When life is a tumultuous storm, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, and you will be able to walk on water.

Hang in There

My mistake, when I made my caramel sauce a few years ago, was that I gave up too soon. As you keep stirring the sugar, it begins to clump together. It’s hot and your hands feel the heat. It takes a lot of effort to keep whisking through the clumps and you begin to think it’s not going to work. What I didn’t realize before was that it is supposed to clump together. The recipe mentions and I quote “Within a few more minutes the sugar will completely be clumped up. Keep going and it will start to liquidize and break down. The color will start to darken as well. Keep Whisking! Then you will start to see a caramel color.” Because I had not read the recipe properly I did not know this! At the first sign of the sugar clumping I panicked. I tried to do whatever I could in my own strength to fix it and ended up making it worse. I did not take the time to go back to the recipe and see what it said.  When things became hard, I GAVE UP….

And that’s exactly what we do in life too, right? When life becomes laborious, when troubles arise, we just give up. Is that what God wants us to do? NO! He wants us to persevere! “Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” (Romans 5:3-5) He wants us to “glory” or “rejoice” in our sufferings? What? How am I supposed to rejoice when life is so hard, when I’m suffering from cancer, when my kids aren’t behaving and I’m tired of correcting them, when my marriage doesn’t seem to be working, when my boss is making life difficult for me, when I’ve just lost my job, and when I’m so tired and lonely, that I just want to give up? Yes, that’s what God wants from us: Perseverance. But He is not asking us to do it alone. He promises to be with us, to give us grace and strength to go through our trials. He said “My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness.” I can do ALL things, even rejoice and persevere in the worst of times, and come out victorious, all because of Christ who gives me strength.

“For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.” (2 Thessalonians 3:13) Like the verse says we have need of endurance or perseverance, because only then will we receive what is promised. What I was promised by the recipe was this decadent, rich, wonderful caramel sauce. And when I continued breaking the big lumps and whisking in spite of the heat, the clumps started to break down and liquidize! Slowly it changed to an amber color! I had done it! I had persevered and it had worked! Finally, I acheived the result I hoped for! What joy!

Stay Till the End

I was almost there, but not quite done yet. Once all the sugar crystals had liquidized into a beautiful amber colored liquid, I had to now lower the heat and add in the butter. As soon as the butter is added the hot mixture bubbles up. Sometimes the butter will split, but again all I needed to do was persevere and keep stirring. Then I turned off the heat and mixed in the cream. It takes only a minute or two to combine. I sprinkled in the sea salt and I’m done! I can’t resist a lick…and it’s the most amazing salted caramel sauce I have ever tasted. I’m never using store-bought sauce again!

Even though the sugar crystals were melting I wasn’t at the end yet. Once life starts becoming easier, we often tend to get back to our old ways. We get distracted again and take our eyes off our goal. However, it is important to stay the course, to wait till the end. God promises to give us all we need to endure patiently. We must be grateful to Him for enabling us to do so, to grow and mature. Every trial we face is to strengthen us and purify our faith. Our goal is just ahead of us, just within reach. And at the end of it, our Lord Jesus is waiting to receive us with open arms and say, “Well done my faithful servant!”

Share It

So, now that I have this perfectly gorgeous salted caramel sauce, what do I do with it? Keeping it in a beautiful container in the fridge would be an absolute waste. It begs to be shared with others. To be used on cheesecake and ice-cream, sticky-toffee pudding and apple pie!

God uses our trials and tribulations to transform our lives. We are no longer the same! We need to share what we have experienced with the world! Every part of our story is actually a reflection of the Story of God. We can tell our stories in a way that shows others that God is the Hero!

Some of the best testimonies we hear are about singing and trusting God in the midst of trials and tribulations, as Charles Spurgeon calls it “singing in the night.” This is how he puts it: “Try and sing in the night, Christian, for that is one of the best arguments in the entire world in favor of your religion…I tell you, we may preach fifty thousand sermons to prove the gospel, but we will not prove it half as well as you will by singing in the night.”

I’ve shared my caramel sauce with so many friends and they’ve all loved it! They’ve enjoyed its delicious sweetness and asked me to make it again! In the same way, dear friends, let us continue to “sing in the night”, and tell of His faithfulness in our lives. Let others taste His goodness and sweetness, so that they may also praise our Father in heaven.

If you’ve persevered through my article, I have a reward for you! The recipe of the best salted caramel sauce! 🙂

Be sure to read the recipe well, put away all distractions, keep whisking through the sugar clumps, and stay on till the end, and I am confident that you will not be disappointed! And, oh..don’t forget to share!

Salted Caramel Sauce

Course: Dessert

Servings

2

Cups

Prep time

5

minutes

Cooking time

40

minutes

The best homemade salted caramel sauce using only four ingredients and it’s good on just about everything!

Ingredients

• 2 cups (400 g) granulated white sugar

• ¾ cup (6 oz) unsalted or salted* butter

• 1 cup (8oz) heavy whipping cream

• 1 tablespoon sea salt (adjust to taste)

Directions

• Add sugar in a thick bottomed pan and cook on low-medium heat. Use a whisk or a heat-proof spatula and whisk the sugar continuously. The sugar will start to change color and clump together.
• Keep whisking. Use the whisk to break some of the bigger clumps. Continue to stir.
• Within a few minutes the sugar will be completely clumped together. Continue to stir and you will notice it starting to liquidize and darken.
• Keep whisking and you will see a caramel colour. It will slowly darken to an amber color.
• When most of the sugar crystals are crystallized, then its time to add the butter. If you have a food thermometer, make sure the temperature is at 350F.
• Turn the heat to low and add the butter and whisk. The mixture will bubble up. Be careful not to let it splatter on your hands.
• Continue to mix till the mixture comes together. (If the butter separates, don’t worry, continue to stir. It will slowly come together.)
• Turn off the heat and add the cream. Mix together completely and sprinkle your sea salt. Once it cools you can store it in a container.
• If your sauce ends up with a few sugar lumps, pass it through a sieve before you store it.
• In an airtight container, this sauce can last for two to three weeks.

Notes

• *If using salted butter, reduce the amount of sea salt at the end.
• ** If you don’t have whipping cream, you can use Amul Fresh cream.

There you have it, the most wonderfully luscious salted caramel sauce and a few life lessons to go along with it! Enjoy!