Salted caramel

"once you’ve tasted that alchemic combination of bittersweet, toasty sugar, rich butter and salt, you can’t go back."

Felicity Cloake

Almost the whole family is here for dinner again, and we ran out of ice cream yesterday, so this morning I bought some more. Usually I just buy vanilla, but I was tempted by a Coles brand of salted caramel - I love salted caramel - and I now know why, because, having decided to 'do' salted caramel - well it's everywhere isn't it - I did a little bit of research and found a few interesting things - not all of them reassuring. I did buy some Cookies and Cream ice cream too because the rest of the family prefers that. Not that it's not any better for us of course.

Apparently it's relatively new - one has to wonder why, considering the elements that make it - salt, sugar, butter - and was invented in France, back in 1980, by a French chef called Henri Le Roux. He had been experimenting for a while after training as a chocolatier in Switzerland. When he returned to his native Brittany where they make salted butter he thought to try and use the product and came up with salted caramel. Another chef, a Parisian called Pierre Hermé who invented a salted caramel macaron popularised the concept more.

However, it was not until 2008 when it had made the leap to America that it truly became the phenomenon that it is today. I gather that the Americans have a fairly lengthy tradition of sweet and salty snacks, so it was perhaps a natural step. The British apparently did not take to it straightaway. Also at that time dulce de leche from Mexico and South America - dulce de leche is a caramel made from cooked milk - was a big thing, so much so that

"Dulce de leche is what brought caramel back. Without it, you wouldn’t have salted caramel’s popularity right now.” Kara Nielson - Trend Analyst

Then Häagen-Daz made an ice cream, Starbucks made a salted caramel hot chocolate, and Barack Obama discovered an addiction to salted caramels. From there it just grew exponentially - and it's still here. There is a reason for this.

"Normally, they say, we get bored eating even the most enticing goodies. Unless somebody has an eating disorder, even the most avid scoffers of treat foods end up having their appetite tell them 'that's enough for now'. This natural response is called 'hedonic adaptation' ...

the flavours in salted caramel are well known to our brains as the most craveable substances on Earth" John Naish - The Daily Mail

Salted caramel is basically, sugar, butter and salt - the three most addiction making substances you can eat - butter being a fat. To have them all in one thing is irresistible. Explicable - but not really desirable!

"One thing salted caramels conspicuously lack is a health and wellness angle." Kim Severson - New York Times

So there you go for the history and for why it is so popular, and before we get on to how to make it yourself, here is just one last thought.

"Salt caramel’s rise as the flavor of the year illuminates the fast flow of food trends in a country that can grab hold of a relatively unknown ingredient like chipotle and move it through a cultural sluice box that ends at McDonald’s." New York Times

It has certainly done that - and interestingly that particular article was written in 2008 when the trend began, and it ended with the writer saying here comes quinoa which is at least healthy.

Salted caramel has not gone away however - here it was in Home Brand ice cream in the local supermarket, and I have no doubt that if I had scoured the shelves I would have found dozens of salted caramel products, from ice cream to alcohol. I think the bottle at left is British, but I'm sure you can either get it here or a similar version. Add Alcohol to the already deadly addictive mix and it's a true disaster I suppose. All you need now is drug of some kind.

Delicious Magazine also has an alcoholic version - this time with whiskey. Sorry - couldn't resist the picture.

But let's indulge in the real thing, for -

"Lovely as the bought versions are, there is far more chance to lick the spoon when you’re making it at home " Felicity Cloake

"a salted caramel sauce can be rustled up in a matter of moments. True, in those moments you wouldn’t want to walk away from the stove, but the saucepan provides captivating enough watching to make that agreeable." Nigel Lawson

Feliciity Cloake has indeed covered the subject and comes down largely in favour of Nigella Lawson's version which is shown at the top of the page. Nigella, indeed, was apparently one of the reasons for the popularity of salted caramel in the UK. I don't know who popularised it here. Anyway, both these ladies have recipes for making your own. Felicity Cloake's, poured over ice cream looks rather darker than Nigella's, which is interesting, because although, in her summary, she mentions that some chefs use brown muscovado sugar, she herself prefers ordinary white, because the muscovado has too much of a distinctive flavour. The picture at left is Donna Hay's and below is Felicity Cloake's.

I wonder if it will ever go out of fashion.

POSTSCRIPT

I have to say that the Coles salted caramel did not seem to be either too salty or too caramelly. Nice but not a very strong flavour. Sort of what you would expect I guess. I don't make enough ice cream - so perhaps I should give the salted caramel kind a go.