Karamela

Caramel as a food ingredient

Caramel is used as a flavoring in puddings and desserts, as a filling in bonbons or candy bars, and as a topping for ice cream and custard. Caramel sauce is made by mixing caramelized sugar with cream. Depending on the intended application, caramel sauce may also contain butter, fruit purees, liquors or vanilla. Caramel candy is a soft, dense, chewy candy made by boiling a mixture of milk or cream, sugar(s), glucose, butter, and vanilla. Caramel colouring, a dark, bitter liquid, is the highly concentrated product of near total caramelization. The English word caramel comes from French caramel, borrowed from Spanish caramelo.

Chemistry of caramelization

In caramelization, water is removed from a sugar, and the sugars then isomerize and polymerize into various high-molecular-weight compounds. Compounds such as difructose anhydride may be created from the monosaccharides after water loss. Fragmentation reactions give low-molecular-weight compounds that may be volatile and may contribute to flavor. Polymerization reactions give larger-molecular-weight compounds that contribute to the dark-brown color.

Forms and recipes

Caramel can be produced as a sauce, a chewy candy or a hard candy, depending on how much of each ingredient is added and the temperature at which it is prepared. When caramel is used for crème caramel or flan, it is known as clear caramel and contains only caramelized sugar and water.

Salted caramel

Salted caramel sweets with milk or butter were sold in Brittany as early as 1946. In 1977, a French pastry chef developed a significantly more stable salted caramel sweet in Quiberon, Brittany, in the form of a salted butter caramel with crushed nuts. Salted caramel sweets became widely popular throughout France and other French-speaking European countries.

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Related: Almond · Benzoin · Butterscotch · Chocolate · Cinnamon · Coffee · Coumarin · Ethylvanillin