Salted Caramel recipe

Salted Caramel Sauce

Home-made Salted Caramel Sauce recipe

If you have never tried making your own Salted Caramel, I would really encourage you to give it a go as it is easy to make and is so much more delicious – sweet, creamy, buttery – than any shop-bought, pre-made versions. It is clearly not the healthiest recipe but I firmly believe that everyone needs a treat every now and then and a little goes a long way.

Loved this recipe? Checkout the Recipe Index.

Recent posts on tastebotanical

Is it hard to make Salted Caramel sauce?

No, it is very straight-forward. There are lots of Salted Caramel recipes but this one is a really quick and easy. In some recipes, you are told to melt the sugar on its own at the start. This is fine if you know what you are doing but it is easy to burn it and end up with a bitter-tasting sauce. In this recipe, the sugar is added to the melted butter which prevents it burning and results in a deliciously sweet and creamy caramel sauce. You do not need any additional equipment, such as a sugar thermometer, to make it.

Salted Caramel Sauce
Do I have to add salt to my caramel?

No. It is up to you whether or not you add salt to the caramel. If you don’t like it, leave it out. The amount of salt that you add is up to you. I add a small amount – around half a teaspoon – as I think it brings out the flavour of the caramel.

How long does it last?

The smart answer is, in my house, freshly-made caramel sauce lasts about fifteen minutes. Particularly, if my children are at home. However, if you can resist the temptation to eat it straight from the pan, you can pour the sauce into a sterilised jam jar. Put the lid on the jar and store it in the fridge for up to two weeks.

There are various methods of sterilising jars. I generally sterilise my jars by washing them in warm, soapy water, rinsing well and then drying off for 15 minutes in an oven set at 140 C/280 F/gas 1.

Salted Caramel Sauce
How can I use Salted Caramel sauce?

As well as using it as a cake drizzle, Salted Caramel is great as a sauce with ice-cream or spread over the top of a cheesecake.

  • It can be used, either warm or cold, as a sauce for ice cream. I think it goes particularly well with coffee, chocolate, vanilla and nut flavours. You can also serve it with plain yogurt, particularly thicker Greek-style yogurt.
  • In addition to being a great sauce for ice cream, you can also use it as an ingredient in home-made ice cream. I stir it into my Apple Ice Cream so you get a ripple of salted caramel running through it.
  • It can be used as a sauce for traditional sponge puddings instead of – or in addition to – cream or custard.
  • Spread or drizzle it on a cheesecake or over a pavlova. I use it to make my Apple Pavlova. I also sometimes use it instead of ready-made dulce de leche to make Banoffee Pie.
  • The cooled sauce is brilliant as a cake drizzle. I use it on my Latte Cake but you can use it on lots of different cakes. It is good with coffee, chocolate or vanilla flavoured cakes. I also like it on nut-flavoured cakes – particularly hazelnut and walnut.
  • You can also stir a spoonful of caramel into your coffee, hot chocolate or mug of hot milk.

Loved this recipe? Checkout the Recipe Index.

Other sauce recipes

If you like this recipe, you might like to have a look at some of my other sauce recipes.

Easy Salted Caramel Sauce recipe

Print
clock clock iconcutlery cutlery iconflag flag iconfolder folder iconinstagram instagram iconpinterest pinterest iconfacebook facebook iconprint print iconsquares squares iconheart heart iconheart solid heart solid icon
Salted Caramel Sauce

Salted Caramel recipe

  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Total Time: 5 minutes
  • Yield: 1 large jar 1x

Description

This quick and easy home-made Salted Caramel Sauce is deliciously sweet, creamy and buttery.   


Ingredients

Scale
  • 125 g (4 oz) butter
  • 250 g (8 oz) light brown muscovado sugar
  • 125 g (4 oz) double cream
  • Salt to taste

Instructions

  1. Melt the butter in a small pan.

  2. Add the muscovado sugar. 

  3. Heat gently until the sugar is dissolved.   

  4. Add the double cream and continue to heat for another two or three minutes. 

  5. Remove from the heat and add salt to taste.   

  6. Serve warm or allow to cool.  The caramel will thicken as it cools. 

     


Keywords: salted caramel

This recipe has been shared on #CookBlogShare with A Strong Coffee and #Fiesta Friday with Fiesta Friday  and  Jhuls @ The Not So Creative Cook

Loved this recipe? Checkout the Recipe Index.

Mint Pesto

Mint Pesto with Walnuts

This Mint Pesto is made with fresh mint, roasted walnuts, garlic and parmesan cheese blended together with olive oil. It takes ten minutes to make and all you need to do is stir it into a bowl of cooked pasta for an quick and easy supper.

I love traditional pesto made with basil. Once or twice each summer, I will buy a bunch of fresh basil and make it from scratch at home. I also often buy the ready-made pesto that you can find in chiller cabinets at the supermarket. My inspiration to make Mint Pesto was simply that I have a huge amount of mint growing in my garden. Each year, my patch of mint seems to get larger and I struggle to find culinary uses for it.

Mint and Walnut Pesto

What you need to know about Mint Pesto

  • It is not too strongly minty. Before I tried making pesto with mint, I was concerned that it might taste too strongly minty. However, the mint is balanced by other strong flavours – garlic and parmesan – so it actually has quite a delicate flavour.
  • I use walnuts, rather than the pine-nuts which are used in traditional pesto, in this recipe. I think the flavour of walnuts goes particularly well with mint. However, if you prefer, you can use pine-nuts or hazelnuts instead of walnuts.
  • Whatever kind of nuts you use, it is really important to dry fry them (step 1) as this really brings out their nutty flavour. Simply put the nuts in a frying pan, with no oil, and heat gently for about five minutes. Stir occasionally to turn the nuts and keep an eye on them to make sure that they do not burn.
  • When you are making this recipe, it really helps with the blending (step 3) if you crush or chop the ingredients roughly before you put them into the food processor.
  • It is very easy to increase (or decrease) this recipe depending on the number of people you have to feed. My recipe serves four people but you can halve it to serve two or quarter it to serve one.
  • If you have any left over Mint Pesto, you can keep it in a covered bowl in the fridge for up to five days. The bright green colour will become dull if the pesto is kept in the fridge. You can add a squeeze of lemon juice or pour a thin layer of olive oil over the top of the pesto to prevent this. This pesto also freezes well so you can make a big batch if you come across a lot of fresh mint.
How to use Mint Pesto

You can use Mint Pesto in all the ways that you can use pesto made with basil. I think it is great just stirred into cooked pasta. However, there are various additions that you can try.

  • You can add some green vegetables to the dish. I think peas and broad beans go particularly well with the delicate mint flavour of the pesto. However, runner or french beans are also a good option. Five minutes before your pasta is cooked, add 200 g of the vegetables to the pan. Drain and then stir in the pesto.
  • Adding some extra walnuts gives extra texture and flavour. When you dry fry the walnuts (step 1) add an extra 100 g (4 oz). Set these aside and roughly chop them. Add to the drained and pesto-coated pasta.
  • If you are not a vegetarian, you could stir in some pieces of chopped cooked ham or crispy bacon to the drained and pesto-coated pasta.
  • Another good addition is to stir in some pieces of soft white cheese to the warm pesto-coated pasta. They will melt slightly and boost both the flavour and “mouth feel” of the finished dish. You could use feta, which gives a hit of salty flavour, or mozarella which will add some extra creamy deliciousness.
Other simple pasta suppers

This recipe for Mint Pesto is a great week-night supper option. It is easy, tasty and uncomplicated and can be made in ten minutes. Here are some of my other simple pasta supper recipes.

  • Basic Tomato Sauce – this is an easy recipe for a rich sauce using store-cupboard ingredients. Delicious stirred into pasta as it is and open to lots of variations and additions!
  • Creamy Mushroom Pasta – this is simple vegetarian sauce combines mushrooms and chestnuts and lots of garlic. It can be used with any kind of pasta but I prefer it with short pasta such as gigli or penne.
  • Spaghetti with Smoked Salmon – this simple recipe can be made in 15 minutes. Smoked salmon trimmings are combined with fennel and chives and a squeeze of lemon.
  • Prawn Pasta with Herb Butter – this is another super-simple and super-quick recipe which can be adapted according to the herbs that you happen to have available.
  • Macaroni Cheese – this is a brilliant make-ahead vegetarian recipe which has a secret layer of caramelised onions and a bit of cayenne to balance its rich cheesiness. Topped with a layer of crisp breadcrumbs it is perfect served with a simple green salad.

Loved this recipe? Checkout the Recipe Index.

Print
clock clock iconcutlery cutlery iconflag flag iconfolder folder iconinstagram instagram iconpinterest pinterest iconfacebook facebook iconprint print iconsquares squares iconheart heart iconheart solid heart solid icon
Mint and Walnut Pesto

Mint Pesto with Walnuts

  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 10
  • Total Time: 10
  • Yield: Serves 4
  • Category: Sauce
  • Cuisine: English

Description

This quick and easy pesto uses fresh mint combined with toasted walnuts, garlic, parmesan and olive oil.   Stirred into cooked pasta, it is the perfect no-fuss vegetarian supper.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 100 g  (4 oz) walnut halves
  • 2 fat cloves of garlic (crushed)
  • 100 g (4 oz) parmesan cheese (grated)
  • 50 g (2 oz) fresh mint leaves (roughly chopped)
  • 10 tablespoons oil (I use 5 extra virgin olive oil and 5 rapeseed oil)
  • Salt to taste

Instructions

  1. Put the walnuts in a frying pan and dry fry for around five minutes until toasted.
  2. Put the walnuts in a food processor or blender and add the crushed garlic, grated parmesan cheese and chopped mint leaves. 
  3. Add the oil and blend until you get a rough paste.
  4. Add salt to taste

Keywords: mint, pesto, sauce

This recipe has been shared on #CookBlogShare with Lost in Food and #Fiesta Friday with Fiesta Friday and  Laurena @ Life Diet Health

Loved this recipe? Checkout the Recipe Index.

Tomato Sauce Recipe

Easy, basic Tomato Sauce recipe

This made-from-scratch Tomato Sauce recipe uses store cupboard ingredients, can be made in under half an hour, can be kept in the fridge or frozen, and is the basis for many, many meals. It is a reduced puree of tomatoes, flavoured with onions and garlic, which can be used with pasta or in other dishes. It is the one recipe that I have made sure all my children know how to cook before they leave home as, if you have mastered it, you will always be half an hour away from a tasty and nutritious meal.

What you need to know about my Tomato Sauce recipe

This is a very easy recipe. If you have never cooked anything before, you should be able to cook this. The key ingredient in this sauce is time. Yes, time not thyme! You need to cook the onions slowly for 15 minutes to make sure that they are sweet and caramelised. Don’t skip this step. If you cook them low and slow they will have a fantastic savoury sweetness which will make your sauce particularly delicious. You need to keep an eye on them to make sure that they don’t burn as this will make your sauce taste bitter. You also need to allow the full 15 minutes for the sauce to simmer uncovered to allow some of the liquid to evaporate. This will mean that the sauce thickens and the flavour intensifies. The end result should be naturally sweet but, if you wish, you could add a little sugar at the end if you feel it needs it.

This Tomato Sauce recipe uses store-cupboard ingredients which means you should always have the makings to hand and that you can make it all the year around. In late summer, when fresh tomatoes are in season, I will often use these to make sauce. It is fresh and delicious when made with good quality tomatoes. However, for the rest of the year, I used tinned tomatoes which have a great intensity of flavour. I was once told by an Italian friend that it was better to use whole tinned tomatoes rather than the chopped-up variety because the latter was where the poorer quality fruit were used. Personally, I have not found a huge difference in taste between whole and chopped tinned tomatoes.

This sauce is a very simple vegan recipe. It consists of oil, onion and tomatoes flavoured with garlic and bay leaf. However, there are lots of variations, as set out below.

Tomato Sauce variations
  • You can use butter, instead of oil, if you would like your tomato sauce to be richer. You can also add a tablespoon of double cream if you want it even richer still.
  • If you are in a hurry, you can leave out the onions, start the recipe by frying the garlic for a few minutes and follow the recipe from step 4.
  • You can add chopped celery sticks together with the onion at step 3. Celery is a brilliant ingredient for adding a depth of flavour to recipes and will add another level of taste to your sauce.
  • You can add a chopped fennel bulb together with the onion at step 3. This gives the sauce a mild aniseed flavour which is excellent if you are serving it with fish.
  • Another good variation if you are serving the sauce with fish is to add a generous pinch of saffron and a curl of orange peel (without the pith) to the sauce at step 5.
  • You can add a few anchovy fillets together with the onion at step 3. The anchovies will melt into the sauce and give an extra savoury depth of flavour to the sauce.
  • If you want a bit of heat to your sauce, you could add a teaspoon of dried chilli flakes at step 5.
  • You can add other herbs to the sauce. If you are using dried herbs, add at step 5 together with the tomatoes and bay leaf. If you are using fresh herbs, add right at the end of cooking. Basil and oregano are good options.
  • You can add a dash of wine, either red or white, at the end of cooking. This will add acidity and richness to the sauce. Two or three tablespoons is sufficient.
Uses for basic Tomato Sauce

This recipe makes approximately 1 litre (35 fl oz) of sauce. It will keep for two or three days in the fridge and can be frozen. You can use it as a simple sauce for pasta as it is and it also makes a great basis for a whole range of other pasta sauces. It is also good as an accompaniment to vegetables, fish or meat.

Basic Tomato Sauce Recipe
Print
clock clock iconcutlery cutlery iconflag flag iconfolder folder iconinstagram instagram iconpinterest pinterest iconfacebook facebook iconprint print iconsquares squares iconheart heart iconheart solid heart solid icon
Tomato Sauce

Tomato Sauce Recipe

  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 5
  • Cook Time: 30
  • Total Time: 35 minutes
  • Yield: Serves 6
  • Category: Sauce
  • Cuisine: English

Description

This quick and easy Tomato Sauce recipe, made from store-cupboard ingredients, is fantastic with pasta and is at the basis for a wide range of other sauces.  


Ingredients

Scale
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
  • 1 large onion
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 2 tins of tomatoes
  • 1 bay leaf
  • Salt and pepper
  • A little sugar (optional)


Instructions

  1. Heat the oil in a heavy-based saucepan or deep frying pan.
  2. Peel and finely chop the onions and add to the pan.
  3. Fry the onions over a very low heat until soft and caramelised.  This will take about 15  minutes.
  4. Peel and crush the garlic cloves and add them to the pan.
  5. Add the tomatoes and the bay leaf.
  6. Simmer uncovered until the sauce is rich and thick.  This will take about 15 minutes.
  7. Taste the sauce and season with salt and pepper.  You can add a little sugar (half a teaspoon) if you feel the sauce needs to be sweetened.


Keywords: tomato, sauce, easy

This recipe has been shared on #CookBlogShare with A Strong Coffee and #Fiesta Friday with Fiesta Friday,  Diann @ Of Goats and Greens and Liz @ Spades, Spatulas & Spoons

Loved this recipe? You may also like the following recipes. Or checkout the Recipe Index.

Cold tomato soup
Tomato Soup
Tomato Tart

Vegetarian Stuffing

Vegetarian Stuffing with Chestnuts, Pecans and Cranberries

These Vegetarian Stuffing balls are crammed with flavour and texture. Chestnuts, both chopped and pureed, add a sweet creaminess which binds the other ingredients together. Roasted pecans add a nutty crunch and dried cranberries, one of my new favourite ingredients, at a sweet-sharp hit of fruitiness. I use fresh nutmeg to add a seasonal spiciness to the recipe.

They are a great addition to a big, celebratory roast dinner. Try them with home-made Bread Sauce and Fresh Cranberry Sauce and tell me I’m wrong! Think nutty crunchiness, creamy richness and zesty, fruity sweetness.

Why bother making Vegetarian Stuffing?

In addition to the flavour, there are lots of good things about this recipe. First off, it is a vegetarian side dish which will also appeal to meat-eaters. My family is a mixture of carnivores, vegetarians and pescatarians so I have a ready-made focus group for my recipes. The verdict was that these are pretty much as good as any meat-based alternative. Therefore, you can put them on everyone’s plate – cosying up to the turkey or the nut-roast – and they work just as well.

They are also really easy to make – just a matter of mixing the various ingredients together – and can be prepared in advance. Just make up the stuffing balls and keep covered in the fridge until you are ready to cook them. They only take 15 minutes to cook.

They are also pretty versatile. Although I came up with this recipe as accompaniment to a roast dinner, I sometimes make them as a vegetarian lunch or snack option. They are also great cold as part of a packed lunch or winter picnic.

Other festive sauces and accompaniments

Having the right sauces and accompaniments can take a festive meal to the next level. If you are preparing a special festive meal for Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year you might like to try some of my other recipes for drinks, snacks, accompaniments and desserts. They are very easy and are a great way to create a celebratory festive feast!

Vegetarian Stuffing Recipe

Print
clock clock iconcutlery cutlery iconflag flag iconfolder folder iconinstagram instagram iconpinterest pinterest iconfacebook facebook iconprint print iconsquares squares iconheart heart iconheart solid heart solid icon

Vegetarian Stuffing

  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 15
  • Cook Time: 15
  • Total Time: 30 minutes
  • Yield: Serves 6
  • Category: Stuffing
  • Method: Roasting
  • Cuisine: English

Description

This quick and easy Vegetarian Stuffing recipe combines the sweet creaminess of chestnuts with onions, crunchy roasted pecans and fruity dried cranberries.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 50 g (2 oz) butter or 2 tablespoons of oil
  • 1 onion
  • 180 g (6 oz) vacuum-packed peeled chestnuts
  • 50 g (2 oz) shelled pecans
  • 50 g (2 oz) fresh white breadcrumbs
  • 50 g (2 oz) dried cranberries
  • Salt and pepper 
  • Grated nutmeg
  • 1 egg (optional)


Instructions

  1. Set your oven to 200 C/180F/Gas Mark 6
  2. Peel and chop the onion.  Put the onion and butter or oil in a frying pan and fry for 10 minutes until the onion is soft and translucent.
  3. Process half (90g) of the chestnuts for a few minutes in a food processor or blender to form a puree.  Roughly chop the remaining chestnuts.
  4. Put the pecans in a frying pan and dry fry (with no oil or butter) for 5 minutes until they are darker brown and toasted.  Roughly chop the pecans.
  5. In a large bowl combine the fried onions, chestnut puree, chopped chestnuts, chopped pecans, breadcrumbs and cranberries.
  6. Season to taste with grated nutmeg and salt and pepper.
  7. You can add an egg to the mixture to make it easier to combine.
  8. Take a dessert spoon of the mixture and squeeze it in your hands to make a ball.  Place on a baking tray.  Repeat until all the mixture has been used.
  9. Put the tray in the pre-heated oven and cook the stuffing balls for 15 minutes.
  10. Serve immediately.

Vegetarian Stuffing


Notes

This recipe is vegetarian but can be made vegan if oil is substituted for butter and the egg is omitted. 

These stuffing balls are actually very nice cold either as a snack or as an accompaniment to a cold meal.

Keywords: stuffing, vegetarian stuffing, chestnut stuffing, Christmas

This recipe has been shared on #CookBlogShare with Lost in Food  and #Fiesta Friday with Fiesta Friday and Jhuls at The Not So Creative Cook

Bread Sauce Recipe

Easy, freshly-made Bread Sauce recipe

Try this home-made Bread Sauce recipe and you will never again use ready-made or packet versions! Most importantly, it tastes fantastic. It is rich, creamy and buttery. It is warm and soothing and delicately flavoured with nutmeg and bay. It is also exceptionally easy to make and requires little or no culinary skill and can be made ahead and then gently re-heated so it is a brilliant side dish for a big, celebratory meal.

Its Christmas dinner – don’t panic!

This recipe is one that my mother used to make at Christmas. It is a fantastic sauce to have with a big festive dinner as its creaminess enhances the drier ingredients, such as turkey or vegetarian main courses such as nut roast. I always think that producing a tasty Christmas dinner is difficult even for experienced cooks. Not only are you producing dishes that you may only make once a year, you are often doing it for a large number of people who may have a wide range of food preferences and your thought processes on the day may well be impacted by a higher than average intake of alcohol! My Christmas dinner tips, which helped me when I first took on the role of primary Christmas dinner cook, are as follows.

Some Christmas dinner tips

  • Do not panic.
  • Plan it as you would any other meal. That is, that it needs a centrepiece (turkey, nut-roast, wellington), something to add juiciness (gravy), something to add zest (Cranberry Sauce), something to add richness (Bread Sauce), something to add texture (roast potatoes and stuffing), something for everyone to hate (Brussels Sprouts) – just kidding, I am actually a sprout lover and impose them on my family once a year at Christmas time..
  • Keep it simple. I generally don’t bother with a starter on the basis that, unless you are in training as the next presenter of Man v Food, full Christmas dinner plus pudding is sufficient. I do serve very simple canapes and nibbles (Cheese Biscuits, Spiced Nuts) when everyone starts with the aperitifs in order to try to absorb the alcohol.
  • Do as much of the preparation as possible the day before (peeling vegetables, making stuffing, Cranberry Sauce, Bread Sauce etc).
  • Delegate tasks whenever possible. Granny can decorate the table. Even young children can peel vegetables.
  • Write out in advance on a bit of paper when everything needs to start cooking. You will need this once you start hitting the champagne at 11.00 am.
  • Do not stress about dessert. A shop-bought Christmas Pudding which can be heated in the microwave is the way to go. Or why not just have Mince Pies?
  • Do not panic – did I say that already?
  • For guidance on dealing with family disputes and/or feuds, dealing with the combination of a range of political views and a large quantity of alcohol and people of all ages who do not like their presents, I am afraid you will have to look elsewhere.

Bread Sauce Recipe

Print
clock clock iconcutlery cutlery iconflag flag iconfolder folder iconinstagram instagram iconpinterest pinterest iconfacebook facebook iconprint print iconsquares squares iconheart heart iconheart solid heart solid icon
Bread Sauce

Bread Sauce Recipe

  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 5
  • Cook Time: 5
  • Total Time: 10 minutes
  • Yield: Serves 6
  • Category: Sauce
  • Cuisine: English

Description

This home-made Bread Sauce recipe is quick and easy to make.  It has a rich creaminess, flavoured with bay and nutmeg, which is a sumptuous addition to any celebratory meal.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 onion
  • 300 ml milk
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 6 black peppercorns
  • Grated nutmeg
  • 75 g fresh white breadcrumbs
  • 75 g butter
  • 100 ml double cream
  • Salt and pepper to taste

 


Instructions

  1. Peel and chop the onion.
  2. Put the chopped onion into a small saucepan.  Add the milk, bay leaf and peppercorns. 
  3. Heat the milk until it starts to gently bubble.  Don’t let it boil over!
  4. At this point, you can set aside the milk without removing the flavourings.  Once it is cool, leave it in the fridge overnight and then use as from step 5.  This allows the flavour to develop.  However, if you want to eat the breadsauce on the same day, you can just proceed as from step 5.
  5. Strain the milk to remove the flavourings. 
  6. Pour the flavoured milk into a small saucepan and add the grated nutmeg, breadcrumbs, butter and cream.
  7. Heat gently, stirring to combine, until the butter is melted.
  8. Serve warm topped with a little more grated nutmeg.

Bread Sauce


Notes

It is very easy to make your own breadcrumbs.  Just tear or cut white bread into large pieces and then process for a few seconds in a blender or food processor.  It works best if the bread is proper, crusty bread and if it is slightly stale.

It is really worth obtaining your grated nutmeg from actually grating a whole nutmeg rather than using ready-grated nutgmeg.  You can buy a jar of whole nutmegs in most supermarkets and then just use a food grater to grate what you need into your dishes.  Just smell the freshly grated nutmeg and you will understand!

Keywords: bread sauce, seasonal sauce, roast dinner

This recipe has been shared on #CookBlogShare with Everyday Healthy Recipes and #Fiesta Friday with Fiesta Friday.

Loved this recipe? You may also like the following recipes. Or checkout the Recipe Index.