Caramel ( or ) is an orange-brown
confectionery product made by heating a range of
sugar
Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or do ...
s. It can be used as a flavoring in
puddings and
desserts, as a filling in
bonbons, or as a topping for
ice cream
Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It may be made from milk or cream and is flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit such as ...
and
custard.
The process of
caramelization consists of heating sugar slowly to around . As the sugar heats, the molecules break down and re-form into compounds with a characteristic colour and flavour.
A variety of
candies,
desserts, toppings, and confections are made with caramel:
brittles,
nougats,
pralines,
flan,
crème brûlée,
crème caramel, and
caramel apple
Caramel apples or toffee apples are whole apples covered in a layer of caramel. They are created by dipping or rolling apples-on-a-stick in hot caramel, sometimes then rolling them in nuts or other small savories or confections, and allowing ...
s. Ice creams sometimes are flavored with or contain swirls of caramel.
Etymology
The English word comes from French ''caramel'', borrowed from Spanish ''caramelo'' (18th century), itself possibly from Portuguese ''caramelo''. Most likely that comes from Late Latin ''calamellus'' 'sugar cane', a diminutive of ''calamus'' 'reed, cane', itself from Greek κάλαμος. Less likely, it comes from a Medieval Latin ''cannamella'', from ''canna'' 'cane' + ''mella'' 'honey'.
['']Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a c ...
'', 1st edition, 1888
''s.v.''
/ref> Finally, some dictionaries connect it to an Arabic ''kora-moħalláh'' 'ball of sweet'.
Sauce
Caramel sauce is made by mixing caramelized sugar with cream
Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this process ...
. Depending on the intended application, additional ingredients such as butter, fruit purees, liquors, or vanilla
Vanilla is a spice derived from orchids of the genus '' Vanilla'', primarily obtained from pods of the Mexican species, flat-leaved vanilla ('' V. planifolia'').
Pollination is required to make the plants produce the fruit from whic ...
can be used. Caramel sauce is used in a range of desserts, especially as a topping for ice cream. When it is used for crème caramel or flan, it is known as clear caramel and only contains caramelized sugar and water. Butterscotch sauce is made with brown sugar, butter, and cream. Traditionally, butterscotch is a hard candy more in line with a toffee.
Candy
Caramel candy, or "caramels", and sometimes called "toffee
Toffee is a confection made by caramelizing sugar or molasses (creating inverted sugar) along with butter, and occasionally flour. The mixture is heated until its temperature reaches the hard crack stage of . While being prepared, toffee ...
" (though this also refers to other types of candy), is a soft, dense, chewy candy made by boiling a mixture of milk or cream, sugar(s), glucose
Glucose is a simple sugar with the molecular formula . Glucose is overall the most abundant monosaccharide, a subcategory of carbohydrates. Glucose is mainly made by plants and most algae during photosynthesis from water and carbon dioxide, u ...
, butter, and vanilla (or vanilla flavoring). The sugar and glucose are heated separately to reach ; the cream and butter are then added which cools the mixture. The mixture is then stirred and reheated until it reaches . Upon completion of cooking, vanilla or any additional flavorings and salt are added. Adding the vanilla or flavorings earlier would result in them burning off at the high temperatures. Adding salt earlier in the process would result in inverting the sugars as they cooked.
Alternatively, all ingredients may be cooked together. In this procedure, the mixture is not heated above the firm ball
A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared ...
stage (), so that caramelization of the milk occurs. This temperature is not high enough to caramelize sugar and this type of candy is often called milk caramel or cream caramel.
Even though caramel candy is sometimes called "toffee" and is also compared with butterscotch, there is a difference. While toffee and butterscotch are more closely related than caramel, they do have most of the same ingredients. However, the difference is that toffee and butterscotch uses molasses or brown sugar while caramel uses white sugar. They are also cooked at different temperatures and they each have their own cooking techniques that makes them unique in taste and shape.
Salting
The salted caramel was popularized in 1977 by the French pastry chef Henri Le Roux in Quiberon, Brittany
Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...
, in the form of a salted butter caramel with crushed nuts (''caramel au beurre salé''), using Breton ''demi-sel'' butter. It was named the "Best confectionery in France" (''Meilleur Bonbon de France'') at the Paris ''Salon International de la Confiserie'' in 1980. Le Roux registered the trademark "CBS" (caramel au beurre salé) the year after.
In the late 1990s, the Parisian pastry chef Pierre Hermé introduced his salted butter and caramel macaroon
A macaroon ( ) is a small cake or biscuit, typically made from ground almonds (the original main ingredient), coconut or other nuts (or even potato), with sugar and sometimes flavourings (e.g. honey, vanilla, spices), food colouring, glacé che ...
s and, by 2000, high-end chefs started adding a bit of salt to caramel and chocolate dishes. In 2008 it entered the mass market, when Häagen-Dazs
Häagen-Dazs ( , ) is an American ice cream brand, established by Reuben and Rose Mattus in The Bronx, New York, in 1960. Starting with only three flavors: vanilla, chocolate, and coffee, the company opened its first retail store in Brooklyn, N ...
and Starbucks started selling it.
Originally used in desserts, the confection has seen wide use elsewhere, including in hot chocolate and spirits such as vodka
Vodka ( pl, wódka , russian: водка , sv, vodka ) is a clear distilled alcoholic beverage. Different varieties originated in Poland, Russia, and Sweden. Vodka is composed mainly of water and ethanol but sometimes with traces of impuriti ...
. Its popularity may come from its effects on the reward systems of the human brain, resulting in "hedonic escalation".
Colouring
Caramel colouring, a dark, bitter liquid, is the highly concentrated product of near total caramelization, used commercially as food and beverage colouring, e.g., in cola.
Chemistry
Caramelization is the removal of water from a sugar, proceeding to isomerization and polymerization
In polymer chemistry, polymerization (American English), or polymerisation (British English), is a process of reacting monomer molecules together in a chemical reaction to form polymer chains or three-dimensional networks. There are many f ...
of the sugars into various high-molecular-weight compounds. Compounds such as difructose anhydride may be created from the monosaccharides after water loss. Fragmentation reactions result in low-molecular-weight compounds that may be volatile and may contribute to flavor. Polymerization reactions lead to larger-molecular-weight compounds that contribute to the dark-brown color.
Caramel can be produced in so many forms such as, sauce, a chewy candy, or a hard candy because of how much of an ingredient is added and the temperature it is being prepared at.
In modern recipes and in commercial production, glucose
Glucose is a simple sugar with the molecular formula . Glucose is overall the most abundant monosaccharide, a subcategory of carbohydrates. Glucose is mainly made by plants and most algae during photosynthesis from water and carbon dioxide, u ...
(from corn syrup
Corn syrup is a food syrup which is made from the starch of corn (called maize in many countries) and contains varying amounts of sugars: glucose, maltose and higher oligosaccharides, depending on the grade. Corn syrup is used in foods to soft ...
or wheat
Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...
) or invert sugar
Inverted sugar syrup, also called invert syrup, invert sugar, simple syrup, sugar syrup, sugar water, bar syrup, syrup USP, or sucrose inversion, is a syrup mixture of the monosaccharides glucose and fructose, that is made by hydrolytic s ...
is added to prevent crystallization, making up 10%–50% of the sugars by mass. "Wet caramels" made by heating sucrose and water instead of sucrose alone produce their own invert sugar due to thermal reaction, but not necessarily enough to prevent crystallization in traditional recipes.
See also
* Caramel apple
Caramel apples or toffee apples are whole apples covered in a layer of caramel. They are created by dipping or rolling apples-on-a-stick in hot caramel, sometimes then rolling them in nuts or other small savories or confections, and allowing ...
, whole apples covered in a layer of caramel
* Caramel corn, popcorn coated in caramel
* Dodol, a caramelized confection made with coconut milk
* Dulce de leche
''Dulce de leche'' (; pt, doce de leite), also known as caramelized milk, milk candy or milk jam in English, is a confection from Latin America prepared by slowly heating sugar and milk over a period of several hours. The resulting substance, ...
, caramelized, sweetened milk
* Maillard reaction
The Maillard reaction ( ; ) is a chemical reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars that gives browned food its distinctive flavor. Seared steaks, fried dumplings, cookies and other kinds of biscuits, breads, toasted marshmallows, and m ...
* Nougat, using egg white rather than milk products
* Tablet
Tablet may refer to:
Medicine
* Tablet (pharmacy), a mixture of pharmacological substances pressed into a small cake or bar, colloquially called a "pill"
Computing
* Tablet computer, a mobile computer that is primarily operated by touching the ...
, Scottish candy made with condensed milk
* Toffee
Toffee is a confection made by caramelizing sugar or molasses (creating inverted sugar) along with butter, and occasionally flour. The mixture is heated until its temperature reaches the hard crack stage of . While being prepared, toffee ...
, a type of confection
References
{{Authority control
Amorphous solids
Candy
Food colorings
Glassforming liquids and melts
Toppings
sv:Kola