No eye of newt, or wing of bat, in this potion ;) My potions tend to be of the culinary variety ! Last week hubby & I decided to give up our 'sugar free' caramel syrup from our favourite coffee shop. We figured we are much better off just having the actual sugar, than WTF-ever goes into sugar free stuff.
Then I got a wild hair and thought... HEY, if it isn't going to be sugar free (and thus no calories in my coffee)... why don't I just look for recipes to make it myself? Cause I'm a genius like that! So I picked up a spiffy glass water bottle, with a little rubber stoppered hinged lid, when I was at the supermarket (dammit, I paid 4 bucks for mine but then I went to Ikea and they had them for cheaper! Always the way!!!) And I set off on the net in search of recipes. The results are legendary, in my own kitchen anyway.
Ingredients!
And that's IT!
Instructions:
(note to self... don't try to add spaces between a numbered list to make it easier to ready. Weebly cops the poops about it!!)
The results, shown off by my sexy hubster ;) Then I got a wild hair and thought... HEY, if it isn't going to be sugar free (and thus no calories in my coffee)... why don't I just look for recipes to make it myself? Cause I'm a genius like that! So I picked up a spiffy glass water bottle, with a little rubber stoppered hinged lid, when I was at the supermarket (dammit, I paid 4 bucks for mine but then I went to Ikea and they had them for cheaper! Always the way!!!) And I set off on the net in search of recipes. The results are legendary, in my own kitchen anyway.
Ingredients!
- 3 cups white sugar (could use raw, unbleached, but first time out I follow the recipe before I tweak it lol)
- 2 1/4 water, divided
- 3 tsp vanilla essence
- 3 pinches of salt
And that's IT!
Instructions:
- Pour all of the sugar and 3/4 cup of the water into a BIG pot (trust me, use the deepest goddamn pot you can find... save yourself the kitchen cleanup lol... learn from my mistake ;)
- Over medium heat, stir the sugar & water until the sugar is COMPLETELY DISSOLVED. I use a rubber spatula, and when I can stir, and see NO crystals on the spatula it's good to go. Important: DO NOT let it boil until the sugar is totally dissolved or you've stuffed the whole thing up and and will end up with some toffee looking chunky mess!
- Once it's completely dissolved, put a lid on it and turn the heat up until it boils and let it go for 2 minutes.
- Take the lid off and stir gently, until the syrup gets to a deep amber colour. This is going to take a few minutes of really boring stirring, but it's worth it :D Hubby was all up in my space being nosy, so I made him do most of it LOL.
- Once it hits deep amber, take it off the heat. This is where you want to have used that deep ass pot lol...and STAND BACK!! because now you pour the rest of the water in, and it bubbles like lava hitting the ocean. And the splatter *sigh* I cleaned hardened syrup up from everything within about a meter! If you can manage to use a lid, and just uncover enough of the pot to pour the water in, all the better.
- Once the INSANE bubbling slows down, you're safe to take the lid off or come close again. Give it a stir, it may be a bit thick on the bottom but it will mix in as you stir. Now you add the vanilla and pinches of salt. I think next time I may cut back the vanilla to 2tsp, although this was NOT bad at all, I want more caramel & less vanilla :D
- Once the syrup cools a bit, grab a funnel & pour it into a bottle with an airtight seal. It'll keep up to 6 weeks in the fridge apparently. As if it'll ever get a chance? lol
(note to self... don't try to add spaces between a numbered list to make it easier to ready. Weebly cops the poops about it!!)
And this glorious, and appropriately, caramel coloured delight is what that 20 minutes worth of effort rewards you with! (the contents of the bottle, sorry ladies, my slightly scruffy hubby does not magically appear. Mores the pity, he cleans house and even cooks, and even gets up so I can have a Sunday morning sleep in!!! lol) It makes a positively delish caramel latte! (about 30-40mls per mug of coffee) We gave it about an hour to cool down enough to handle the bottle, before we simply had to sample it. We luckily had whipped cream in the fridge from earlier in the day, so it was truly a posh coffee !
So cost comparison time! One bottle of caramel syrup from our favourite coffee shop? 16.95! One bag of sugar? about 2.70... and will make several batches of this liquid gold. My guesstimate is that this size batch costs about a buck fifty, tops. That's all kind of win in this witches opinion!
Verdict: This will be a staple in our fridge :D
Blessings!
So cost comparison time! One bottle of caramel syrup from our favourite coffee shop? 16.95! One bag of sugar? about 2.70... and will make several batches of this liquid gold. My guesstimate is that this size batch costs about a buck fifty, tops. That's all kind of win in this witches opinion!
Verdict: This will be a staple in our fridge :D
Blessings!