Vanilla Bean Caramel Sauce

This summer I'm really enjoying making my own ice cream. This is mostly caused by a book I got: The Perfect Scoop. I absolutely love this book. When I first got it I read it front to back and noticed a recipe for Salted Butter Caramel Sauce. As much as I love caramel sauce, this title just didn't appeal to me. So I completely forgot about it. Then I suddenly spotted a recipe for Vanilla Bean Caramel Sauce on Annie's Eats and for some bizarre reason this sauce did appeal to me. When I read through the recipe I was surprised that it originated from The Perfect Scoop.

Annie turned this sauce for me into something heavenly! And it was so simple I'm ashamed I didn't think of it myself... She left out the butter and added.....wait for it.... vanilla bean. Simple right? But by doing this she instantly made this so much more appealing. Well, for me anyway....

I was a bit scared of making the caramel, because it is not one of my fortes. And indeed, I overstirred the first batch, causing great lumps to form in my melting sugar that I couldn't get out before burning the sugar.... Okay, no problem, I cleaned the pan (not an easy thing to do if your impatient) and started again. Thankfully this time it worked out!

The sauce is great. So far we've put it on top of vanilla ice cream (of course), pancakes (as a syrup) and I used it to make a caramel frappucino. Don't worry I'll post that recipe asap.

So go ahead and make this divine caramel sauce, you won't regret it!

Recipe

Vanilla Bean Caramel Sauce

Yield: 1 1/2 cups

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pour the cream in a bowl. With a knife scrape the seeds out of the vanilla bean and add the seeds to the cream. Stir and let sit while you prepare the caramel.

Spread the sugar in an large thick-bottomed saucepan. Try to make the layer as evenly and thinly as possible.

When the sugar is starting to liquify, gently stir it towards the center.

Continue stirring very gently until all the sugar has melted. Make sure you don't overstir.

Once the caramel becomes a dark amber color, take the pan from the heat immediately.

Carefully whisk in half of the cream with vanilla seeds. The mixture will start to bubble violently, so be careful of your  hands.

Stir until the cream is well incorporated, then add the rest of the cream, stirring again until well incorporated.

Stir in the salt and vanilla.

If lumps have formed during this, put the pan on very low heat and stir until all the lumps have dissolved.

Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.  If needed, it can be rewarmed in the microwave or in a saucepan over low heat.
 

Source: Annie's Eats, originally from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz.