ovaltine caramel
ONLY MAKE THIS IF YOU'RE READY TO BE OBSESSED!!
This is what I wish my childhood tasted like, because I grew up on nesquik chocolate milk mix. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I had Ovaltine- it’s soooo much better wtf. So I made this caramel dreaming of the nostalgia that could have been. The ovaltine adds a faint chocolate malty taste that pairs so well with the caramel notes.
I find myself warming this up to serve over ice cream when I’m not using it as a filling for cakes or donuts. It also makes a great linzer cookie filling- sandwiched between two shortbread cookies.
This recipe makes 500 grams of caramel.
Ingredients:
230 grams granulated sugar
165 grams heavy cream
40 grams ovaltine powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
70 grams butter, room temp
Directions:
In a small saucepan heat up the heavy cream, ovaltine powder and salt together. Keep warm to ensure it incorporates into the caramel easier later.
Meanwhile place a pot over medium heat. Allow the pot to heat up before adding in any sugar- we’re gonna be doing a dry method caramel.
Once the pot is hot add 1/4 of the sugar to the pot. Evenly sprinkle it around the bottom of the pot. The sugar will begin to melt- don’t stir until it’s mostly melted and the edges begin to turn brown. Adding the sugar in separate additions helps to avoid major sugar clumping.
Add the next 1/4 of sugar, stirring with a spatula to combine it into the already melted sugar. Allow this addition to fully dissolve into the last and take on a little bit more color.
Continue this process with the remaining two additions of sugar.
Once all the sugar has been added, cook the caramel until it takes on an amber color. It’ll begin to smoke lightly but don’t worry- thats normal!! You are burning sugar after all :)
Take the caramel to a deep amber color- the dark the caramel the more smokey and bitter the flavor will be. The lighter the caramel the sweeter it will be.
Once at your desired shade turn off the heat. Slowly add in the warm ovaltine cream. You want the cream to be warm otherwise cold cream will seize the hot caramel. The water in the cream will sputter and boil off creating a lot of hot steam. SO BE VERY CAREFUL!! Stir to combine the cream into the caramel.
Turn the heat back on to medium and cook the caramel for about a minute more until the bubbling slows and thickens a bit.
Immersion blend in the butter. You can also just whisk it in if you don’t have an immersion blender- but I find the texture is SoOOoososO SMOOTH when you use an immersion blender.
Allow to cool to room temp before storing in the fridge up to 3 weeks. The caramel will solidify in the fridge but you can heat it up in the microwave whenever you want to use some.