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Help - cooking butter and sugar

#1
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11/8/06 at 9:07am
  • Joined: November 2006
  • Post Count: 1
Please help - I tried to make a cranberry, nut crunch (from latest Woman's Day Best Christmas Ideas). Supposed to cook the butter and sugar for 25 - 40 mins at med-high heat. Well, it burnt within 10 mins and what a time I had getting the pan clean! My question is - can I do this in the microwave? I have a brittle recipe where I cook the sugar and corn syrup in the microwave and thinking this might work for this also.
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#2
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11/8/06 at 9:46am
  • Joined: January 2005
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It looks like the magazine made a typo. Can you email them for a clarification?

I haven't seen the recipe, but if you look at similair recipes you can probably alter it without any problem.
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#3
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11/8/06 at 10:05am
  • Joined: May 2006
  • Location: USA
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I bet they mean 2.5 to 4.0 minutes. To melt butter in more than that, you'd have to have a barrel-full.
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#4
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11/8/06 at 1:08pm
  • Joined: August 2004
  • Location: Minnesota
  • Post Count: 939
By 5 minutes into the cooking process it must have started turning black. Did you continue anyway for 25-40 minutes?

doc
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#5
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11/9/06 at 6:42pm
  • Joined: November 2006
  • Location: Northern California
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I would not use a microwave to prepare the butter caramel sauce you describe. Food temperatures are difficult to control inside a microwave and it's difficult to monitor the cooking process with any degree of accuracy looking through a glass covered shield with hundreds of little holes punched in it.
I suspect the recipe you describe contains error(s). My own experience involves meltin the butter into a saucepan over medium heat then adding the sugar and stirring until the sugar melts and begins to turn a soft brown color with an inviting aroma - before it is burnt. The amount of time I continue to cook it depends on whether I want a smooth sauce, soft ball or hard ball consistency. I usually get it off the heat sooner, rather than later, if I intend to use it as a sauce on cakes, cookies, etc. This sauce can turn from soft ball to hard ball stage in the blink of an eye and the only method I know of to maintain control is a candy thermometer or experience.

My failures in life are few. The most blatant of these is my attempts at retirement. I've studied the process carefully but cannot begin to understand how it is done.

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