troubles with caramel

[kuan]

Well you know the farmhouse way is to put a can of condensed milk in the oven right?

[cakerookie]

Ouch, that boils over and you got a mess to clean up.

Rgds Rook

[scott123]

Originally Posted by kuan

Well you know the farmhouse way is to put a can of condensed milk in the oven right?

Dulce de leche (caramelized condensed milk) is a perfect example of a browned dairy (in this case milk) caramel. It doesn't have quite the depth of flavor of browned sugar, imo. I prefer the two combined. Browned dairy and browned sugar- something you can't do when starting with a can of condensed milk.

And I've never heard of anyone putting a can in the oven. I have heard of people boiling the cans, something condensed milk companies have been warning people not to do in recent years. I've never heard of it happening, but apparently the cans can explode.

[panini]

There's usually a couple of ways to get things done. As one does tasks over and over again they tend to be considered easy. Anything involving cooking sugar is is not easy. For someone in the beginning stages of cooking sugar then I would definately reccomend using thermometers and noting what the sugar is doing at certain temperatures. I don't want to come off aloof, I just have this aura in the kitchen where I seem to know where the sugar is at depending on the amounts, but trust me, the question posted happened to me a lot and I burned many pounds of sugar in the beginning.
There are quite a few ways to expedite and slow down the cooking process. Lids-no lids-brushing etc. It's good to hear about them all.
pan

[cookwithlove]

I learned a lots through sharing and hearing the different approach to a solution.

Let me quote Tetsuya, "Don't be afraid of failure, and learning is a discussion with others".

Let me share my experience of making cream caramel. How to unmould a nice cream caramel with smooth caralised top with enough liquid to be presentable. For a 20 or more cm round creme caramel ideally start with at least 120g of sugar combine with a dribble of water in a non-stick sauce pan, cook it slowly over medium heat to a rich,teak-red caramel to coat the base of tin. It should be hard,glassy layer when you pour the caramel into tin. Don't let it sit around for too long or it will start to absorb water from the humid air and begin to dissolve. Put the custard mixture together ASAP after the caramel is made, ladle it slowly into tin while the latter is still firm. For results, bake the creame in a water bath at around 150 or 160 deg C- the thinner the custard layer, the more gentle the heat should be. Done when still jiggly in the centre. Cool caramel on a rack,cover tin tightly with foil and chill for at least 3 or mor hours to firm custard. Run a thin-bladed knife around the edge of the custard to unmould. Place a serving plate upside down on top and holding the tin and plate tightly together to invert them and put them down. The custard should fall neatly onto the plate. Carefully lift off the tin - the liquefield caramel will flow out - and voila!