The world of cooked sugar is a magical realm. The temperature to which sugar is heated, together with the elements it is mixed with, can produce wildly completely different textures and flavors. Sugar crystals rework into many beloved confections via caramelization, the breakdown of sugars as they warmth, altering each their shade and taste.
Caramel, butterscotch, and toffee are all made utilizing the identical cooking approach and are sometimes mistaken for each other. These sweets display how delicate variations—such because the addition of milk, cream, or butter, and the exact temperature at which cooking is stopped—can produce completely different flavors and textures.
To higher perceive the variations amongst caramel, butterscotch, and toffee, I spoke with Nathan Myhrvold, the writer of Modernist Cuisineand Nik Sharma, a Serious Eats contributor, cookbook writer, and editor in residence at America’s Test Kitchen. Here’s what I realized concerning the variations, plus one of the best makes use of for every of those sticky sweets.
Caramel
Ingredient: Granulated sugar
Cooking Temperature: Recipes vary from about 250 to 350°F (121 to 175°C), relying on the specified outcome
Caramel is made by heating granulated sugar (white sugar) till it melts and caramelizes. There are two essential methods: dry caramel and moist caramel. Dry caramel is made by heating sugar by itself, with out added liquids, whereas moist caramel begins with sugar dissolved in water. The temperature you prepare dinner it to will decide the ultimate taste and texture: The longer the prepare dinner time the tk the flavour. Luxurious caramel sauces and smooth, chewy candies are created by including cream and butter on the finish of caramelization.
Cooking caramel requires a watchful eye. Even essentially the most skilled cooks have scorched or crystallized a batch. As sugar cooks, its flavors deepen and turn into extra advanced— however there is a wonderful line between superbly caramelized and burned. Myhrvold recommends caramelizing sugar in a small pan to cut back the probabilities of burning, explaining that it may be tough to warmth a big pan evenly, leading to elements of the sugar cooking too shortly. Making caramel properly requires precision: Taking the sugar to simply the best amber shade will reward you with wealthy, nutty, and malty flavors.
Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez
Sharma explains that sugar naturally desires to crystallize and can seize any likelihood to revert to that state throughout cooking. Adding acid, comparable to lemon juice or cream of tartar, may help stabilize the combination by stopping crystallization. If your sugar does crystallize, the excellent news is it’s simply sugar. If a batch goes incorrect, toss it out and easily strive once more.
Caramel is an extremely versatile ingredient. As Myhrvold notes, how you plan to make use of it should decide the elements you add. Whisking cream into caramel on the finish of cooking helps preserve a fluid consistency as soon as cooled, which is right for sauces and incorporating into buttercreams. Iconic caramel-based desserts embody caramel cake, tarte Tatin, crème caramel, and millionaire’s shortbread.
Getty Images / Poppy
Butterscotch
Ingredients: Sugar (usually brown) and butter
Cooking Temperature: Approximately 234 to 265°F (112 to 129°C), relying on desired outcome
Butterscotch stands other than different caramelized confections as a result of it usually is made with brown sugar as a substitute of granulated sugar, and butter is at all times included in the course of the cooking course of. As Sharma explains, brown sugar— which is both partially refined sugar that retains some molasses or white sugar coated with molasses—has a better moisture content material, which makes it harder to burn, and a pure acidity that makes it much less vulnerable to crystallization.
Butterscotch can take many types, together with sauce, sweet, or pudding. Butterscotch pudding is a basic preparation made by tempering egg yolks with milk or cream, then incorporating them again into the butterscotch base. Warm butterscotch sauce, with its viscous texture, is a good topping for muffins, ice cream, and different desserts. And in fact, there are butterscotch laborious candies—immediately recognizable by their canary yellow wrappers— that are made with out milk or cream, so that they have a much less wealthy taste than different butterscotch confections.
To make butterscotch, you whisk butter and brown sugar collectively on the range till it reaches your required temperature: Cooking the combination to the smooth ball stage (234 to 240°F/112 to 115°C) provides you with a pourable sauce; taking it to the laborious ball stage (240 to 265°F/115 to 129°C) will give you chewy candies.
Despite the inclusion of “scotch” in its identify, there is no Scotch in butterscotch. Butterscotch reportedly originated in Yorkshire, England, within the mid-Nineteenth century. According to an entry in Britannica“scotching” might discuss with the follow of scoring the sweet whereas nonetheless heat, making it simpler to interrupt into items as soon as hardened. Others counsel it is merely a nod to Scotland.
Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik
Toffee
Ingredients: Sugar (usually brown) and butter
Temperature: Approximately 300 to 335°F (148 to 168°C)
Toffee distinguishes itself from caramel and butterscotch in a single key means: It’s usually served as a tough sweet. The course of begins very similar to butterscotch—by caramelizing sugar with butter—after which the combination is taken to the laborious crack stage of 300 to 335°F (148 to 168°C). The larger temperature produces a deeper, extra advanced taste and provides toffee its signature nuttiness and brittle snap. When toffee is ready as a sauce, as in sticky toffee pudding, the addition of molasses and/or heavy cream helps stop it from hardening, leading to a easy, pourable consistency.
Toffee candies are sometimes enhanced with chocolate or nuts, which enhance its wealthy taste. At Dandelion Chocolate in San Francisco, one of the well-liked confections is their Cocoa Nib Toffee, coated in delicate, fruity 70% Zorzal Comunitario chocolate from the Dominican Republic. Pastry chef Zach Juliano explains that they make their toffee with a mix of brown and granulated sugars emulsified with native clover butter, which supplies the confection with a extra advanced taste than one made with simply granulated sugar alone. The butter’s fats content material amplifies the sugar’s nutty caramelized taste, whereas the chocolate’s fruitiness, paired with sea salt and cocoa nibs, helps spherical out the confection’s sweetness.
Getty Images / jennifoto
Key Takeaways
Caramel, butterscotch, and toffee every showcase the magic of caramelized sugar, and reveal how variations in temperature, timing, and elements can result in dramatically completely different outcomes.
Caramel is cooked to the very best temperature of the three, and is often used as a sauce or taste base for different desserts. It is often made solely with granulated (white) sugar and develops a deep, wealthy complexity because it approaches the caramel stage.
Butterscotch is cooked to the bottom temperature and at all times contains butter. Brown sugar is often used, giving butterscotch its signature sweetness and nutty taste. Butterscotch is commonly made into candies or sauces.
Similar to butterscotch, toffee is made with butter and sugar however cooked to the laborious crack stage, which provides it its brittle texture and deeper, extra nuanced taste.
Cooking sugar requires endurance and precision. An excellent sweet thermometer, a watchful eye, and all of your elements lined up earlier than you begin are important. With a strong recipe and a little bit of care, success with caramel, butterscotch, and toffee might be yours.
