DIY Caramel Syrup

One great thing about not being able to walk down the street and get a Starbucks grande caramel macchiato or do a quick drive-through for a caramel latte at McDonalds is that it has forced me to perfect my caramel syrup or go without.  I miss having the convenience of grabbing a coffee on the go, though the convenience of that makes it even more fulfilling when you can save money and make your own. I do it out of pure necessity!

If you remember my taco night post, making "non-Zambian" food from scratch here in Zambia is hard work!  (Cook refried beans from scratch, salsa from scratch, tortillas from scratch, etc!) Having that back up "pick it up in the grocery store" for when you don't have time or energy, makes it more satisfying when you make it yourself. So, yeah, be proud that you can make things from scratch.  I thought (before I moved here to Zambia) that I was pretty good at making things from scratch.  But I realize you need the diversity of ingredients to make most of the delicious things that show up on pinterest!  (Quinoa - I found it once in Lusaka! Sour Cream... never seen! Plain yogurt works as a substitute.  I find myself substituting over half the recipe sometimes, if it's worth it, if I think I have decent substitutions! I have not found a good substitution for cream cheese yet....)

So, enjoy my "perfected over the last 2 years" caramel syrup recipe. (I use it for coffee, but this recipe is good for both the syrup inside the coffee as well as the caramel drizzle. Please drizzle some on your ice cream and think of me and our lack of good ice cream!)

Michelle's Amazing Caramel Coffee Syrup Recipe (or drizzle)

Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
2-3 cups hot, boiling water
2 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt (or more for salted caramel!)


In a medium saucepan, over medium heat (you can use medium-high heat but stir constantly!), put in 2 cups of sugar.  That's it. Heat and stir.  This part takes the longest, probably 15-20 minutes depending on your heat.  It will start to form small clumps, and then lots of clumps, and then it will start to melt.  See photos below.  (Note: sugar burns easily. Stir frequently or constantly!)

Your plain boring sugar will start to look like this if put on heat and stir for long enough!

The clumps eventually melt down and it starts to look more and more like caramel!

A nice smooth caramel sauce.  This is just sugar. Nothing else added.

Once you have a nice looking caramel sauce (like the last photo), remove it from the heat. At this point you can use it for a caramel drizzle, instead of a syrup - just skip adding water. Be sure to add the vanilla (it will bubble up like crazy - beware) and salt though!

To continue with coffee syrup:
Add 2 cups of boiling water. BEWARE: it will bubble and steam up like crazy. Please don't burn yourself! I suggest adding a bit at a time, stirring between.

If you used boiling hot water it probably looks like this:

Boiling hot water has been added and there is a small hardened bit of caramel.

If you accidentally used cold or room temperature water - yours will probably look similar but with a LOT more hardened caramel.  You can save it, just put it back on heat and keep stirring until it's melted in with the water (it can take awhile).

If you used boiling water, go ahead and put it back on the heat again for about 5-10 more minutes, until the hard caramel is dissolved into the syrup. See photo:

Finished Caramel Coffee Syrup

If it's just not dissolving try adding more water, or add more water if you'd like a more diluted syrup.  You can easily add up to 1 more cup of boiling water at this point.

Remove it from the heat and add in vanilla and salt.

Let mixture cool completely. Store coffee syrup in an elegant looking glass bottle (I use an old vanilla bottle, it's not elegant) in the fridge.  It keeps for a few weeks at least. I've never had it go bad on me before I've used it all up!

*It should not solidify (unless you made a very strong caramel sauce - if you put in less than 1.5 cups of water it might harden in the fridge).  If you made a caramel sauce - use immediately or store in a container in the fridge so you can scoop the hard caramel out of it or use a microwavable container so you can melt it again in the future!


Pull up a chair and have a caramel latte with me!

Caramel latte with drizzle!