How To Soften Caramel That Is Too Hard

Caramel! Soft, thick, viscous! If you love everything creamy and caramel, like me, then you should know: it’s impossible to stop, and I warned you about this! Caramel is perfect as the filling for cakes and cupcakes, it can be poured over waffles, pancakes, and what beautiful smudges can be created on ready-made desserts. It is also very tasty just as an independent sweet.

Rich dark caramel that melts in your mouth is super delicious. But what to do if your golden-brown amber-colored deliciousness became crystallized?

Do you know what determines the texture of the caramel? Its moisture content. As it is evaporated from the cooking caramel, it becomes harder. As it cools, the sugar begins to crystallize and it becomes impossible to use it for your purposes.

Do you have to start over preparing your caramel? NO! There’s a super simple way of fixing this and that is by just adding a little bit more water.

How To Soften Caramel That Is Too Hard

So you have some regular room temperature water and you need to add it to the crystallized mass. And now what you gonna do is to bring it up to boil and you will dissolve all of the crystallized sugar. This will take a few minutes.

As the water comes up with the temperature, it will start dissolving these big crystals then eventually they’ll just turn into the sugar syrup. Then you can start the process of caramelizing the sugar over again.

Always when you’re making caramel you need to make sure of two things.

A brush with a little bit of water so you can brush down the side and if any crystals form. The same thing works with a lid because what the lid does, is the steam rises to the top, collects on the lid, and then it washes the crystals that form down along the side of the pan.

Almost like its raining! So you can keep the lid on until your sugar syrup starts to caramelize and give it a check once in a while to make sure its cooking and caramelizing.

After a few minutes, the sugar syrup is making,  it should be viscous, the bubbles should be popping slowly and which means that you’re getting close to your caramel.

It should start to turn a slight amber color. When that happens to start rotating your pots whirling it around and what it does is encourage the caramel to caramelize.

Have on hand about a half cup of heavy cream because you gonna pour this in the right moment when you have that nice dark amber color.

All it takes is a little bit of water to dissolve the crystallized sugar. You don’t need to add any more sugar to your syrup because what’s happening in this process, in the process of making caramel, in general, is that all of the water is evaporating and you’re left only with sugar in the end.

And as always with caramel you’re making it in a darker pot so you wanna take it a shade darker then you’re comfortable. It seems darker then it is, so if you take a spoon full of caramel and put in on a white surface it would be lighter in color.

But since you’re making it in the stainless pot it’s going to seem like its already done before it is. So dare to go to the dark side! After you got the right color pull it off the heat and add cream.

Make sure you add the cream off the heat so it doesn’t bubble up over your pot. Whisk it together and let it cool slightly before you enjoy it.

So if you ever crystallize your caramel – there’s an easy way to fix it. Enjoy your caramel.

How To Avoid Crystallization While Cooking?

Heat sugar over low heat without stirring until it is completely dissolved. Bring the syrup to a boil only when the sugar has been dissolved, and don’t stir after boiling.

You can squeeze some lemon juice or you can probably add a little vinegar for this, better apple vinegar. Don’t forget to dip a brush in hot water to grease the confectionery and brush the crystals from the sides of the pan so that they dissolve in the total mass of the syrup.

It must be constantly and effectively mixed, without being distracted for even a second, and managed to be poured into a silicone form when the sugar has completely melted and turned brown but has not yet overheated and burned.

You can experiment with the amount of cream, the less is added, the more dense caramel will turn out in the end.

How To Soften Caramel After Refrigerating?

The caramel will become quite dense in the refrigerator, but after standing at room temperature it will soften. After the refrigerator, it can be slightly warmed up in the microwave or a water bath and mixed, then it will be easier to work with it: apply to cakes or add to the cream. Still, you can try not to boil it so much, it will be less thick. Make your experiment!

How to Soften Hard Caramels?

Sometimes you need caramels in a recipe. You can prepare it on your own or you just have to cut the candy into bits, then you can soften hard caramels with a popular household appliance and get what you needed.

Youll need a microwave and that amount of caramels that you need for cooking. Just unwrap your caramels and put them into the plate, place the plate in the microwave and heat it on a high setting for approximately 10 to 15 seconds. After that, your caramel will get soft and you can do whatever you want.

How To Remove Crystallised Caramel From Dishes, Stoves?

Hard caramel causes horror and a desire to get rid of spoiled dishes. To remove fresh caramel, pour the dishes with water for a long time, freeze caramel pans. In difficult cases, clean the utensils with soda, soap, detergent, vinegar, food acids, activated carbon, and boil with the addition of glue.

Removing from plates/pans/etc.:

• Pour the utensils with hot water and make sure liquid completely covers the sweet crust. Within 2-3 hours, the caramel will completely dissolve in water, you need only to wash the residues under running water. To enhance the effect, you can add soda, mustard, salt, or vinegar to the water and boil it.
• Freeze dishes in the freezer for 1-2 hours. Under the influence of cold, the caramel will get harden and crack, and it can be easily removed. You need only to wash the pan.

Removing from the stove:

• First of all, pour warm water and leave for several hours to dissolve the caramel.
• If it doesn’t help – put a cloth soaked in water with soap or a washing cloth directly on the soot.
• Mix soda with water and apply it to the surface of the stove. Wash off after 1-2 hours.
• Sprinkle the burn with dry soda and pour vinegar.

Our goal is to soften the caramel by any means, after that it will be possible to remove the caramel from the stove.

Removing from the microwave oven:

• Put inside a container with water, add vinegar essence, or a lemon (20 g of acid per 1 liter of water).
• Turn on the microwave for 10-15 min and clean the surfaces.