Fruits in caramel - the best recipes and cooking tips. Caramelization: details about the culinary technique Caramelized or caramelized as it is right

17.12.2021

Delicious homemade desserts can be prepared without special culinary skills. But some tricks and skills will help make such dishes especially interesting and tasty. In particular, the creation of various pastries can become a separate area of creativity. And today you will learn how to caramelize apples for pie filling and the pie recipe with them in a pan.

Caramelized or caramelized fruits are considered haute European cuisine recipes. But not only eminent chefs, but also ordinary housewives can cook and use them. They will be a wonderful filling for pies, pies or pancakes.

How to make caramelized apples?

To create such a delicacy, you need to use five apples, five tablespoons of sugar, a teaspoon of cinnamon, a couple of tablespoons of butter, and a tablespoon of lemon juice.

First, wash the fruits and dry them. Remove the skin from the fruit and cut it into quarters with a sharp knife. Remove the core and chop the apples into slices (slices) of approximately the same size. Add some lemon juice to them (it will prevent unnecessary darkening of the fruit) and sprinkle with cinnamon. Mix the fruit pieces well.

Place a clean, dry skillet on the fire. Put the prepared butter on the bottom, and after it has melted, add a teaspoon of sugar to it. Spread sugar and butter with a spoon throughout the pan.

Put some of the apples in the pan. Fruit slices should cover the bottom in only one layer. Fry them, stirring constantly so that they do not burn in any way. At the same time, the fire should remain medium in power. Pay close attention to the color of the apples, as soon as the contents of the pan begin to change their color towards darkening, reduce the power of the fire. As a result of caramelization, apples should be covered with a pleasant golden crust. Put them on a separate plate.

All prepared fruits must be processed in several steps. Be sure to thoroughly wash the pan and dry it before laying the apples again.

How to cook apple caramel pie filling in a pan?

If you don't want to bother with caramelization at all, but still want a tasty filling, try making it according to this recipe. In this cooking option, readers of “Popular about Health” need to take one kilogram of apples, a couple of tablespoons of granulated sugar, and fifty grams of butter.

Prepare the apples: wash them and dry them. Cut into slices, removing the skin, tails and core. Place a skillet over medium heat and melt the butter in it. Put the prepared apples in the pan, reduce the heat a little and fry the fruit with occasional stirring for a couple of minutes.

Then sprinkle the apples with sugar, stirring. Already after three to five minutes, the filling for the pie can be considered ready.

Wonderful apple pie with caramelized apples

If you want to decorate a pie with caramelized apples or plan to make an open version of such a dessert, take a closer look at this filling recipe. Stock up on a kilogram of ripe fruits, the best option would be antonovka or ranet. Also take a couple of eggs (you will only need proteins), one hundred grams of vegetable oil, one hundred and fifty grams of starch, one lemon (for juice) and two hundred grams of granulated sugar.

First, prepare the apples. Wash and dry them, peel them off. Eliminate the cores and chop the fruits into equal-sized slices. Drizzle fruit with freshly squeezed lemon juice.

In a separate bowl, combine the egg whites with a couple of drops of lemon juice and beat. Add half of the prepared starch to them and mix until smooth, you can do it with a mixer.

Put two frying pans on the fire, pour vegetable oil into them. Dissolve the sugar in the oil in one pan.

Dip the apple slices in starch, then in the starch-protein mixture. Fry very quickly in a hot pan, then in a pan with caramel sauce (where butter is mixed with sugar).

Arrange the apples on a lightly oiled plate after they have fried for a minute in the caramel sauce.

Easy Caramelized Apple Pie Recipe

To prepare the caramelized apple filling according to this recipe, you should take two hundred grams of sugar, four to five medium apples and a little butter (a teaspoon with a slide).

It is better to give preference to those fruits that will not fall apart in response to exposure to high temperatures. Wash and dry the apples, peel them, remove the core. Chop fruits into cubes. Put a thick-walled frying pan (dry and clean) on the fire, pour the prepared sugar into it and slightly moisten it with water (one or two tablespoons). Put the apples into the skillet.

Warm the fruit over low heat, stirring occasionally. They should soften and turn into pleasant golden colors. Turn off the heat under the pan, stir in the prepared butter to the apples and cool.

Caramelized apples are super easy to make, kids will love them, and make a great homemade baking ingredient.

They are prepared easily and simply, but they turn out very tasty and tender. Such fruits can be served at the table as a full-fledged dessert, and used as a filling for homemade pies, pies and even cakes.

Caramelized apples: recipe with photo

There is nothing difficult in preparing such a delicacy. But before you start the culinary process, you should decide where exactly you want to make this dessert. We will present 2 options: on the stove and in the slow cooker. Which one to choose is up to you.

To cook caramelized apples on the stove, we need the following ingredients:

fresh large apples - 3 pcs.;
butter - 3 large spoons;
large brown sugar - 2 large spoons;
ground cinnamon - 1 dessert spoon;
nutmeg - ½ dessert spoon;
apple juice or cider, cognac - 1/3 cup.

Preparing the Components

Caramelized apples are a very tender and tasty dish that takes only 10 minutes to prepare. Before proceeding with the roasting of fruits, they are carefully processed.

Apples are washed and peeled. Then they are divided in half, the seed box is removed and chopped into slices about 5 millimeters thick.

Heat treatment

How to caramelize apples? The recipe for this dessert is very simple. To implement it, take a thick-walled frying pan and heat it up strongly. Then a few pieces of butter are laid out in a hot dish and it is slowly melted, distributing the cooking oil over the bottom of the entire dish. Do this in a circular motion with a wooden spoon or spatula. At the same time, make sure that the oil does not burn.

After the cooking oil has melted, large brown sugar and a small spoonful of cinnamon are spread to it. For aroma and taste, a little nutmeg is also added to the dish. All ingredients are mixed.

Having received a kind of caramel, all the slices of apples are laid out in it. After the lower part of the fruit is browned, they are turned over and fried in exactly the same way. This may take you about 10 minutes. In this case, the apples should become a little soft and acquire a brownish tint.

Making sauce

Ready caramelized apples are carefully removed from the pan and beautifully laid out on a flat plate. To make a full-fledged dessert, a special sauce is prepared separately for such a delicacy. To do this, pour apple cider or juice into the same pan with the remains of caramel and bring it to a boil. The sauce is boiled for about 3 minutes until it thickens.

If you decide to add cognac to the pan, then it must be set on fire. When the fire goes out, the dishes with the sauce should be immediately removed from the stove.

Serve to the table

As you can see, a caramelized apple with a fragrant sauce in a pan is prepared quickly and easily. After the dessert is on the plate, it is immediately presented to the table. At the same time, sweet and soft fruits are poured over with a previously prepared sauce and decorated with a cinnamon stick. This dessert is good to use with tea and whipped cream.

Caramelized apples: a recipe implemented in a slow cooker

If you don’t need caramelized apples for serving with sauce, but for making a delicious homemade pie, then during their frying it is not necessary to use additional ingredients in the form of cinnamon and nutmeg. To do this, you will need a small set of products, consisting of:

fresh large apples - 3 pcs.;
butter - 3 large spoons;
coarse brown sugar - 2 large spoons.

Fruit processing

Fruits for such a treat are processed in the same way as in the previous recipe. They are washed well, peeled (if necessary, you can leave it), and then the seed box is removed. In the future, apples are cut either into slices, or slices, or cubes (optional).

The process of cooking in a multicooker

So that the fruits do not darken, after preparing them, heat treatment should immediately begin. To do this, spread the butter in the multicooker bowl and slowly melt it in the baking mode. After the cooking oil has melted, coarse brown sugar is added to it and mixed well.

Having received a thick caramel, all the slices of apples are laid out to it. Periodically stirring the fruit, achieve their partial softness and browning.

How to use?

Ready caramelized apples are removed from the stove and laid out on a plate. In the future, they are placed on the dough and baked a delicious cake.

Also, this dessert is often used to decorate a homemade cake. In this case, a few slices of apples are placed between the cakes, and the rest cover the entire upper part of the finished treat.

Can you caramelize a whole apple?

A whole caramelized apple is not only very tasty, but also an amazingly beautiful dessert. However, it should be noted that for its preparation we need small fruits such as ranetki. Such apples are completely saturated with sweet caramel, become soft and shiny.

So, to prepare an unusual dessert, we need:

medium-sized apples - 8-12 pcs.;
butter - 150 g;
coarse brown sugar - 2/3 cup.

Cooking method

Such a dessert is prepared in the same way as the previous ones, with the only difference being that caramel is made for it several times more (so that whole apples drown by half).

Thus, a deep saucepan is heated strongly on the stove, and then brown sugar is melted in it and the whole fruit in the peel is laid out. Cook them over low heat for about 20 minutes. At the same time, they are periodically turned over so that they are completely caramelized.

After the apples have become partially soft and ruddy, they are removed from the saucepan and beautifully laid out on a plate. By the way, some chefs prefer not to tear off the tail of the ranetki, making the dish even more original.

Having poured the caramelized apple with the sauce that was formed in the pan, it is immediately presented to the table. If desired, delicious apples can be sprinkled with cinnamon or powdered sugar.

It's time to talk about the technology of sugar caramelization as such. There are a lot of recipes where it is required, so let's sort out the information, understand the methods and stages of sugar caramelization.

So. What does it mean that sugar caramelizes? Discarding special terminology, let's just say - it melts. This happens at different temperatures and is achieved in different ways.

For starters, a few simple rules.

Dishes (frying pan, saucepan) and a steel spoon - or a wooden, silicone spatula - for stirring must be absolutely clean. Because the smallest particles of food debris or garbage will immediately begin to re-crystallize the melting sugar around them.

We do not use dishes with Teflon or other coatings, which are contraindicated for scratches, since grains of sugar will provide these same scratches to it.

And let's be careful! Hot syrup has a temperature of 150-190 °, it will take a long time to treat even small burns. And if you need to add, for example, cream or another liquid to the syrup, we are doubly careful: the foam will be stormy, it may splash out. We heat the liquids in advance and pour in a thin stream at the edge of the dish, and not in the middle.

Sugar can be caramelized dry and wet methods.

Dry way.

We heat a saucepan (frying pan) with a wide thick bottom and high walls over medium heat. Pour in some sugar and let it melt. Next, add sugar in small portions, each after the previous one has melted. Do not forget to stir and cook until the color we need.

wet way.

Put the sugar in a bowl all at once and add water, mix. Sugar should, after mixing, resemble wet sand in consistency. The maximum amount of water is 30% by weight of sugar. In order to prevent a new crystallization of the melted sugar, you can add a little lemon juice, or citric acid, or vinegar, corn syrup. Moreover, literally 1-2 drops of lemon juice are enough for a glass of sugar.

We put the pan (frying pan) on a large fire and constantly stir the wet sugar until it boils and dissolves completely. As soon as the mixture boils, stop stirring it and remove all possible impurities from the surface.

To make the caramelization go more evenly, take the handle, slightly tilt the pan and shake it in a circular motion.

In advance, put a mug of cold water and a culinary brush next to the stove, best of all - silicone. While the sugar is melting, periodically we pass with a moistened brush along the walls of the pan or pan. On the hot walls, the liquid from the syrup quickly evaporates, new sugar crystals form. We do not need this, so with the help of a brush we keep the walls clean until the end of the process.

caramel color changing - depending on the duration and temperature of heating - from light yellow to brown. The darker, the more burnt sugar flavor.

There is a good trick: no matter what caramelization method we use, a little earlier than the caramel reaches the color we need, remove the dishes from the heat and put them in cold water with ice. The fact is that sugar keeps the temperature perfectly, and if the process is not stopped by such a radical method, the sugar can darken or even burn.

In any case, remove the dishes from the fire a little earlier than the syrup acquires the color we need - it will be achieved due to residual heat.

When heated, sugar liquefies and changes its texture. Those. at first it becomes sticky (strings stretch behind the spoon), and later it forms “balls”. The following is a detailed description of the stages of changing the syrup during caramelization and its application at each stage.

simple syrup (not particularly related to caramelization, but useful to know).

Just a mixture of sugar with enough water, which we heated until the sugar was completely dissolved. You can add any alcoholic drinks to your taste, spices and let stand under the lid for 15-20 minutes. Such a syrup is good for cooking fruits, soaking biscuits, greasing puff products.

Enveloping.

This stage of caramelization occurs at 100°. Clear syrup, almost boiled. Quickly dipping a slotted spoon into it and immediately taking it out, we will see that the syrup “enveloped” its entire surface. If we are going to cook fruit in syrup, this is what we need ..

Stage "little thread" - this is a temperature of 103-105 °. We can repeat (carefully!) the reception of professionals: we dip the thumb and forefinger folded together into cold water and then very quickly into the syrup. You can just take a little in a spoon. Slowly spreading the fingers, we will see that short threads about 3 mm wide stretch between them. They break quickly. Such a syrup is needed to prepare, for example, almond pastes.

big thread (at 106-110°).

It is, of course, stronger and wider - about 5 mm. We prepare this syrup if the recipe simply says “sugar syrup” - without clarification. It is needed for icing and buttercreams.

little gem (110-112°).

A stage that occurs a few minutes after the previous one, when bubbles begin to appear on the surface of the syrup. We collect a little in a spoon, grab it with wet fingers - a wider thread forms between them. Used for some types of nougat.

big pearl , or soufflé (113-115°).

At this stage, the thread between the fingers has a width of up to 2 cm. And if you lower the slotted spoon into the syrup, remove it and blow on it, we will get bubbles on the reverse side. This type of syrup is needed for cooking jam, making candied fruits and chestnuts, glaze.

Small - or soft -ball(116-118°).

Our syrup has clearly thickened, if you take it in a spoon and dip it in cold water - it will curl up into a small ball. The syrup at this stage is also good for jams, but also for jellies, soft caramel and nougat.

Large - or hard - ball (121-124°). The temperature is slightly higher, and therefore a harder ball is formed. Jams, sugar decorations, sweets and caramels are the purpose of the syrup.

Light - or soft - crunch (129-135°).

At this stage, drops of syrup, dipped in cold water, harden instantly. We crack it - and the fragments of the ball immediately stick to the teeth. But what toffees are obtained!

hard crunch (149-150°).

Now the bitten ball no longer sticks to the teeth. Around the edges of the dish, the syrup begins to turn pale yellow. If we are going to prepare lollipops, twisted sugar decorations, icing - it's time to remove from heat and put in cold water, otherwise it will already be caramel.

light caramel (151-160°).

There is practically no water left in the syrup, it quickly begins to turn into candy and caramel. From pale yellow, the syrup turns golden and brown. The most it is for caramel cream, sweets, puddings, icing.

Brown - or dark - caramel (166-175°).

Last stage. Oddly enough, dark caramel loses its sweet taste. Therefore, when cooking on the basis of dark caramel, you have to add sugar. Burnt oil is used most of all for coloring sauces, broths, baked goods and confectionery.

At 190°, sugar begins to burn and smoke.

If we prepared caramel for homemade sweets, pour it into molds greased with butter and let it harden.

We hope that this description will help to navigate the process of sugar caramelization for those who are not familiar with it yet.

There are recipes in which sugar for caramelization is not mixed with water, but with butter or vegetable oil. This is how meat, fish, pieces of vegetables and fruits are often caramelized, especially for Tarte Tatin pies.

Some juicy fruits are caramelized in a heated frying pan without oil, just constantly stirred so that the sugar does not burn. Such caramelization lasts 5-7 minutes, and pieces of fruit acquire a golden hue and caramel taste.

Finishing the topic of caramelization, I will only add that any theory, as you know, is verified by practice. So let's get up to the stove - and try. And everything will turn out - albeit not the first time.

Caramel sauce is used in various desserts, it is used to decorate many dishes: from creme brulee to leche flan. Sweet and delicious, this sauce is actually quite easy to make if you have the right ingredients and technique. Read the following article to learn how to caramelize sugar on the stove in minutes. Choose a wet caramelization method, which uses water, or a dry method, which uses only sugar.

Method 1 of 3: Wet caramelization

Understand the method of wet caramelization. The essence of the method is to dissolve sugar in water, and then heat the mixture until the water evaporates and the sugar darkens.

This method is often preferred by housewives as it is easier than the dry method because it is easier to prevent the sugar from burning in this method.
The wet process takes longer than the dry process, but allows more complex flavors to develop.

Prepare the ingredients. To make caramel using the wet method, you will need two cups of granulated sugar, half a cup of water, and a quarter teaspoon of lemon juice or cream of tartar.
- If you need a small amount of caramel, use half of the ingredients listed above: one cup of sugar, a quarter cup of water, and 1/8 teaspoon lemon juice or cream of tartar.
- Depending on the desired density of caramel, the ratio of sugar to water will vary. The thinner the sauce you want, the more water you need to add.
Mix sugar and water in a saucepan. Use a good quality metal pot with high sides and a thick bottom.
- Cheap thin-bottomed pans have hot spots that can burn the sugar and spoil the caramel.
- Also, it is better to use a saucepan made of a light-colored metal such as stainless steel. This will allow you to see if the caramel is darkening properly.
Place the saucepan over medium heat. Constantly stir the mixture with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula until the sugar begins to dissolve.
- To turn sugar into caramel, it must first dissolve or melt, which happens at 160°C.
- At this stage, the sugar syrup should be clear.
Add lemon or cream of tartar. Add lemon juice or cream of tartar (which you must first dissolve in a little water) to the sugar syrup. This will prevent the sugar from recrystallizing.
Bring sugar and water to a boil. Once the sugar has completely dissolved and the mixture begins to boil, stop stirring.
Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 8-10 minutes. Sugar syrup should be simmered, not boiled.
- The cooking time will vary depending on the proportion of water to sugar, various culinary and other factors.
- So when caramelizing sugar, it's best to use the color of the mixture as a guide.
Don't stir. It is important not to stir the mixture when the water evaporates and the sugar begins to caramelize.
- Stirring will enrich the syrup with air. This will lower the temperature of the syrup. This way the sugar will not darken properly.
- In addition, hot caramel will simply stick to a spoon or spatula, which is very difficult to peel off.
Follow the color. The best way to gauge caramel progress is to look very closely at the color. The mixture will turn white, light golden to dark amber. This can happen very quickly, so don't leave the pot unattended! Burnt caramel is not edible and should be thrown away.
- Don't worry if the dark amber color seems to come on in patches. All you have to do is carefully lift the pot by the handle and rotate the contents to distribute the color.
- It is also important to refrain from touching or tasting the caramel during preparation. Caramel, as a rule, reaches a temperature of about 170 ° C, and if it comes into contact with the skin, it will burn it.
Understand when caramelization is complete. Watch the mixture closely until it reaches an even, rich, brown color. When the entire contents of the pan reach this even tone and the consistency becomes slightly thick, know that the caramelization process is complete.
- Once the caramel reaches your desired color, remove it from the heat immediately.
- If the caramel is left on fire for too long, it will turn almost black and have a burnt, bitter smell. If this happens, then you need to throw it away and start cooking a new one.
Stop the caramelization process. If you want to make sure the cooking process stops and the sugar in the saucepan doesn't burn from residual heat, place the bottom of the saucepan in ice water for about 10 seconds.
- However, if you take the pot off the heat too soon, just leave the caramel on to continue cooking for a minute.
Use prepared caramelized sugar for dessert immediately. Decorate caramel on the top of a flan, make lollipops, floss, or simply drizzle over ice cream!
- After cooling, the caramel hardens very quickly. If you wait too long to decorate your dessert with caramel, it will be too hard to pour or sprinkle.
- If this happens, simply place the saucepan back on low heat and wait for the caramel to melt again. It's best to swirl the caramel pot rather than stirring with a spoon or spatula.

Method 2 of 3: Dry caramelization

Method 3 of 3: Colored caramelized sugar

Pour the organic sugar into a heavy bottomed saucepan. Place the saucepan over medium heat.

Once the sugar is hot, add a drop of food coloring. Drip every 5 minutes.

Use the lowest temperature setting that allows you to caramelize the sugar. This gives the greatest level of control and prevents the caramel from scorching or burning.
When you cook caramelized sugar and the process comes to an end, the caramel can burn very quickly. Keep a close eye on the caramel mixture and when it's done (or almost done), remove from heat immediately.
Add some lemon juice to the water and sugar mixture. This will give the caramel a subtle flavor and prevent the caramel sauce from hardening.

Warnings

Caramelized sugar can reach very high temperatures and can burn the skin if splashed. Wear mittens and a long-sleeved shirt when cooking, or keep a bowl of ice water nearby so you can dip your hand into the water in case of a burn.
Do not cook in a pot that has not been thoroughly cleaned. Any remaining particles at the bottom of the pot can cause crystallization.
Caramelizing sugar requires full concentration. Don't cook other dishes that require your time and attention while you cook the caramel, or this will most likely cause the caramel to burn.

What will you need

Beaker
white granulated sugar
Lemon juice (optional)
A saucepan with a thick bottom
Silicone spatula or wooden spoon
Ice water (optional)