How to make caramel

I have been trying, spectacularly unsuccessfully, to make a simple "caramel". All I need to do is melt sugar and water and cook it until it turns a rich brown colour and I just can't do it.

I dont know if I am cooking it too quickly, too slowly, with too much water, with too little...its driving me mad that I cant get it right. The result is usually that it recrystallizes into some strange new solid state and hasn't even begun to change colour.

Please can someone tell how to get this simple thing right?! What is the correct sugar/water ratio? Should I dissolve over a low heat then whack up the temperature? Should I stor constantly? Should I just put the heat on and walk away? Should I use caster sugar, granulated sugar or does it not matter?!

Many thanks to anyone who can give me idiot proof instructions.

as far as I know it has to be cooked at low heat and slowly.

Dont know what method you have followed...

But it seems quite simple..

Isn't there some butter involved??

After some extra seaching around on Google and a mooch through YouTube, I think I may have identified the mistake I have been making !! Not letting the sugar completely dissolve first before whacking up the heat. I shall get myself another couple of kilos of caster sugar tonight and try again.

Thanks for the feedback so far.

Like much of cooking, often the simpler the recipe the more difficult it is to get right. To get exactly the 'right' consistency you'll probably need to invest in a thermometer (and not the one you stick up your bum either).

I thought you needed butter as well, I've always used it. Maybe that's butterscotch?

Butterscotch has always eluded me. I can't make it, I burn it. And I was a cook. It's apple cider vinegar and sugar.

I think that would be toffee, although it's largely a question of how hot you get the sugar.

I agree...this is a very useful thing for sugar cookery.

...called a sugar /candy thermometer
The only place in Germany where I saw it was this online store.
Mrs Tom34

IMHO without the above thermometer trying to make boiled seats is a waste of effort...

I agree that it would be pretty useless in making boiled seats. Never mind the size of a pot you would need to get the seat into it.

I was just watching this last week on TV. I missed the ratio of water to sugar, but I think it was 1:2. You are using caster sugar, good. My mistake once was to use regular sugar. Takes too long to dissolve and just didn't want to work. Melt it all slowly over low heat. One tip was to take a pastry brush, wet it in water and use it to brush down the sides of the pot where the sugar syrup comes up and might start recrystalizing. Once it's all dissolved and has just started to colour, you can then bang the heat up to get it to its final state.

Controlling the heat is the biggest problem. Crap pots and pans with shitty heat distribution, unresponsive electric hobs, and lack of experience all adds up to problems. Try, try and try again is probably your only course of action.

a quick way of making caremel,depending on what you need it for,is to put icing(ground) sugar in a pan and onthe heat,you should see the sugar go dark in places,this can happen quite quickly,when it does ,just move the pan around a bit so you get an even colour and it dont burn...another way is to drop white suger in to hot oil(but dont try this)

Even quicker: make it in the microwave (scroll for recipe).