I learned to create caramel sauce pretty lately and for some time was on the serious sauce-making kick.
Anyway, the next day Christmas I went to create a batch and observed I did not have cream. Used to do a fast Search along with a couple of sites stated I possibly could substitute dairy for that heavy cream within my recipe. After I reached that stage and added the milk it very rapidly grew to become apparent that individuals sites were wrong. Rather of thickening and achieving creamy the melted sugar simply dissolved away and that i remained having a really nasty smelling pot of sweet warm milk.
So clearly I can not use dairy rather of cream, but I'd enjoy to understand, for curiosity's sake, why it does not work.
requested Jan 10 '12 at 22:59
Basically, it is the fat content.
Dairy or "full-fat" milk is 3.25% fat by weight. Heavy cream is 36-40% fat by weight. Both of these goods are at opposite ends from the fat spectrum, and there is hardly any distinction between 1% and threePercent with regards to a product for example caramel sauce, that the perfect ratio is all about 50% fat. (Just a little butter can raise the fat content from 40% to 50%).
You could possibly substitute standard/single cream (18-20%) and maybe even coffee cream/half-and-half (10%), but any less than might you are just making sugary milk.
Other options to (possibly) have it thicker:
Use (much) less milk I'd advise not attempting an immediate substitution, just look for a recipe according to milk. Every milk-based caramel sauce it's still substantially runnier and/or grittier than the usual cream-based sauce.
Thinking about that butter is 80% fat and homo milk is 3.25%, you could utilize a combination of (roughly) half milk and half butter that will emulate body fat content of heavy cream. I have never attempted this personally, and that i suspect the flavour may well be a little off, but a minimum of it might be nearer to the expected texture.
Consider using a reduction (simmer from the water within the milk). You will be simmering a lengthy time, and you will have to look at it cautiously to make certain it does not burn, and you will most likely possess a nasty stuck-on mess to wash in the pan afterward, but it'll thicken.