Caramel

Caramel is a confectionery product made by heating a variety of sugars. It can be used as a flavoring in puddings and desserts, as a filling in bonbons, or as a topping for ice cream and custard.

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The process of caramelization consists of heating sugar slowly to around 170 °C (340 °F). As the sugar heats, the molecules break down and re-form into compounds with a characteristic color and flavor.

The Arabs invented caramel, which they used as a depilatory (hair removal) for women in a harem.

Mr. Milton Hershey, the owner of a candy company became fascinated with German chocolate-making machinery on exhibit at the 1893 Chicago International Exposition. He bought the equipment for his Lancaster, Philadelphia plant and soon began producing his own chocolate coatings for caramels. The following year the Hershey Chocolate Company was created as a subsidiary of his Lancaster caramel business.

In modern recipes and in commercial production of caramel, glucose (from corn syrup or wheat) or invert sugar is added to prevent crystallization, making up 10%–50% of the sugars by mass.

The difference between caramel and butterscotch is butterscotch contains brown sugar instead of white. Toffee is butterscotch cooked longer.

Caramel apples are said to have been invented in the late 1950s by Dan Walker, a sales representative for Kraft Foods, who dipped apples into leftover Kraft caramels as a way of using up stock after Halloween, and the treat quickly became a seasonal favorite.

Liquid caramel coloring, listed on food labels as E150, is made by heating sugars under controlled conditions and is one of the most widely used candy coloring's in the world, giving cola drinks, sauces and baked goods their familiar brown tone.

Caramel is a key flavouring in coffee drinks such as the caramel macchiato, and is also used to flavor custards, milk-based sweets and countless bakery products around the world.

Salted caramel, now a popular flavour in desserts, ice cream and coffee drinks, is generally credited to French pastry chef Henri Le Roux, who combined caramel with salted butter from Brittany in 1977 and later trademarked the recipe as Caramel au Beurre Salé.

Unlike caramel, which uses white sugar, milk based dulce de leche is made by slowly heating sweetened milk itself rather than plain sugar, giving it a creamier texture and a flavor close to caramel that is especially popular across Latin America.