Homemade salted caramel sauce
Read more about our homemade salted caramel sauce, which ice creams it features in, and a little about the history of salted caramel. At Kastbergs it is well known, almost a dogma, that we are happy to go the extra mile to find and then use the right ingredients in our ice cream. If that means developing our own raw materials, it is no barrier, quite the opposite. There are several examples of Kastbergs developing its own raw materials. Worth highlighting is, of course, our homemade salted caramel sauce, but we have also developed a unique chocolate in collaboration with Or Noir, and fruity jams with Give Konfekture. For this reason we developed our own homemade salted caramel sauce, which we use in several ice creams. This sweet and salty flavour first became known in 1977, when the French pastry chef Henri Le Roux from Quiberon created it by adding the well-known salted butter of his home region to the caramel mixture. Since then, salted caramel has taken the dessert world by storm. The salted caramel wave became popular in the 1990s, when the French chef Pierre Hermé created a macaron with salted caramel. Macarons, which were already popular, became even more so. Since then, the combination of sweet and salty has become a popular dessert trend, balancing two strong flavour profiles to create something delicious and satisfying. This combination is now used in Kastbergs' signature ice creams Kastbergs Salted Caramel and Kastbergs Banana Split. In the picture below we are using the homemade salted caramel sauce, gently stirred in and distributed through the ice cream.
Homemade salted caramel with four ingredients
There is no doubt that caramel sauce is a fantastic product to use in desserts, and a very popular one. Kastbergs Caramel Sauce was developed by ice-cream maker Joachim Kastberg and consists of only four ingredients: cream, sugar, glucose and salt. This gives an intense, pure caramel flavour, while keeping the product clean and honest, free from unnecessary ingredients.
Making salted caramel sauce requires careful temperature control throughout the process. It is not an easy task, but Kastbergs has perfected our recipe in collaboration with our supplier Give Konfekture, to ensure that every single scoop of ice cream has exactly the right, consistent flavour.
Salted caramel is one of the most popular flavours in the world
From ice cream to macarons, this sweet and salty combination has taken the restaurant world by storm. But why is salted caramel so popular?
The enormous appeal of this sweet and salty combination is simple: blending two flavours doubles the taste experience. People generally like sweetness because it brings joy and comfort, while salt is pleasant (in the right proportions) because of its flavour-enhancing properties.
Chefs know that combining different flavours is a good idea. There are five primary tastes that our taste buds can detect: sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami. Salted caramel combines two of these, creating an effect known as "flavor layering". Salt also acts as a flavour enhancer.
The popularity of salted caramel continues to grow, and there are no signs that it will fade any time soon. It is a versatile flavour that can be used in many different kinds of desserts and savoury dishes, from ice cream to macarons and much more! And with its unique balance of sweet and salty notes, salted caramel has something for everyone, no matter what kind of food they prefer!
Homemade salted caramel is popular in ice-cream shops
In ice-cream shops, choosing a scoop with caramel sauce is also popular. These could be the aforementioned Banana Split ice cream, Salted Caramel ice cream or our Peanut Caramel Chocolate ice cream, all of which contain Kastbergs homemade Caramel Sauce, gently distributed through the ice cream during production.
There are many ways to combine different flavours for the perfect ice cream. Ice-cream maker Joachim Kastberg, for example, is very fond of a waffle cone with Kastbergs Vanilla and Kastbergs Salted Caramel; the combination is creamy, sweet, salty and has crunch from the crisp waffle.
Another popular combination is Kastbergs Salted Caramel paired with Kastbergs Passion Fruit Sorbet, where the fruit and the tartness of the passion fruit come forward and create a good balance by adding another layer to the "flavor layering", so that there is now sweet, salty, sour and finally crunch from a butter-baked waffle.
There are countless ways to combine homemade salted caramel. And of course you can also use it in delicious desserts. This is clearly seen in the next examples: Molskroens Brasserie has made this delicious 'Funen-style Brunsviger with Salted Caramel Ice Cream', and Café Stranden has made a lovely 'Poached Pear with Salted Caramel Ice Cream'.