Although it’s not difficult to caramelize sugar, if you haven’t done it before, the process can be intimidating, and it might take a couple of tries before you’re comfortable taking it to the right degree of darkness: a deep amber liquid, on the edge of burnt, but still sweet in flavor. When sugar is heated, it melts into liquid. As the sugar continues to cook, it begins to take on a bit of color, or caramelize. Because cookware and heat sources don’t always distribute heat evenly, you need to stand guard during the entire process, encouraging the sugar to cook at an even rate. The two things to watch out for when making caramel are recrystallization—what happens when sugar crystals join together in a lumpy mass—and burning the sugar. You can avoid recrystallization by making sure that the sugar is free of impurities and that the pan used to cook the caramel is clean. If you’re making a wet caramel—one that begins with sugar and water (more on that in a bit)—limiting the amount that the mixture is stirred during cooking helps guard against recrystallization.
