Salted Butter Caramel

I can eat this with a spoon.  And happily so.  I have mentioned it before, caramel is one of my favorite foods.  Rolos, Sees scotch kisses and scotch mallows, 100,000.00 dollar bar, sugar babies, and sugar daddy's - just to name a few.

I had some left over brownies ( here ) from last week and although they could stand on their own, I wanted to make some mudslides for the kids and their friends.  I also wanted to deliver jars of caramel to some of my friends ( which I did, with a quart of ice cream).  I like all things David Lebovitz.  I wanted to try his caramel sauce recipe.  This caramel sauce will go down as one of the best ones I have made to date!

Salted Butter Caramel Sauce
adapted from David Lebovitz, The Sweet Life of Paris

ingredients:
2 cups ( 400g) sugar
1 2/3 cups (400g) heavy cream
2 Tbsp. (30g) salted butter
1/4 tsp. fleur de sel or to taste

instructions:
• spread sugar in a heavy duty pan, set over moderate heat and cook without stirring, until the sugar liquefies (at the edges).
• using a wooden spoon, gently stir the mixture, bringing the melted sugar from the edges into the center.  don't forget to stir the sugar from the bottom of the pan.  the mixture will be pebbly, but keep stirring until it turns amber.
• continue to cook until it is deep brown in color. it will start to smoke.  the mixture is ready when it is the color of an aged penny.
• remove from the heat and quickly stir in 1/3 of the cream.  it will bubble.  continue to whisk in the remaining cream, slowly.  when it is all smooth, add the butter and salt.
• the sauce can store for one month in the fridge.  mine won't last that long!