Chilli, nutty caramel sauce

This caramel sauce goes absolutely perfectly with Miss Molly’s Melting Marsala Meringue Terrine….. and with plain vanilla ice cream… and all sorts of other things in between.

If you want to double the nuttiness, sprinkle over Jessi’s Crystal Nuts.

Stir the sauce just before serving (serve warm) because otherwise the nuts all sink slowly to the bottom.

 

Recipe for chilli, nutty caramel sauce

 

for six

 

• 50g/⅓ cup/2 oz macadamia nuts, dry fried (go here to find out why) and roughly chopped
• ½ tsp Aleppo pepper (these are very mild chilli flakes – go here for more)
• 150g/⅔ cup/5 oz golden caster sugar
• 50g/2 oz butter
• 75g/⅓ cup/3 oz soft brown sugar
• 3 tbsp golden syrup
• 160g/⅔ cup crème fraîche
• ½ tsp sea salt

 

1. Put the caster sugar into a heavy bottomed saucepan and mix in 2 tbsp water and the Aleppo pepper. Heat slowly until the sugar begins to form dark patches. Shake, rather than stir, the sugar to mix it until it’s a rich brown – hold your nerve but DON’T LET IT BURN.
2. Add the butter, and stir.
3. Add the brown sugar, the syrup, the crème fraîche and the salt
4. Get it bubbling, then take it off the heat and stir in the nuts