Nadiya Hussain's Trick For Better Caramel Sauce Is Instant Coffee
"The Great British Baking Show" Season 3 winner Nadiya Hussain knows more than a few things about making incredible sweets, and luckily for us, she loves to share her knowledge. Her cookbooks and Netflix series are testaments to her talents, with hundreds of amazing tips to make cooking and baking more delicious. Tasting Table had the opportunity to get some tricks of the trade on making caramel sauce from Hussain, including the addition of instant espresso powder.
Coffee-flavored caramel enhances the flavor of chocolate according to Hussain, who layers it in her version of millionaire's shortbread at the Netflix Bites pop-up restaurant in Los Angeles. "It's about getting everything in that one mouthful," she says about the rich shortbread, caramel, and chocolate pastry. She doesn't limit this treat to one recipe, either. Hussain refrigerates jars of the sauce to have on hand for impromptu treats and even stirs it into her lattes.
Coffee caramel sauce perfection
If you'd like to taste this unique version of caramel sauce for yourself without a trip to Los Angeles, we are ready to pass on Hussain's tips. For starters, she prefers to use white sugar for caramel sauce so that the color is easy to judge as it cooks. Once the sugar is a lovely amber color, she adds heavy cream and allows the mixture to simmer to the proper consistency, then whisks in some butter for richness. If this is your first try at caramelizing sugar, keep an eye on the pan to prevent clumping while the sugar melts and browns.
Now for the coffee addition: Hussain prefers to use instant espresso powder when flavoring the caramel because it is quicker to dissolve. She told Tasting Table, "The trick is to take it off the heat" as soon as the coffee is added to prevent bitterness. When coffee is heated at high temperatures, unpleasant bitter flavors are created, which is not at all what we want for this sauce. Whether you make coffee-laced caramel sauce for millionaire's shortbread or simply spoon it over your favorite ice cream, you'll love the complex flavor that results from this simple trick.