This 2-Ingredient No-Cook Caramel Seems Too Good to Be True—Is It?
We put it to the test to see if it lives up to the hype.
It’s summer. You have ice cream in your freezer. You pull it out and think, “I’d love to drizzle some caramel on this treat, but I don’t have any.” Making caramel sauce from scratch isn't hard, but it involves time standing over a hot stove plus cooling time.
A quick internet search reveals an easier method—everyone is posting about a new way to make caramel sauce (perfect for drizzling over vanilla ice cream) with just two ingredients.
The recipe calls for good-quality olive oil, real maple syrup, and a pinch of salt. Olive oil and maple syrup are not usually in traditional caramel, which uses white or brown sugar, butter, and cream.
Yes, we were skeptical but also intrigued, so Allrecipes culinary producer Nicole McLaughlin whisked up a small batch of the sweet concoction to test it out.
What Does Olive Oil Caramel Taste Like?
In the last couple of weeks, videos of this olive oil caramel—like the one from @fitgreenmind that’s already racked up over a half million views—seem to dominate "FoodTok" and other social media sites. Maya Leinenbach, the voice behind the TikTok channel, shows you how easy it is to make, telling her viewers that equal parts olive oil and cold maple syrup—plus a pinch of salt—becomes something that looks like caramel after she emulsifies the ingredients.
When she pours the caramel over vanilla ice cream, she says, “Yum,” but she doesn’t say it tastes like traditional caramel.
What did Nicole think about the taste after she made it? Straight from the spoon, she said, “It does not taste like caramel.” Then she tried it over vanilla ice cream.
“You can definitely taste the olive oil; however, it does weirdly satisfy the caramel craving,” she noted. Then she shared it with a kitchen mate, who called it “off the hook.”
“The first hit is olive oil,” he says. “The back of the tongue is caramel, though.” His conclusion? “I think it is caramel.”
Consider this: Vanilla ice cream topped with good-quality olive oil and a sprinkle of salt is also a current trend. People enjoy how the oil's spicy fruit notes mingle with the sweet ice cream. Maple syrup on ice cream? Also delish. So maybe the combination of the two doesn’t taste exactly like the caramel you’re used to, but it seems worth trying if you’re curious about what it tastes like.
How to Make Olive Oil Caramel
Ingredients
Olive oil
Real maple syrup (not pancake syrup), cold
Directions
Pour equal amounts of olive oil and cold maple syrup into a bowl. (We suggest starting with 1/4 cup each to see if you like it before going all in.)
Add a pinch of flaky salt.
Emulsify with a fork, a whisk, or a frother until the ingredients combine into a silky, everything-incorporated sauce. It should take about 2 to 3 minutes.
It's worth pointing out that this recipe is vegan, so if you’re looking for something like caramel to put on top of your vegan ice cream, this may be it.
Read the original article on All Recipes.
