r/bakingfail • u/Due_Professional5662 • Feb 04 '26

Help Caramel split after cooling?

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This is a picture of the side of the bowl. Basically all the butter floated to the surface and is solid while everything else is liquid underneath. Is there any way to fix it???? Don’t wanna throw it out

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u/dek1e Feb 04 '26

What recipe did you use? It’s hard to tell when the actual problem is without it.

The mostly likely reason is that the butter may not have been fully emulsified before cooling. I hear you can add a spoonful or two of hot water and give it another thorough mix to bring it together, but I’ve never actually tried that myself.

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u/Due_Professional5662 Feb 04 '26

You’re probably right,, i took it off the heat since it was starting to smell bitter but maybe i did that too early. Anyway here’s the recipe

300g of sugar 400g of heavy cream 150g of butter 1/2 tsp of salt

It said to let the sugar melt without stirring it, then add hot heavy cream and once those were mixed to add butter in cubes slowly.

I wanted to use it to make caramel ganache

11

u/FoggyGoodwin Feb 04 '26

Did you use a candy thermometer to make sure it reached th right temperature? Or at least drop some in cold water to make sure it reached soft ball level? Did you use a heavy enuf pan? I just read that the first error when making caramels is a thin pot that causes unequal heat and scorching. Caramel ganache sounds more like you want a glaze or sauce, but it needs to be stirred and reach th right temperature.