Surprise, a touch of bottled smoke is the easy route to burnt sugar flavor in caramel sauce. This melt-and-stir cheater sauce eliminates the intimidating and time-consuming step of caramelizing sugar—cooking white sugar slowly in a skillet until it turns toasty brown.

　　

Ingredients

makes about 2 cups

　　8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter

　　1 cup brown sugar

　　1/2 cup heavy cream

　　1/4 cup corn syrup

　　1/2 teaspoon bottled smoke

　　1 teaspoon vanilla extract

　　

Step 1

COMBINE all the ingredients in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until smooth and creamy.

　　

Variations

Step 2

Toasted pound cake with ice cream and caramel sauce. Add sliced fresh peaches, bananas, or pecans, if you like.

　　

Step 3

Banana caramel sundaes with vanilla ice cream, caramel sauce, sliced bananas, and toasted nuts.

　　

Step 4

Turtle brownie sundaes with ice cream and caramel sauce.

　　

Step 5

Vanilla ice cream with caramel sauce topped with bits of crystallized ginger.

　　

Step 6

Stir a couple tablespoons of spiced rum, bourbon, Tennessee whiskey, or Scotch whisky into the sauce and serve over ice cream.

　　Cheater BBQ