caramel

* 2 cups cane sugar

* 1/2 stick of butter

* 1 tin sweetened condensed milk

* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

* sea salt

The first batch is caramel fail. 

The heat was too high and it darkened way too fast and irregularly.

I didn't stir the ingredients long enough. It went so fast I thought that I didn't have time. But I was wrong. The outer edges are hard and center is too soft. 

The second batch pictured above is the exact same ingredients but with a cup of water added to even out the sugar as it heats and at lower temperature to slow the process. The water must evaporate before the sugar can cook beyond the boiling point of water (at your elevation, in Denver that's 8˚ lower) by then the pile of sugar is cooked to simple syrup and from there the sugar heats dangerously and browns fairly quickly.

Caramel fail

Live and learn innit.