Blackberry Caramel Tart

“Keep the main thing the main thing.”

If caramel had a motto, that would be it. Caramel requires your complete and undivided attention. From start to finish, caramel needs you to be present and focused only on caramel. In the beginning when you’re waiting for the sugar and water (and in this case, corn syrup) to bubble you may think you have a moment to do something else. You don’t. If you take your eyes off the pot, you will get distracted and all will be lost. Stand there and watch the pot boil. 

Once the pot boils, stand there some more. This is the most crucial part. You have to stand and watch the color of your caramel go from clear to a deep shade of amber. It is hard to judge the correct shade of amber. Your best chance is the simplest approach - stand there and watch the transformation. It starts slowly and then it picks up the pace. You need to be there for all of it, watching.

Then...QUICK! Remove from heat and stir in your cream. If you did not have your cream pre-measured and ready to go, that’s a fatal flaw. Caramel not only requires attention but preparation. This is also not the moment to leave your caramel (there’s never a moment to leave your caramel). The temperature difference between the cream and the sugar will make the mixture bubble up. You need to be there to vigorously stir so it doesn’t bubble over or seize. 

Having solemnly manned your pot for so long, at this point you should be rewarded with a recognizable caramel. Congratulations! This particular caramel journey continues, adding and cooking down blackberries, then sieving out the seeds, cooling in an ice water bath, and pouring over more blackberries in the tart to set. Wherever your caramel may take you stay vigilant, of course. But I have found that once you make it to the “recognizably caramel” stage, things are somewhat more forgiving. As country music superstar Maren Morris croons, “the house don’t fall when the bones are good.”

If all of this is putting you off caramel, I hope you reconsider. Not to turn caramel into some new wave spiritual gateway to a higher state of consciousness, but it can be meditative. Stand there. Do one thing. All the way through. It is so simple, but so important.  And perhaps even better than a higher state of consciousness, you’ll get some caramel to eat at the end.

Recipe from Claire Saffitz’s cookbook Dessert Person.