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Opera Caramel Frosting
1 1/2 cups brown sugar 1/2 tablespoon butter 3/4 cup thin cream Boil ingredients together in a smooth granite saucepan until a ball can be formed when mixture is tried in cold water. It takes about forty minutes for boiling. Beat until of right consistency to spread.
This is a brown-sugar penuche frosting cooked to the soft-ball stage and then beaten until it clouds. The whole thing turns on stopping the boil at the right temperature and beating at the right moment.
- Soft ball, by thermometerThe cold-water test corresponds to 236-240F. A candy thermometer removes the guesswork; below 234F the frosting stays soupy, above 244F it sets hard and grainy before it reaches the cake.
- Forty minutes is a maximum, not a targetForty minutes reflects the stove of its day -- on a modern burner with a wide pan this quantity may reach soft ball considerably sooner, so judge by temperature rather than the clock.
- Thin creamThis means light or table cream, roughly 18-20 percent fat. Light cream is the nearest equivalent today, with half-and-half a leaner substitute; heavy cream makes a richer, softer frosting.
- Granite saucepanGranite ware is speckled enamel over steel: non-reactive, with a pale interior that makes the sugar easy to judge. Any heavy-bottomed pan with a pale interior works; avoid thin pans, which scorch brown sugar.
- Smooth sides matterA single sugar crystal clinging to the pan wall can seed the whole batch into grit. Wash the sides down with a wet pastry brush during the first few minutes of boiling.
- When to beatThe recipe gives no cooling step, but fudge-type frostings are generally left to cool to about 110F, barely warm to the back of the hand, before beating; beaten hot the mixture tends not to thicken into an opaque, spreadable cream.
- Working timeOnce it thickens it sets fast. Spread immediately; if it stiffens in the bowl, beat in a teaspoon of hot cream at a time to loosen it.
- YieldRoughly 1 1/2 to 2 cups: enough to frost the top and sides of a single-layer cake, or thinly to fill and top a small two-layer cake.