Caramel Sauce with Grand Marnier, Flan Style

Making my own caramel sauce is something I was always afraid to do. I heard horror stories about burning the sugar, which I did the first time! I finally decided to conquer my fear of making caramel sauce, and I was so excited to see that it's really not that hard to do.

This particular recipes yields a thinner caramel sauce-- much like what you would find in a "Flan" custard dessert. Unlike the kind of caramel sauce you might pour over ice cream, butter and heavy cream isn't added. I used this recipe for a Panna Cota ("Cooked Milk" dessert-- and I even added some Grand Marnier to kick the flavor up a notch. Once I refrigerated the sauce, it thickened beautifully. I used the rest to flavor a vanilla buttercream frosting into a lovely caramel frosting.