Pour water into a clean, heavy bottom, medium sized saucepan. Do not use a non stick pan. Set a candy thermometer to 340F and place in your pan. If you do not have a candy thermometer pay attention to your carmel's color.
Pour sugar into saucepan making sure there are no impurities or lumps, these lumps can cause crystallization.
Place your saucepan on your stove with your burner set to low. Be patient, it's important that your sugar dissolves into your water before it starts to boil. This will help prevent crystalization. You can stir you sugar into the water a little bit at first, but do not continue to stir.
Using a clean pastry brush dipped in a clean bowl of water, brush the sides of your pot down every once in a while when your sugar is boiling. Dissolving the crystalized sugar stuck to the sides of the pan will prevent crystals taking over your carmel.
Once the carmel reaches a light amber color, or reaches 340F take off the stove. To prevent the carmel from cooking further you can cool down the bottom of the pot in a large bowl of cool water, or pour the mixture into another container. I prefer a pyrex measuring cup so I can place the carmel into the microwave to heat up as needed while I dip my puff pastries.
