Easy Caramel Sauce Recipe
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This sweet salted Caramel Sauce is scrumptious, smooth, and easy to make at home! Make it in minutes with just a few ingredients for a rich caramel sauce recipe that’s amazing on desserts, coffee drinks, and ciders! Tips to make it perfectly every time!
A family favorite, we love this caramel sauce drizzled on desserts like bread pudding, cheesecake, apple crisp, and pumpkin pie. Dress up your morning coffee or use a spoonful in your overnight oatmeal or waffles. Use the tips in my recipe to make the easiest, most delicious caramel sauce anytime. It’s tasty, smooth, creamy, and perfect every single time!
Desserts, apple slices, popcorn, and tasty drinks taste a little more elevated with a drizzle or dunk of caramel sauce. Especially THIS caramel sauce. So good on everything – even a tablespoon – it’s smooth, sweet, a little salty, a lot scrumptious! And so easy – you can make this delicious homemade Salted Caramel Sauce at home in 10 minutes with four ingredients plus a little water.
This is by far the easiest Caramel Sauce I’ve ever made, the best I’ve ever tasted, and so much better than any you can buy at the store or coffee house. I’ve included tips I’ve learned over years of making this caramel sauce that will help you make it perfectly every time.
Table of Contents
Ingredients
Be sure to see the recipe card below for the full listing of ingredients, instructions, notes, and estimated nutritional information.
- Sugar – Use granulated or raw cane sugar for this recipe.
- Butter – Use salted butter that you’ve cut into pieces.
- Heavy Cream – Adds a creamy, rich consistency to the finished caramel sauce.
- Coarse Sea Salt – Adds the signature saltiness to the salted caramel sauce. If you prefer it unsalted, omit since you are also using salted butter.
- Water – Used to help melt the sugar.
Tips for the Best Caramel Sauce
- Clean tools. To prevent crystallization in your caramel, make sure that your pot and spoon are extremely clean. Any debris can cause crystallization.
- Wood or silicone. Mix the sugar and water using only a wooden or silicone spoon.
- Swirl gently with a clean wooden or silicone spoon to prevent grainy caramel.
- Thermometer. Use an instant-read or candy thermometer.
- Optional ingredient. As an option, you may add 1 teaspoon of corn syrup with the sugar and water to prevent any crystallization if you wish.
How to Make Caramel Sauce
Combine sugar and water. In a 3-quart saucepan set over medium heat, add the sugar and water to the saucepan and stir with a wooden spoon or silicone spoon until well combined. (It is important to use either of these types of spoons at this stage). The water helps the sugar to melt, which is called caramelization.
Swirl gently. Once the sugar is melted, gently swirl the pan over the heat if needed.
Use a thermometer. I use an instant-read or candy thermometer when making my recipe. When the thermometer registers 350º F, and the mixture is light amber, the caramel sauce is ready for the next stage.
Add butter. Add all of your butter pieces to the saucepan and whisk until the butter is fully incorporated. Mix carefully as the caramel will bubble up, but continue to whisk to make sure all of the butter has melted.
Remove from heat, add cream. Then, remove the saucepan from the heat and slowly pour in the cream, whisking continuously.
Add salt. Whisk in the sea salt.
Cool and serve. Allow the caramel sauce to cool completely. After it has cooled, pour the caramel sauce into a container for serving. Serve caramel sauce as desired, and enjoy!
Storage Tips
To refrigerate. After the caramel sauce has completely cooled, pour the sauce into a glass jar with a lid or another airtight glass container. Store in the refrigerator for up to one month.
The caramel sauce will become thicker after refrigerating, so you can heat it gently in the microwave or on the stovetop to serve. (I think it is also delicious when cold, but it will be thicker.)
More Uses for Caramel Sauce
Swirl into salted caramel blondies and fudge brownies.
Pour over vanilla ice cream.
Mix into a salted caramel mocha or hot apple cider.
Dip apples, pears, and other fruit.
Use on a dessert board.
Use for gifts! Pour it into sterilized jars and give it to family and friends throughout the holidays or anytime, with a note for favorite ways to use it!
Frequently Asked Questions
Use a wooden spoon to stir the sugar and water to combine. Once it has melted, DO NOT STIR again. SWIRL the pan very gently. Be sure not to let it go high up the sides of the pan, as grains can form. As the sugar and water are heated, if you continue to stir, you’ll cause grains to form in the caramel sauce, and it will not be smooth and creamy.
Properly stored, homemade caramel sauce lasts up to a month. See my Storage Tips for more information.
If you tried this Easy Caramel Sauce Recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. Thanks for visiting!
Easy Caramel Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup (198 g) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (57 g) water
- 6 tablespoons (85 g) salted butter, cut into pieces
- 1/2 cup (114 g) heavy cream, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon (4 g) sea salt
Instructions
- Add the sugar and water to a 3-quart saucepan set over medium heat. Stir until combined. Do Not Stir Again! Simply swirl the saucepan until the sugar has melted and turns a light amber color. If you use a candy or instant read thermometer, the mixture should register 350º at this point.
- Carefully add your butter and whisk until all the butter has melted.
- Remove the saucepan from the heat and slowly pour in the cream, whisking constantly until all of the cream has been incorporated. Whisk in the sea salt and set aside to cool.
- Allow to cool about 5 minutes and then pour into an airtight container for storing in the refrigerator.
Notes
Storage Tips
To refrigerate. After the caramel sauce has completely cooled, pour the sauce into a glass jar with a lid or another airtight glass container. Store in the refrigerator for up to one month. The caramel sauce will become thicker after refrigerating, so you can heat it gently in the microwave or on the stovetop to serve. (I think it is also delicious when it’s cold, but it will be thicker.)Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Enjoy!
Robyn xo
From the Add a Pinch recipe archives. Originally published 2014. Updated to include step by step photographs.
This recipe is spot on. On the first try, took the sugar to 350deg, it made a dark bold caramel. Taste’s fantastic, also added a teaspoon of vanilla. Scrubbed the pot first with BarKeeper’s Friend and then rolling boiled full pot of water to clean it. Smooth caramel with no crystallization. Next batch will be to 340deg for a light color just to see. Also will be trying making Butterscotch, which is just using brown sugar for a more molasses type of flavor.
Thanks, Patrick. I love that you can make the caramel as light or dark as you want, too. So glad you like this recipe and are making different variations of it.
So delicious! We love this caramel sauce recipe!
Thank you, Leigh. I’m thrilled that you love this caramel sauce.
Thank you dear! easy, effortless recipe
recommend it especially to people who fear making caramel. It went straight to my recipe notebook.
Thanks, Ami, I’m happy you found this caramel sauce to be so easy to make, too.
I’m never made good waffles despite my efforts – these waffles were amazing!!! Both kids devoured them. Also made the Caramel sea salt drizzle which was sooooo good too. I’m so excited to try more of your recipes! Thank you!
Jess, I am so glad you found these waffles and the caramel sauce easy to make and that everyone loved them. I hope you find many more recipes here that you and your family will love, too. Thanks!
Would demerara sugar work for this or does it have to be white sugar?
I have never made the caramel sauce with demerara sugar, Artemis, so I can’t tell you how it would be in this recipe.
I just made this amazing Salted Caramel Sauce! Your recipe was the only one I found during a Google search that mentioned using a thermometer! Thank you. That information. I used my candy thermometer and it was so helpful!
Not only was this recipe super easy and informative, but this Salted Caramel Sauce is delicious!!!
Hoping to use this Salted Caramel this weekend as the filling for Salted Caramel Macarons!
I might need to make some homemade vanilla ice cream and use this salted caramel sauce as a topping too!
Thanks, Shay. I’m happy you found this recipe easy and delicious.
Hi Robyn,
About how long does it take for the sugar water to turn an amber color. I thought I had achieved that color at about 10 minutes but my end product is runny and yellow. 🙁 I want to try again. Unfortunately, I do not have a candy thermometer.
Dana, the sugar and water mixture should be a darker amber color. It may take about 20 minutes on medium heat to reach that stage. Just be careful and dont’ let it burn.
Sooooo Good I’ve now learnt after a few goes that the sugar is so important to be Browned just right other wise if not cooked properly like in my first attempts and then add butter and cream its just yellowish liquid and number one rule don’t panic when making it 😁otherwise it turns out watery yellowish liquid haaaaa. Sugar needs to melt properly and then the nice brown colour b4 adding butter then the cream. Was fun experimentin. Now I’ve kinda perfected it. And if first u don’t succeed try again.
With your precise recipe to guide me, I managed to pull off my first EVER successful caramel sauce! My kitchen smells amazing right now, I can’t wait until it’s cool enough to try! Thank you so much Robyn!!!
Crystal, I’m so glad this recipe and instructions worked so well for you. Hope you enjoy!
Just made this. So simple. So delicious! Can’t wait to add it to my baked goods
Thanks, Carly! Don’t you just love how easy it is too make?