Homemade Caramel Sauce
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Homemade Caramel Sauce is sweet and buttery, made with only 5 ingredients and ready in 15 minutes, perfect for drizzling in coffee, on fruit, or paired with other sweet desserts!
Homemade Caramel Sauce is the perfect way to add a home touch to almost any sweet dish! It’s ready in just 10-15 minutes and has almost no prep time. Try this on french toast or pancakes, in homemade iced coffee or in your morning coffee, as dip for apple slices, on ice cream, or as a drizzle for most cakes or cheesecakes.
This won’t be thick enough for traditional caramel apples or wrapped candies. This recipe is for caramel sauce, which works well for dips or as a sweet topping. Drizzle it on your favorite desserts or serve with gluten free graham crackers and fresh apple slices.
It’s a simple caramel recipe that will really impress your guests for parties and on holidays! I always make this for my husband’s birthday cake, because he’s a big fan of caramel flavor. It also goes well mixed with cake frosting, like my Whipped Cream Cream Cheese Frosting!
I use this recipe in some of my favorite treats, like this Salted Caramel Frappuccino Milkshake, and this Cream Cheese Caramel Apple Dip!
Table of contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Easy and Quick to Make: The time it takes you to make this recipe is way less than running to the store to grab caramel sauce!
Tastes Better: This has a rich buttery taste and texture that beats the overly-sweet store-bought variety any day!
Gluten Free: There’s only 5 simple ingredients in this recipe, so you know it’s 100% gluten free.
Ingredients You’ll Need
Cane Sugar. For this recipe, you want to use regular white sugar or granulated sugar. This will give you the traditional caramel flavor.
Butter. I like to use unsalted butter, so I can control the salt level in my recipe.
Heavy Whipping Cream. Heavy cream or whipping cream will give you the most indulgence because of the higher fat content, but you can also use half and half if that’s what you have.
You can also use whole milk, but it may take a little longer to thicken the caramel sauce due to the higher water content in the milk.
Vanilla. I like to add a splash of vanilla for flavor, but technically you could get away with leaving this out.
Salt. A pinch of salt helps balance out the sweetness of the sugar, without making it overly salty. If you used salted butter, you can leave the salt out entirely. I like to use kosher salt or sea salt.
Kitchen Tools
There’s no special equipment needed here! For this recipe, you’ll need a medium saucepan and a high-heat resistant silicon spatula or wooden spoon.
You’re not stepping away from this dish, so a metal utensil may get too hot. The mixture may bubble and rise at one point, so choose a deeper saucepan.
How to Make Homemade Caramel Sauce
Time needed: 15 minutes
- Melt the sugar.
In a medium sauce pan, melt sugar over medium-low heat. Stir sugar very gently in swirling motions as it melts. You may see some clumps of sugar form before it melts. Continue stirring gently until sugar is completely liquid and turns a deep amber color. This will take about 6-8 minutes.
- Add the butter.
Carefully add the butter to the caramelized sugar. Rapid bubbling and slight rising is normal when butter mixes with the hot sugar. Continue to stir, but be careful not to touch the sugar, because it will be very hot!
- Add cream and simmer.
After butter is completely melted, add cream very slowly and carefully to the sugar mixture, as it will bubble again. While continuing to stir, add vanilla extract. Then stop stirring and allow the sauce to simmer an additional 30-60 seconds. Stir in salt and remove from heat.
Cool to room temperature before adding to the storage container. It will be thinner while it’s still hot and thicken more as it cools.
Recipe Variations
- If you want a salted caramel sauce recipe, double the salt in the recipe. If you add it to a dessert later, you can also top it with some flaky salt.
- For a thicker caramel sauce, add a little less heavy cream, or cook for a little bit longer.
- For a caramel sauce with more depth of flavor, like toffee or butterscotch notes, use granulated sugar with a few tablespoons of brown sugar. Watch closely over low-medium heat to make sure it doesn’t burn.
- Try this caramel sauce over vanilla ice cream, with gluten free graham crackers crushed on top!
Recipe Tip! Be very careful not to touch the sugar as it’s cooking, as it will be very hot. Use a deeper saucepan and a long silicon spatula to keep your hands away from the melted sugar. You can also use oven mitts if you’re new to working with hot sugar.
Frequently Asked Questions
Add a small amount of water to the caramel (2-3 tablespoons) and stir together, then bring the caramel back up to a boil. This will re-dissolve the sugar crystals. Once the sugar crystals disappear, remove from the heat.
You can also pass the finished hot caramel through a metal fine mesh strainer to remove any remaining sugar crystals as you’re pouring it into the storage container. This should return it to a nice smooth sauce.
For a regular caramel candy recipe, I would use a candy thermometer, but you don’t need one to make a simple caramel sauce. When the sugar is ready, you want to look for the amber caramel color. Once the sugar is fully brown and bubbling, that’s when you know to add the butter. Don’t wait too long, because we don’t want it to burn.
Recipe Tip! If you are reheating this in the microwave, use a microwave-safe container and heat at 15 second intervals, stirring in-between, until the caramel reaches the desired consistency.
More Dessert Recipes
Storage
Refrigerate homemade caramel sauce for 1-2 weeks in an airtight container. I like to use a glass mason jar. Warm in a saucepan on the stovetop or in the microwave before using.
Freeze homemade caramel in an airtight freezer-safe container for 2-3 months. Defrost in the refrigerator, and warm in a saucepan on the stovetop before using.
Cooking Tips
- Caramel sauce will thicken as it cools, so don’t worry if it looks thinner at first.
- Don’t be tempted to turn the heat up too high! You want the sugar to melt evenly. If the heat is too high, some of the sugar may caramelize before the rest of it is melted, causing grainy caramel.
- Try to keep the sugar in an even layer when stirring, to make sure it all melts at about the same time.
- Use hot water to rinse your saucepan after, the sugar will melt right off, making cleaning easier.
If you loved this recipe, be sure to leave a 5 Star review below, and tag me with a photo of your finished recipe on Instagram @Jacqui_DishingDelish!
Homemade Caramel Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 cup white sugar
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into pieces
- 1/2 cup heavy cream, room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Equipment
- 1 medium saucepan
- 1 silicon spatula high-heat resistant
Instructions
- In a medium sauce pan, melt sugar over medium-low heat. Stir sugar very gently in swirling motions as it melts. You may see some clumps of sugar form before it melts. Continue stirring gently until sugar is completely liquid and turns a deep amber color. This will take about 6-8 minutes.
- Carefully add the butter to the caramelized sugar. Rapid bubbling and slight rising is normal when butter mixes with the hot sugar. Continue to stir, but be careful not to touch the sugar, because it will be very hot!
- After butter is completely melted, add cream very slowly and carefully to the sugar mixture as it will bubble again. While continuing to stir, add vanilla extract. Then stop stirring and allow the sauce to simmer an additional 30-60 seconds. Stir in salt and remove from heat.
- Cool to room temperature before adding to the storage container. It will be thinner while it's still hot and thicken more as it cools.
Notes
- Caramel sauce will thicken as it cools, so don’t worry if it looks thinner at first.
- Don’t be tempted to turn the heat up too high! You want the sugar to melt evenly. If the heat is too high, some of the sugar may caramelize before the rest of it is melted, causing grainy caramel.
- Try to keep the sugar in an even layer when stirring, to make sure it all melts at about the same time.
- Use hot water to rinse your saucepan after, the sugar will melt right off, making cleaning easier.
Nutrition
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