Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce
Homemade salted caramel sauce is made with just six ingredients and takes 15 minutes to prepare. Spoon it over ice cream, use it as a dip for apple slices, or drizzle it over your favorite baked goods!
If making homemade caramel sauce sounds intimidating to you, this recipe will change your mind!
Making caramel sauce from scratch is so much better than buying a jar at the store. Store-bought salted caramel sauce often contains thickeners or added sweeteners and is overly sweet.
Not this recipe! Just six basic ingredients are transformed into a perfectly sweet and salty caramel sauce.
In this post, I’ll walk you through my foolproof method as well as my top tips for success!
Ingredients in This Recipe
This is a very straightforward recipe for salted caramel sauce that requires just six ingredients. Let’s review what you’ll need:
- Water: You need to add a little water to the saucepan so the sugar can fully dissolve.
- Granulated sugar: This serves as the base of the recipe. As the sugar cooks, it develops a rich caramel flavor. You need to use granulated sugar, not a sugar substitute.
- Heavy whipping cream: Make sure your heavy whipping cream is at least 36% fat. Do not try to use a lower fat alternative, like half and half or whole milk or the sauce will be too thin.
- Unsalted butter: I recommend using unsalted butter, since the amount of salt in salted butters can vary between different brands. We don’t want this sauce to be too salty either!
- Vanilla extract: Pure vanilla extract is best, but use what you have.
- Salt: Regular table salt works just fine for this recipe, but sea salt would also be great.
How to Make Salted Caramel Sauce
Making caramel sauce is as easy as letting the mixture simmer and combining everything in a saucepan. Here’s an overview of how this salted caramel sauce is prepared:
- Dissolve the sugar: Add the water and sugar to a saucepan (use one that’s a little larger than you think you’ll need). Heat over medium heat and stir constantly until the sugar has dissolved.
- Bring to a boil: Once the sugar has dissolved, increase the heat and bring the mixture to a boil. At this point, you do NOT want to stir the sugar mixture anymore. After 4 to 12 minutes, the mixture will turn amber in color.
- Add the cream: When the sugar mixture is a lovely amber color, remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the heavy cream. Keep in mind that it will bubble up quite vigorously, this is normal!
- Add the remaining ingredients: This includes the butter, vanilla, and salt.
- Let cool: At this stage, I like to transfer the caramel sauce to a storage container (like a glass jar). It’s best to let the sauce cool to room temperature before sealing and storing it in the fridge.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Type of Salt Is Best for This Recipe?
I used regular table salt, but you may make sea salt caramel sauce if desired.
If using sea salt, you may need to add more salt than the recipe calls for. Sea salt has coarser grains than table salt, which is quite finely milled. You may need a little more to achieve the same level of saltiness as table salt.
What Causes Caramel Sauce to Form Clumps?
If the sauce clumps up when you stir in the heavy cream, it’s probably because the cream was too cold when you added it to the hot sugar mixture. Set the cream on the counter before you begin the recipe, or warm it slightly in the microwave before adding to the sugar mixture.
If your sauce still forms a few clumps, you can easily strain them out using a fine mesh sieve.
How Do You Thicken Caramel Sauce?
If your sauce came out too runny for your liking, you probably didn’t simmer it long enough on the stove. The sugar-water needs to come to a rolling boil and cook until it’s a rich amber color. The simmering process could take up to 12 minutes, so be patient!
Keep in mind that the caramel sauce will also be much thinner while it’s warm and will thicken up more as it cools.
Baking Tips
- The heavy whipping cream will bubble up quite a bit when you add it, make sure to use a saucepan that’s a little bigger than what you think you will need.
- Be sure to prep your ingredients and have them ready to go before you get started, this will make the process much smoother.
- To make this a regular caramel sauce, just use a pinch of salt or about 1/8 teaspoon.
- Note that this is best used as a finishing sauce for desserts. I don’t recommend trying to bake with it as it’s a little too runny for that.
More Dessert Sauces to Make!
Recipe Video
Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce
Ingredients
- ¼ cup water (60 ml)
- 1 cup granulated sugar (200 grams)
- ⅔ cup heavy whipping cream (160 ml) at room temperature
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter (45 grams) cut into tablespoon-sized pieces
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon salt or to taste
Instructions
- In a heavy bottomed saucepan, heat the water and sugar over medium heat. Make sure to use a saucepan that's a little bigger than what you think you will need. Stir constantly until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture starts to bubble just a little.
- Increase the heat to high and bring to a boil, stop stirring completely. Let the mixture continue boiling until it turns an amber color, this could take anywhere from 4 to 12 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and slowly whisk in the heavy cream. The mixture will bubble up quite a bit, so make sure to do this very carefully. Then, mix in the butter, vanilla, and salt one at a time.
- Pour the caramel sauce into a dish and allow to cool completely, then cover tightly and store in the refrigerator. The caramel sauce will thicken up more once it's cooled and refrigerated.
So this is an update to my review. I left a 5 star review bc this recipe is totally awesome. Last time I Made it I did not have heavy cream but had evaporated milk. I subbed it for the same amount of heavy cream and it still came out awesome! Must refrigerate for a thicker consistency. It isn’t quite as thick but actually easier to work with! Glad I tried that out!
I am 8 years old and still find this recipe easy to make and very delicious. I use it as a sauce to make caramel lattes for my parents.
I’ve made this multiple times. It’s a family favorite now. I will never buy caramel from the store again.
I used leftover canned peach syrup instead of water. Also, I used vanilla bean sea salt. Warm/room temp it turned out more thin like the coffee shop caramel that’s drizzled on top of lattes. I’m waiting for it to cool enough to put in the fridge. Not sure how set/solid it will get once it’s cooled down.
I doubled the batch and got an even 3 cups.
Can I freeze this sauce? Will the properties of it change when it thaws?
It will be thinner when it’s warmer, it should thicken more as it cools. If you made adjustments to the recipe that may affect it too. You can freeze it and thaw it overnight in the refrigerator.
It’s cooling in the fridge now. After the last step, the caramel wasn’t very thick so I hope it thickens in the cooling process. Wondering if I should have left the water and sugar boil longer. Wish us luck!
It will be thin when it’s warm, but thicken as it cools.
Can I substitute the heavy whipping cream for whole-fat milk?
I haven’t tried it, but I’m not quite sure that the sauce will set up correctly if you use whole milk.
Oh wow! This is good! I made this to add to my husbands lattes since we cannot go to Starbucks or wherever. This will be replacing our Starbucks treats! Yumm! I’m doing a low carb diet but this is worth the cheat!
This has become my go to recipe for salted caramel. Thank you for such a detailed foolproof recipe – the caramel sauce is absolutely out of this world 🙂
I just made this but it’s not thickening. It’s like soup!
I made sure it was an amber color (not dark)…when I took it off heat and started whisking there were Heavy lumps, so put it back on heat for probably half a minute. Lumps melted and proceeded with recipe. What happened???
Hi, Thelma! The caramel sauce will be thin once you remove it from the heat, as it cools and once it’s refrigerated it will thicken more.
Have you ever gotten a weird STRONG cheese smell while making this recipe? It tastes great, but my house smells just awful. I thought maybe my heavy cream had gone bad, but when I checked the date, it still has like a week. So strange. Maybe I poured the heavy cream in too fast and it curdled? Hmm…
I’m really not sure what would cause that, Michelle. Did you make any adjustments to the recipe?
I would like to have your bread pudding recipe! I love it and make it occasionally but I have lost the recipe I used to use! Would you please send me your recipe for it? Thanks Patty Stewart
Hi, Patty! You can find my bread pudding recipe here.
Hi there, recently I made your breadpudding recipe and found this link for caramel so made that aswell. Just wanted to add if you warm the cream before you stir it in the caramel it won’t bubble up as much. 🙂
I love this sauce. After adding the cream, I had a lump (poured cream in to fast, I think). I returned to a low heat and whisked it until it melted. The sauce is smooth, creamy and delicious.
I’ve tried a couple different recipes. One I tried turned out grainy. Do you know why and have you had this happen with this recipe?
I’ve tried a recipe without water which turned out ok if you pour it through a strainer to get some big chunks out. The other I tried using water but it said not to stir until it was an amber hue.
I’ve never had any issues with this one turning out grainy. Occasionally I’ll get a small lump or two from not whisking the cream in quickly enough, but I just strain it if that happens.
Will this firm up enough for turtles or should I reduce the cream?
It would be too soft for turtles. I haven’t tried reducing the cream, so I’m not sure how it will turn out if you do that.
I’m obsessed with this recipe-absolute favorite sauce to make.
Is it safe to can??
thanks
I haven’t tried canning it, so I’m not sure.
I feel terrible even having to write this. I consider myself a pretty darn good home chef and baker. I could not make this recipe! I burnt it. Water completely dried up and had to trash it. I re-read all the ingredient amounts and directions one more time. Tried it again. Exact same thing.! Maybe the pan was a little large or something? That’s the only thing I can figure. With that being said, it wasnt even that large.
Sorry to hear that, Janica. The saucepan shouldn’t make a huge difference, I typically use one that’s a little larger too. Did the mixture never turn an amber color?
Amazing salted caramel! I’ve made it twice and everyone loved it ❤
Hi, I would like to know how much caramel will this recipe make ?
I would really like to try on my cheesecake ??
It makes 1 and 1/2 cups.
Cannot wait to try this! Where did you purchase your jars?
I found the jars at World Market 🙂
It was yummy! made as posted…. was insecure about the amount of time to let cook since I use brown sugar so it was already amber….
I let it go at 5 minutes and its pretty runny( has thickened up a little and may more in the fridge) but really good !
Thank you for the recipe
I made this recipe and it is so easy l love it
I’ve been looking at caramel recipes for over 2 months, I made one that didn’t use water and twice as much butter. It was ok but a lot of it ended up in the side of the pan. So when I tried this recipe I was nervous about turning the heat on high and just let it boil, but it turned out perfect and tastes AMAZING!!! Thank you very much for your recipe and I will be making it often!!
This is the BEST caramel sauce I have ever eaten. Easy and delicious.
Just made this And it is amazing!!! It did not go very smoothly for me though. While heating up the sugar and water it started to crystallize around the same time the color started changing. once I poured the cream in it was not mixing together. I ended up putting it all back on the heat for a minute or two to dissolve and mix well. I also used half and half because that is all I had.
I just wanted to say that this is one of the best things I have ever put in my mouth! THANKYOU. AmaZing sauce… I add it to my
Coffee and drizzle it over a banana w a tbsp of cool whip for a light treat. Truly delish.
Easy and the best recepie ever!!!
This a really EASY recipe and its fun to make. This the best salted caramel sauce recipe. I try other salted caramel sauce recipes and all turn out bad except this one. This recipe is a really good and fun recipe to do.And I made three cups and one stayed in the fridge for three weeks! Danielle said two weeks but mine stayed for three and still tasted fabulous!!
This caramel sauce was easy, fast and perfect! It started to turn amber along one edge of the pot, so I rotated the pot a bit, then took it off the heat when the spots where the sugar popped onto the sides of the pot started to smoke. Poured the cream in slowly while whisking quickly, and it came out perfectly! This recipe is a keeper!
Insanely good recipe, really rides the line of almost being too salty, but it’s perfect and I wouldn’t change a thing!