The Best Salted Caramel Sauce — This homemade salted caramel sauce is creamy, buttery, rich, thick, smooth, and blows away anything you’ll ever buy. Best of all, it’s done in 15 minutes!
Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce
I love caramel sauce and could literally eat it by the spoonful. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, it’s fast and easy to make.
I’ve tried lots of recipes and methods, and I’ve found this is the best, easiest, least fussy way to make homemade caramel sauce, and it’s ready in 15 minutes. The easy caramel sauce is creamy, buttery, rich, thick, smooth, and blows away anything you’ll ever buy. You’ll never want store-bought again, which is usually thin, runny, and lackluster in flavor.
I love salted caramel and for salty-and-sweet treats, and always add a pinch of salt to my caramel. Even if you don’t want it ‘salty’, a pinch of salt helps balance the sweetness so the homemade caramel sauce doesn’t taste overly sweet.
Salted caramel sauce makes great gifts and keeps for months, but I doubt it will last long enough to give away.
What’s in Salted Caramel Sauce?
To make this homemade caramel sauce, you’ll need:
- Granulated sugar
- Water
- Corn syrup
- Heavy cream
- Vanilla extract
- Salt
How to Make Caramel Sauce
To make salted caramel sauce, combine sugar and water with a tiny bit of corn syrup (reduces the likely of crystallization) and whisk until smooth. Then just let the mixture boil away until it turns caramel-colored.
Depending on what size pot you use and the conductivity, the boiling time could range from about 5 minutes on the low end to about 10 to 12 minutes on the high end. I have an electric stove, and because I always use a pot much larger than I ‘need’ as insurance against bubble-overs, boiling usually takes about 10 minutes.
The final stage where the sauce turns from pale amber to that perfect shade of caramel can go quickly, in less than 30 seconds, so keep a watchful eye and don’t let it burn. Super stinky and you’ll have to start over.
Then just whisk in the cream, vanilla, and salt, and dig in!
Can I Make Caramel Sauce Dairy-Free?
Having never made dairy-free salted caramel sauce, I can’t say for sure if a non-dairy alternative will work in place of the heavy cream. If you find a method that works for you, please leave me a comment so I can try it for myself!
What Type of Salt Should I Use?
I used regular table salt, but you can also use kosher or sea salt. Just note that salt with larger flakes tastes less salty than table salt, so you may have to play around with the amount you add in.
How to Store Homemade Caramel Sauce
You can keep this salted caramel sauce at room temperature for up to a month. If you’re planning on giving it away as gifts, use your best judgement when figuring out how far in advance to make the sauce.
Tips for Making Salted Caramel Sauce
The tiny bit of corn syrup in this recipe helps prevent the homemade caramel sauce from crystallizing, but you can omit it if desired.
While making this salted caramel sauce, you can swirl the pan gently every minute or two if necessary, but the less the sugary mixture gets on the sides of the pan, the better in preventing crystallization in the final sauce.
There are pleasant vanilla undertones in this easy caramel sauce, which are heavenly for a vanilla fiend like myself, but the vanilla can be omitted or swapped with bourbon, rum, Grand Marnier, or a favorite liqueur. The alcohol burns off quickly, and it’s a mere 1 tablespoon for the whole batch, and what remains is an extra layer of subtle flavor.
Here’s how to make caramel sauce from scratch!
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Salted Caramel Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup water
- 1 teaspoon light-colored corn syrup, can be omitted but helps reduce crystallization
- ½ cup whipping or heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract, optional (or substitute with bourbon, rum, Grand Marnier, or a favorite liqueur)
- ½ to 1 teaspoon salt, optional and to taste (for a true ‘salted caramel’ sauce, I use 1 teaspoon)
Instructions
- In a medium to large saucepan (use a pan much larger than you think you’ll need because the sauce will bubble very vigorously at the end), add the sugar, water, corn syrup and bring to a boil over high heat, whisking until sugar has dissolved.
- Allow the mixture to boil for 5 to 12 minutes, or as necessary, for it to turn caramel-colored, at which point it will likely be smoking slightly. The final stage where the mixture turns from pale amber to that perfect shade of caramel can go quickly, in less than 30 seconds, so keep a watchful eye and don’t let it burn. Super stinky and you’ll have to start over. Throughout the boiling time, you can swirl the pan gently every minute or two if necessary, but the less the sugary mixture gets on the sides of the pan, the better in preventing crystallization in the final sauce.
- As soon as the sauce has turned caramel-colored, reduce the heat to low.
- Very carefully and slowly, add the cream. Stand back because mixture will bubble up considerably.
- Optionally, and very carefully, add the vanilla and salt, to taste. Stand back because mixture will bubble up again.
- Whisk until sauce is smooth and combined, and let it boil another 1 minute, which helps thicken it up.
- Transfer sauce to glass jar or heat-safe container (easiest to pour into a 2-cup measuring cup and then easily pour into glass jar). Allow sauce to cool uncovered to room temperature; sauce thickens considerably as it cools.
- Sauce will keep airtight at room temp for at least 1 month, although will likely last much longer; use common sense if giving as gifts with storage considerations.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Recipes That Use Caramel Sauce:
Salted Caramel Buttermilk Brown Sugar Muffins — These easy, one-bowl, no-mixer muffins are soft, wonderfully moist, and the crumb has the perfect balance of density and lightness.
Peanut Butter Twix Caramel Bars — In these bars, there’s buttery shortbread, rich and dense peanut butter, sweet and intense caramel, and smooth dark chocolate.
Salted Caramel Pretzel Blondies — Salty-and-sweet, soft and crunchy. If you enjoy contrasting flavors and textures, these easy blondies are just for you!
Caramel Apple Sheet Pan Pancakes – Craving pancakes but not the work of standing at the stove flipping them? Make these EASY sheet pan pancakes!
Caramel Macchiato Banana Bread – Banana bread that tastes like a caramel macchiato!! Soft, tender, infused with salted CARAMEL and topped with a brown sugar glaze!
Caramel Apple Crumble Foil Packs – EASY, zero cleanup, made on the grill (or oven) in record time, and tastes amazing!! Juicy apples, chewy crumble topping, and luscious salted caramel…SO irresistible!!
Caramel Cream Poke Cake — Poke cakes are always supremely moist and this one reminds me of a cheater’s version of Tres Leches Cake because it’s sweet and creamy.
I love caramel but have never been able to make a caramel sauce successfully. I tried this recipe last night and it tastes delicious, much better than I’ve ever made before, but I left it to cool and when I came back it was very, very hard. Like a hardened soft caramel candy. Any ideas as to why, or tips?
Any ideas as to why, or tips? = Yes, you are over-cooking it and/or letting the internal temp get too high so you are making caramel hard candy vs. soft caramel sauce. You may want to invest in a candy thermometer since you’re prone to this and google caramel sauce temperature (and there will be things like the soft ball stage, hard ball stage, etc.) and just be sure not to go above what’s recommended.
Tried this recipe today! It was amazing and so easy. You tips about keeping your eye on it and watching for the color change were super helpful! Can’t wait to share the sauce with others. Thank you!
Glad it worked out great for you and that my tips were helpful!
This is awesome!!!! Would I be able to add salted butter to this recipe without ruining it?
Salted butter is fine but you may want to scale the salt at the end back some. Be sure to taste it so you don’t make it overly-salted salted caramel sauce!
I just made this for the first time!! I’m so excited! It was just perfect and so yummy! The only thing is, after cooling, it seemed to have some butter melted around it. Did I not stir hard enough? Never mind, I’ll make it again for sure! Loved it on our chocolate tacos and vanilla Ice cream!
Sometimes it can separate, like anything homemade that’s not run through commercial machines or with tons of preservatives and chemicals, separation in caramel sauce is totally normal. It doesn’t ALWAYS happen, but sometimes it does and that’s just the way it goes. Glad it was a big hit for you!
Made this tonight for some apple tarts. Turned out amazing! Well the second batch did, make sure you watch it very close five seconds can make the difference. My first batch was not terrible, just a little bit of that burnt sugar flavor. The second batch was perfect! Oh and I definitely suggest the full amount of salt. My family loved it! I was a hero tonight! Thank you!
Yes with caramel even 5-10 seconds can do it because it’s SO HOT that all that carryover heat is still cooking it at such a high high temp and so every few secs can really impact things, even after you shut the burner off. Glad it came out great for you on the second time and that you’re a hero. And p.s. slightly burnt caramel is really trendy in food right now. I don’t get it, but hey, it’s trendy :)
I use a recipe just like this but I heat the salt, vanilla, and cream to just below boiling as it lessens the bubbling up of the cream when added to the sugar. A great recipe. Stores in the fridge too. If there’s any left!!
I’m looking for a caramel recipe that can be stirred into iced coffee, but everything homemade so far solidifies and sinks to the bottom. Do you think this recipe might work ?
Cold coffee (or cold liquid) will cause most any real caramel sauce to just get hard/cold/sink. The only way around it is to use ‘cheap’ caramel ice cream sundae sauce in a squirt bottle and it will dissolve more easily since it’s not really true ‘caramel’.
I use dulche de leche for iced coffee. Works fine!
Hi, This sounds great. Is it think enough that I could use it for caramel apples?
Oops, meant thick enough.
You can make it VERY thick by continuing to let it simmer and reduce…you don’t want to go too far or else you’ll end up with ‘caramels’ rather than caramel sauce but with candy-making, every few degrees at a certain point, it will thicken up. You’ll have to experiment and/or use a candy thermometer to know where those critical points are.
Thank you!!!!
I want to make these as gifts for my housewarming party. Will it change anything if I make this in a larger quantity at one time?
I’ve never tried it as a bigger batch. I would hate for it not to turn out as a bigger batch so don’t want to blindly say oh go ahead…I think you will be okay, but not speaking from personal experience. Let me know how it goes!
I have the same question, did you try a larger quantity? Please let us know.
I typically only make the recipe as written and don’t make more than listed so can’t speak to making larger amounts.
I make this recipe 5 times in the past few days. I planned to make caramel sauce for my neighbors as Christmas gifts.
The first batch I made exactly as the recipe stated, and it turned out perfect. The second day I attempted to double the recipe, but it failed miserably. The third attempt was at another double batch, and it also failed miserably.
Then I went back to the recipe as written, and the next two batches were perfect.
Thanks for the feedback on doubling the recipe and that you had two fails but 3 successes when you made the recipe exactly as written. VERY good to know!! I have never attempted a double batch and many people have asked about it, so now we know. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Averie,
I want to make the “millionaire bars” or the “twix bars” on your site. (the one with the shortbread crust, caramel and the chocolate.)
My ? was that do you think I can use this caramel recipe for the caramel part for the bars? Would it be too salty or the flavor be balanced?
**Thank you so much in advance. :)
Flavor would be just fine and it will work great in the bars!
hey averie
last night i made caramel ice cream and wanted to swirl in some homemade caramel sauce but what was supposed to be the sauce ended up as an amber block.
the recipe i used is a lot like this one but it didnt have water; it had butter instead. do you think the butter made it thicker? im kind of reluctant to try this one bc all the caramel recipes i’ve tried either got burnt or turned really thick after 2 to 3 mins.
I think you’re overcooking/overheating. In order to keep caramel in the liquid/pourable consistency range, the temperature can’t get as hot as it would as if you were making solid caramel candies. And if yours is turning into a block, you’re way overcooking/overheating it. Ease up on the heat and duration, and I think things will go more smoothly for you!
Okay seriously, this is just too easy to not make. And once I make this, you know I’m slathering this on anything and everything. Hell, I’ll drink it right out of the container!
It’s kind of like balsamic reduction. Once you make your own, it really is pretty amazing how easy it is. This is a little more complicated than balsamic reduction, but same concept :)
I’ve always been afraid of making my own caramel sauce after hearing horror stories about it crystalizing, burning, or boiling over and making a mess, but your method sounds fool-proof, even for a kitchen stove klutz like me! I was making fudge last Christmas to give away as gifts, and since I hadn’t made any in a year, I accidentally used a smaller pot than I should have… It was pretty tense there for a few minutes as I tried to keep the liquid right at the rim without toppling over! ;)
This looks so easy, and I have all the ingredients in my home! I tried to make caramel, but I did something REALLY stupid.. it was taking a while so I just watched TV for a while until I smelled something burnt. So I will try making caramel again with this recipe! :)
And that is exactly why I wrote what I did in step 1 of the directions! With caramel, you can NEVER take your eyes off it or get distracted even for a minute or two, because that’s when it will burn and the smell is just horrendous!
You are right again Averie…. this is the best and easiest caramel sauce. I have tried other receipes using butter but this is my favorite. Thanks so much.
Thanks for trying this, Sylvia, and glad you found that it lived up to its name. Thanks for letting me know!
This looks amazing! Your photos are beautiful too, love caramel sauce, never made it as I’m worried I’d burn it, but I may have to try this!
Thanks for the compliments :)