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This Homemade Caramel Sauce is so easy to make! With just a few simple ingredients and 10 minutes, you can have a delicious caramel sauce to drizzle over all your desserts or drinks! Here are some step by step photos to help you make caramel sauce at home.
Have you ever thought to yourself that a drizzle of caramel over your ice cream or cheesecake would really tie the whole thing together? For occasions like that, I usually just make my own DIY caramel sauce. It tastes so much better homemade and you won’t believe just how easy it is to make your own!
For more cooking guides, check out my guide on How to Melt Chocolate or How to Bake the Perfect Potato.
Why You’ll Love This Caramel Sauce
- Four ingredients only! You probably already have all four ingredients already. It’s tempting to make this often because we always have the ingredients needed for homemade caramel.
- It’s tasty. There really isn’t anything better than a generous drizzle of caramel sauce over your dessert.
- It goes on everything! Drizzle it over top ice cream, dip it in some candied apples, drizzle it over a slice of cake, add it to some popcorn, the possibilities are endless! My favorite is drizzling it over this New York Style Cheesecake.
What You’ll Need to Make Homemade Caramel Sauce
- Granulated sugar
- Unsalted butter — your homemade caramel sauce will be a bit too salty if you use salted butter!
- Heavy cream — do not substitute for milk or half and half as the results won’t be the same! Milk will also curdle.
- Salt
How to Make Caramel Sauce at Home
- Prepare your ingredients: Measure and prep all ingredients before caramelizing the sugar.
- Melt the sugar: Add the sugar to a large saucepan in an even layer and begin to cook the sugar over medium heat. About every 20 seconds, lift the pan from the burner and gently swirl the pan in a circular motion so that the sugar swirls around in the pan. As soon as you notice that sugar is beginning to stick to the pan, use a heat-safe spatula to stir the sugar while it continues to cook over medium heat. The sugar will form golden clumps before it melts completely and turns a copper color. Continue to stir gently until the sugar is completely melted, then remove the saucepan from the heat.
- Add the butter: Add half of the butter and whisk until combined. The mixture will bubble up slightly when the butter is added, so use caution. It may take a minute for the butter to blend with the caramelized sugar, so keep whisking. Once combined, repeat with the remaining butter.
- Add the cream: Add the cream slowly, a little bit at a time, whisking after each addition. Continue to whisk until all of the cream is combined.
- Add the salt: Add the salt and whisk to blend.
- Transfer to a jar: Transfer the caramel sauce to a glass jar so that it doesn’t continue to cook in the hot pan. Allow the sauce to cool for 10 to 15 minutes before serving or let it cool to room temperature before putting the lid on the jar.
Tips and Notes
- It’s important to not skip the first step of preparing your ingredients. The caramel sauce needs you to stir constantly so you won’t have the time to measure as you go. It moves quickly so have everything prepared beforehand to make the caramel with no hiccups!
- Be sure to remove the saucepan from the heat as soon as the sugar melts completely and becomes copper-colored. If you continue to cook the sugar after it has melted and it turns deep orange or red, you’ll know that the sugar has burned. If this happens, you’ll need to start over.
- Just like with browning butter, it’s helpful to use a light-colored saucepan for making caramel sauce so that you can more easily see the color change as the sugar caramelizes.
- For easy clean up, as soon as you pour the caramel sauce into a jar to cool, fill the saucepan with hot water and let it sit for a few minutes. When you pour the water out of the pan any caramel that was left in the pan will come right out and you won’t be stuck cleaning a sticky mess.
- Please keep in mind that right off the oven, caramel sauce is HOT. Do not taste test until it has cooled!
FAQs
Store all extra caramel sauce inside of an airtight jar like a mason jar. Then you can refrigerate the DIY caramel sauce for up to 1 month in the fridge.
Since caramel solidifies as it cools, you can’t just take it out of the fridge and drizzle over your baked goods immediately. You have to reheat the caramel sauce in the microwave or on the stove so it’s liquid again before using.
You can definitely freeze homemade caramel sauce! I recommend freezing it in a freezer safe container. Mason jars can be tricky as caramel sauce expands as it freezes and can cause the jar to break. When ready to use, thaw the caramel sauce overnight in the fridge and warm gently before using either in the microwave or stovetop.
Sugar crystallization in your saucepan can cause a grainy caramel sauce with a rough consistency. To prevent this from happening, you can use a pastry brush moistened with water to brush down the sides of your saucepan if you see any sugar crystallizing on the sides of the pan. If your caramel sauce is already grainy, you can add a splash of water, no more than 2 tablespoons, to the saucepan, bring it to a boil, and whisk until you re-dissolve the crystallized sugar.
Check Out These How to Cook Guides
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Homemade Caramel Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 6 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
- ½ cup heavy cream
- ⅛ teaspoon table salt
Instructions
- Measure and prep all ingredients before caramelizing the sugar.
- Add the sugar to a large saucepan in an even layer and begin to cook the sugar over medium heat. About every 20 seconds, lift the pan from the burner and gently swirl the pan in a circular motion so that the sugar swirls around in the pan. As soon as you notice that sugar is beginning to stick to the pan, use a heat-safe spatula to stir the sugar while it continues to cook over medium heat. The sugar will form golden clumps before it melts completely and turns a copper color. Continue to stir gently until the sugar is completely melted, then remove the saucepan from the heat.
- Add half of the butter and whisk until combined. The mixture will bubble up slightly when the butter is added, so use caution. It may take a minute for the butter to blend with the caramelized sugar, so keep whisking. Once combined, repeat with the remaining butter.
- Add the cream slowly, a little bit at a time, whisking after each addition. Continue to whisk until all of the cream is combined.
- Add the salt and whisk to blend.
- Transfer the caramel sauce to a glass jar so that it doesn’t continue to cook in the hot pan. Allow the sauce to cool for 10 to 15 minutes before serving or let it cool to room temperature before putting the lid on the jar.
Notes
- Yields 1¼ cups.
- It’s important to not skip the first step of preparing your ingredients. The caramel sauce needs you to stir constantly so you won’t have the time to measure as you go. It moves quickly so have everything prepared beforehand to make the caramel with no hiccups!
- Be sure to remove the saucepan from the heat as soon as the sugar melts completely and becomes copper-colored. If you continue to cook the sugar after it has melted and it turns deep orange or red, you’ll know that the sugar has burned. If this happens, you’ll need to start over.
- Just like with browning butter, it’s helpful to use a light-colored saucepan for making caramel sauce so that you can more easily see the color change as the sugar caramelizes.
- For easy clean up, as soon as you pour the caramel sauce into a jar to cool, fill the saucepan with hot water and let it sit for a few minutes. When you pour the water out of the pan any caramel that was left in the pan will come right out and you won’t be stuck cleaning a sticky mess.
