Salted Caramel Sauce
Updated September 16, 2024
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Quick Summary
You only need 4 ingredients to make this easy homemade salted caramel sauce recipe. It is the BEST and good on just about everything. Make in 10 minutes and take your desserts from wow… to WHOA!
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Pin ItI love caramel everything and this Salted Caramel Sauce is DREAMY! It is easy to make at home. You only need 4 ingredients.
It is great with ice cream, drizzled over cheesecake, or a galette, swirled into brownies, served with apples, or eaten with a spoon right out of the jar.
I also love using my homemade caramel sauce to make pumpkin pie, apple crumb bars, or Biscoff caramel cookie bars.
I love having a jar in the fridge at all times and it also makes a fantastic homemade gift!
Table of Contents
Ingredients
You only need 4 ingredients!
- Granulated sugar
- Unsalted butter– at room temperature and cut into pieces
- Heavy cream– at room temperature
- Flaky Sea Salt
How to Make Salted Caramel Sauce
If you haven’t made caramel sauce before, don’t be scared. It really is easy, you just have to pay close attention to the caramel. With a little tender love and care, you can create the most amazing homemade caramel sauce.
- First, make sure you have all of the ingredients ready. Once you start the caramel sauce you have to pay close attention so you don’t burn it.
- To begin, heat the sugar over medium high-heat in the bottom of a heavy 2-3 quart saucepan. When the sugar starts to melt, start whisking the sugar. The sugar will clump up, but keep whisking. It will continue to melt. When the sugar is melted, stop whisking. You can swirl the pan to move the sugar around.
- Continue cooking the sugar until it reaches a deep amber color. Make sure you watch the pan very closely. This is where it is easy to burn the caramel.
- As soon as the sugar reaches the dark amber color, carefully add the butter. Stir until butter is melted.
- Remove the pan from the heat and slowly pour in the heavy cream. Whisk until cream is incorporated and caramel is smooth. Whisk in the flaky sea salt.
- Let the caramel sauce cool for about 10 minutes in the pan. Pour the caramel into a large jar and cool to room temperature.
Recipe Tips
- Make sure you have all of your ingredients ready to go before you start making the caramel sauce.
- You don’t have to use a candy thermometer with this recipe, but you do have to watch the caramel sauce VERY closely! You don’t want to burn it and it can start turning dark in color quickly. The caramel sauce should be a dark amber color.
- Add the butter and stir until it melts into the sauce.
- Carefully pour in the heavy cream. The caramel sauce will be hot and you don’t want it to splash.
- Use flaky sea salt and not regular salt. The salt crystals are fine, delicate, and have a high concentration of minerals, making them the perfect finishing salt. They dissolve instantly when sprinkled into the caramel, adding the perfect touch of salt without interfering with the smooth caramel texture. And if for some reason you don’t like salt in your caramel, you can omit it and make regular caramel sauce.
How to Store
- When the caramel sauce is cool, place the lid on the jar and store in the refrigerator for up to one month.
- The sauce will be very thick when it is cold, right out of the fridge. Heat it up for 15 to 30 seconds in the microwave and give it a good stir.
- You can freeze caramel sauce. Freeze in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator or at room temperature, then heat up before using.
Using Salted Caramel Topping
This recipe makes about two cups of Salted Caramel Sauce and can be used for SO many things!
- It is great drizzled over ice cream, brownies, bars, cake, pie, cheesecake, a skillet cookie, and more. I think I would eat anything that had this salted caramel sauce drizzled all over it. We also use it to make frosting.
- For a sweet afternoon snack, I like to dip my apple, peach or pear slices into a little bit of creamy caramel. SO good!
- Add a little to a cup of hot chocolate or coffee.
- I also love to give the sauce as a nice homemade gift. Tie the jar with a little ribbon, add a card, and you have the perfect gift for anyone!
More Salted Caramel Recipes
- Brown Butter Salted Caramel Snickerdoodles
- Salted Caramel Apple Crumb Bars
- Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Salted Caramel Pretzel Brownies
- Salted Caramel Pretzel Fudge
- Salted Caramel Pretzel Chocolate Chip Cookies
Salted Caramel Sauce
The BEST salted caramel sauce! It's easy to make and is great drizzled over ice cream, cake, cookies, cupcakes, cheesecake…and anything else you can think of!
Ingredients
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into pieces
- 1 cup heavy cream, at room temperature
- 1 to 2 teaspoons fleur de sel or Maldon sea salt flakes* see note
Instructions
- First, make sure you have all of the ingredients ready. Once you start the caramel sauce you have to pay close attention so you don’t burn it. To begin, heat the sugar over medium high-heat in the bottom of a heavy 2-3 quart saucepan. When the sugar starts to melt, start whisking the sugar. The sugar will clump up, but keep whisking. It will continue to melt. When the sugar is melted, stop whisking. You can swirl the pan to move the sugar around.
- Continue cooking the sugar until it reaches a deep amber color. Make sure you watch the pan very closely. This is where it is easy to burn the caramel.
- As soon as the sugar reaches the dark amber color, carefully add the butter. Stir until butter is melted.
- Remove the pan from the heat and slowly pour in the heavy cream. Whisk until cream is incorporated and caramel is smooth. Whisk in the fleur de sel or Maldon sea salt flakes.
- Let the caramel sauce cool for about 10 minutes in the pan. Pour the caramel into a large jar and cool to room temperature. Put the salted caramel sauce in the refrigerator. Store the salted caramel sauce in the refrigerator for about a month.
Notes
Make sure you use fleur de sel or Maldon flaky sea salt! Don’t use regular salt. Add salt to taste. Start with 1 teaspoon and add more. It is salted caramel sauce and should be a little salty. I usually add about 1 tablespoon or Maldon sea salt flakes but I like a salty kick. Start small and add more if you want!
Nutrition
Calories: 223kcal, Carbohydrates: 25g, Fat: 14g, Saturated Fat: 8g, Cholesterol: 42mg, Sodium: 7mg, Potassium: 13mg, Sugar: 24g, Vitamin A: 480IU, Vitamin C: 0.1mg, Calcium: 12mg
Have you tried this recipe?
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This is delicious but once I put it in the fridge it was no longer “sauce”. I assume I can warm it in the microwave and it will soften back up but did I do something wrong?
When you put it in the fridge it will thicken up. Heat it up in the microwave and stir!
For one like myself where mom over salted everything she cooked. I learned to hate that taste. So for me caramel is perfect as is. But now it is hard to get any caramel without salt. It is a shame.
Why the heck would I use fancy salt for this? They taste the same as table salt, and the only thing different about them (the texture) is getting dissolved away! I used about half the amount of salt called for, since I used table salt, which is saltier than flaky salt, and it was perfect.
Thank you.
Hi I’m Abigail I love salted carmal tis is amazing but is there water i did not see it in in the 4 ingretins
No water in this recipe. Just the 4 ingredients she listed. It does not need water. Just make sure you follow her cooking instructions. 🙂
I wasn’t sure about trying to make this.. and I actually thought I had burnt and ruined it, but I didn’t. And it was the absolute MOST DELICIOUS topping for the brownies I made! You MUST make this if you’ve stumbled across the recipe!!
I have some Peter’s Caramel. Do you think it would work to melt that and just add the amount of salt called for?
I have made this recipe several times. It is delicious and easy to follow. It is also a pretty good arm workout with the constant stirring, but completely worth it!
Glad you love the recipe.
This looks great! My question, would this be similar to ghirardelli sea salt caramel sauce? I use it in my coffee and am trying to start making my own. Thank you!
I’ve never had their caramel sauce so I am not sure.
Once I added the butter, the sauce hardened, and would not mix with the butter or melt back down. Tips on avoiding this?
I made it today and mine did the same thing. I got a good amount of caramel sauce out of the recipe but I still had a big clump that would not meltsbd I ended up throwing the clump away. The sauce is yummy though.
Made it tonight. So delicious. Made a deconstructed strawberry rhubarb crisp…ice cream, stewed fruit, granola, caramel sauce. Our guests could make whatever combo they desired. The salted caramel was the favorite!!!
YUM!
Amazing caramel sauce!! Maria, I have a question for you. Can I bake with this caramel? I want to swirl it into some brownie batter before baking, but want to make sure it won’t burn if it’s “cooked again”. Thanks 🙂
Yes! You can use it in other recipes.
I tried this with half a can of coconut cream to try to dodge the lactose. It is very runny. I am wondering if I reheat it to the soft-ball stage will it thicken up?
I’ve never tried it with coconut cream.
Can you tell me how much this recipe makes (cup wise)? I want to use this for your pumpkin pie, but that needs 1/2 cup. Will this be that amount or more?
My sugar took forever to melt (12 mins, stirring constantly over medium heat), but it finally all came together! Great recipe, very happy with the sauce. Thank you!
Glad you loved the caramel sauce.
Please address this: my caramel sauce got hard lumps in it. Do you have any idea why this happened? What did I do wrong? Should I melt these lumps?
Maybe it didn’t get combined well enough. Whisk well! You can take them out.
I would love to make this, was wondering if I would be able to keep this in a crockpot on warm without it burning. I would like to have a caramel apple dip station.
You can keep it on warm!
Someone asked how much the Carmel makes at least 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 cups , so yes enough for pie and other