Ooey, gooey, homemade salted caramel sauce great for use as a filling in cupcakes and as drizzling on treats. Tastes great blended into frosting and is delicious on ice cream!
Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce
Making salted caramel sauce at home is surprisingly easy and quick to do! This sauce tastes absolutely delicious drizzled on cupcakes, ice cream, and even fruit!
Only a stove and a saucepan are required to make this delicious and flavorful salted caramel sauce!
Great for Parties
This sauce is so versatile it can be used for a wide array of foods! It can be used as a centerpiece for a party with dipping options such as pretzels, apple slices, nuts, and even dried fruits!
Easy to Make Sauce
The goal of making caramel sauce is to not burn it! Two important pieces of advice while making this caramel is to not walk away from the stove while making it and not to boil the sauce on high.
You don't want a rolling boil, you want a low boil - almost a simmer. You also want to stir this sauce constantly so that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan and create burnt pieces.
This sauce is easy to make at home and no thermometer is needed! Just attention while making it and making sure it's not boiling too high.
Making the Sauce
To make the sauce, use a medium-sized saucepan and add the butter. Melt the butter on low and slowly stir in the brown sugar.
Combine the brown sugar and butter well, allowing the brown sugar to melt. It will be super grainy but keep stirring and it will start to break down.
Add in the heavy cream and quickly stir to incorporate the heavy cream into the sugar mixture. It will look very milky and will start to turn into a golden brown color.
Keep stirring, making sure to scrape down the sides of the saucepan to catch any grains of brown sugar that are stuck to the sides.
Bring the sauce to a LOW boil on medium-high heat, stirring constantly for about 3 minutes. Once the 3 minutes is up, remove it from heat and stir in the vanilla extract and the salt. Allow the sauce to cool.
When using the caramel sauce as a topping, you will want to make sure that it is cool, not warm when using. Using warm caramel sauce can result in the sauce melting into what you are pouring it into or on.
It will also be runnier than if you let it sit to cool and thicken. The sauce will thicken while it cools - just be patient! 🙂
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Salted Caramel Topping
A great way to use this caramel topping is to drizzle it on cheesecake! Whether it's store-bought or using my cheesecake recipe, the addition of homemade salted caramel sauce will make an already delicious cheesecake even more delicious!
Homemade caramel sauce tastes great also on my caramel drizzled brown sugar cupcakes. In my cupcake recipe, there is another caramel sauce recipe that uses soft caramel candies to make it.
With this recipe, everything is from scratch! They're both really tasty and easy, just depends on the flavor you prefer. 🙂
📖 Recipe
Salted Caramel Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 6 tablespoon butter unsalted
- ½ cup heavy cream
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- In a medium-sized saucepan, melt the butter and add the brown sugar on low. Allow the brown sugar to melt.
- Increase the heat to medium-high and add in the heavy cream.
- Bring to a low boil and allow it to boil for about 3 minutes. Stir constantly.
- Scrape down the sides of the saucepan while boiling to make catch any sugar sticking to the sides.
- Remove from heat and add in the vanilla extract and salt.
- Allow the caramel to cool for at least 30 minutes before using as a filling or drizzling.
Nutrition
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Dana is an experienced recipe creator who crafts easy and delicious recipes for all levels of home cooks.
Her recipes range from classic comfort foods to healthy and nutritious meals, and she is always on the lookout for new and exciting ways to bring flavor and variety to the table.
Gayle says
I was looking for a Carmel recipe. That is good.
Gayle says
I was looking for a Carmel recipe. That is good.
Lauren says
Can this be stored in a mason jar for any length of time?
Dana says
It can be stored in the refrigerator for a week.
Karen C says
The sauce tasted wonderful but seemed a little less smooth after it had been refrigerated and warmed to use. Is that normal or did I do something wrong? Will it still be safe to use in the frosting?
Dana says
Hi Karen, it seems that maybe the sugar didn't dissolve completely while heating it on the stove. Either way, it is still good to eat it just may be a little grainy. I'm glad you liked the flavor!