My Homemade Caramel Sauce tastes perfectly buttery, smooth, and sweet with a hint of salt. It’s irresistibly good, and even better, the recipe is simple with just 5 ingredients and no thermometer required. With my tips below, you’ll be whipping up a batch of salted caramel like a pro!
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Helpful Reader Review
“Never thought I would be able to make it like the picture. It turned out better than I thought it would. Absolutely delicious, creamy, it’s perfect. Thanks for the easy recipe. “ – Rosalind ★★★★★
Homemade Caramel Sauce
I published this recipe years ago, but I have updated it to be more foolproof and authentic. What I love most about this caramel sauce recipe is that it’s a true caramel sauce. If you prefer the original version, I have (more accurately) filed it under Butterscotch Sauce.
If you’ve ever shopped for caramel sauce at the grocery store and had a difficult time finding one without mystery “natural flavors” and corn syrup as the primary ingredient, this recipe is for you! It’s simple to make with only 5 basic ingredients and tastes amazing–better than anything at the store!
It’s so delicious, you’ll want to drizzle it on everything. Use it to dip Apples, and drizzle over countless desserts like my Pumpkin Cheesecake, Apple Pie, hot or Iced Coffee, ice cream… You name it! This is such a versatile sauce, and it keeps well in the refrigerator.
Caramel Sauce Ingredients
I suggest avoiding substitutions, since it’s perfectly balanced to prevent crystallization.
- Granulated sugar – melting white sugar slowly with water makes the base of the caramel sauce.
- Unsalted butter – cut into cubes. Make sure your butter is at room temperature since cold butter can break the sauce! European butter has a higher fat content and less water, which can make the sauce better and easier to make. I love Kerrygold butter.
- Heavy cream – warm before adding to keep the sauce from sputtering and breaking.
- Vanilla extract – Use Homemade Vanilla Extract or store-bought.
- Salt – cuts the sweetness to create an irresistible salted caramel flavor. You can add it to taste.
How to Make Caramel Sauce
The key to a successful homemade caramel sauce is to dissolve the sugar before simmering and not to stir at any point. This can flick sugar granules onto the sides of the pan, which will fall back into the mixture later and cause the whole thing to crystallize.
- Melt the sugar – Add the sugar to the bottom of a heavy-bottomed saucepan and shake the pan to distribute it evenly. Drizzle the water over the sugar and let it sit for a minute to fully moisten the sugar. DO NOT STIR – you don’t want sugar to get splashed on the sides of the pan. Set over medium-low heat and, without stirring, let the sugar dissolve completely until clear, about 5 minutes.
Pro Tip to Prevent Crystalization:
If you do see any sugar crystals at the edges, cover the pan with the lid for 30-60 seconds as it simmers; the steam will help wash the pan walls. If it does crystalize and firm up, add 2-3 Tbsp of hot water and stir until it melts again, then proceed.
- Simmer – Without stirring, bring to a simmer and increase to medium heat. When it starts to take on a little color, swirl the pan occasionally until it’s light amber or honey-colored (it takes about 5-8 minutes on my stove). Don’t let it brown too much, or it will taste bitter. As you swirl towards the end, any stray sugar crystals should dissolve.
Natasha’s Safety Tip:
Be careful not to touch or lick the hot utensils or the pan — melted sugar and caramel is scorching hot! Also, let the pan cool before washing it, then soak it in hot water to easily remove the caramel sauce.
- Add the butter – turn the heat to low, and whisk in half the butter. It will bubble vigorously. Once incorporated, stir in the rest of the butter. If it separates, remove the pan from the heat and stir until it comes together.
- Add the cream – while whisking, drizzle the warm cream into the pan (it will bubble up) and whisk until smooth (or 220°F), then remove the pan from the heat. Make sure you DO NOT add cold cream, or it may splatter.
- Finish with vanilla and salt – Whisk vanilla and salt to taste into the caramel off the heat.
- Cool and store – It will thicken in consistency as it cools, so let the caramel cool for a few minutes before using. Store cooled caramel in jars in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
How to Fix Crystalized Caramel Sauce?
I’ve had my fair share of crystallized caramel batches in developing the perfect recipe, so hopefully my tips above will prevent it for you. If it does look crystallized and seized at any point (see photo below), don’t worry! To fix siezed caramel: Add 2-4 Tbsp hot water to the separated mixture, and then reheat over medium-low heat until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat and swirl the pan to capture any remaining sugar crystals.
My Caramel is Liquid – is that Normal?
The caramel will be more liquid and drizzling consistency when it is still hot/warm and will thicken as it cools. After refrigeration, it will become very thick and will hold its shape on a spoon. Reheating it on the stovetop or in the microwave will loosen it up again.
How to Serve Caramel Sauce
I wasn’t kidding when I told you this homemade caramel sauce was versatile, so here is a long list of ideas, and I’m just scratching the surface!
- Caramel apples or dip for sliced apples
- Apple Turnovers (inside or out)
- Cinnamon Rolls
- Baked Apples
- Caramel French Toast
- Caramel Corn Pops Treats
- Churros Dip
- Mini Cheesecakes topping
- Crepes
- Apple Crisp Drizzle
- Pumpkin Waffles topping
- Apple Pancakes topping
- Affogato
- Banoffee Pie
- Apple Coffee Cake
- Cheesecake drizzle
- Sourdough Dutch Baby
- Dutch Apple Pie drizzle
My easy homemade caramel sauce recipe tastes amazing on top of so many desserts and dishes! It’s simple to make and tastes so much better than anything at the grocery store. Mix up a batch to keep on hand, and then tell me in the comments how you use your caramel sauce!
P.S. If you preferred my original sauce, check out my Butterscotch Sauce recipe.
Caramel Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup water
- 6 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened at room temperature, cut into cubes
- 1/2 cup heavy cream, warm
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 tsp sea salt, or add to taste
Instructions
- Melt the sugar – Add the sugar to the bottom of a heavy-bottomed saucepan and shake the pan to distribute it evenly. Drizzle the water over the sugar and let it sit for a minute to fully moisten the sugar. DO NOT STIR – you don't want sugar to get splashed on the sides of the pan. Set over medium-low heat and, without stirring, let the sugar dissolve completely until clear, about 5 minutes. The mixture should be clear, and the sugar fully dissolved before it simmers.
- Simmer – Without stirring, bring to a simmer and increase to medium heat. If you see crystals on the sides of the pan, cover with lid for 30-60 seconds. When the caramel starts to take on a little color, swirl the pan occasionally until it's light amber or honey-colored (about 5-8 minutes). Don't let it brown too much, or it will taste bitter. As you swirl towards the end, any stray sugar crystals should dissolve.
- Add the butter – Reduce the heat to medium-low and carefully whisk in half of the softened butter cubes, then stir in the rest. The mixture will bubble vigorously — that’s normal. Keep whisking until the butter is fully incorporated. If it separates, remove from the heat and whisk until it comes together.
- Add the cream – Slowly stream in the warm cream while whisking constantly. Again, it will bubble up and steam. Keep whisking until smooth, then remove from heat.
- Finish with vanilla + salt – Turn off the heat and whisk in vanilla and salt. Taste and adjust salt as needed.
- Cool and store – Let cool slightly before using. It will thicken up quite a bit as it cools. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. It firms up when refrigerated. Re-warm gently to drizzle.
Notes
- Do Not Stir – Stirring the sugar and water mixture can cause sugar crystals to stick to the pan walls. If those fall back into the pan later, it can “seed” the whole pan and crystallize your caramel. Also, let the sugar fully dissolve and turn clear before simmering. Be patient.
- Even Heating – use a heavy-bottomed saucepan (avoid non-stick pans) for even heat distribution and avoid temperature swings (add room-temperature or warm ingredients as directed).
- Don’t Rush It – Patience is key at every step. Don’t rush this with higher heat, or it can crystallize.
- Use a Lid – If you see sugar crystals at the edges of the pot at the simmering step, cover with a lid for 30-60 seconds; the steam will help wash the pan’s walls.
- Swirl occasionally – as soon as you start to see some color developing, gentle swirling helps to distribute color evenly and helps clear any remaining sugar flakes from the surface and walls.
- Use warm cream so it doesn’t splatter, separate, or burst, which can happen if you add cold liquid to a blazing-hot caramel sauce.
- European butter has a higher fat content and less water, which can make the sauce better and easier to make. I love Kerrygold butter.
Nutrition Per Serving
Filed Under
More Homemade Dessert Sauces
Dessert toppings, like my homemade caramel sauce, just taste better when made from scratch–and they are easy! Try these next:
Hi there! Am going to make soon. Can you use heavy whipping cream? I want to make your Homemade whipped cream and would like to get just one ingredient if possible. Thanks!
Hi Whitney! Yes, it’s essentially the same thing. Just make sure it’s “heavy” whipping cream and not just “whipping cream”.
I made this! So delicious, I found myself going to the fridge and sneaking a spoonful out.
Hi, love your recipes. I have been using them for years. I tried the new version of the caramel sauce. I used 2 lbs of organic sugar and lot of organic butter and did not work at all. I had to do it without water and very slow temperature to melt the sugar and got the results. I loved the old recipe, so much easier to do. Can you post the old recipe? Thank you
Hello Cristina! Thank you for sharing, I’m glad you’re enjoying them! About the old recipe, stay tuned, I will be posting the original Butterscotch recipe on November 25th, just as soon as I can get it drafted.
Hello! Same as the other comments. Love your pumpkin cheesecake with the caramel sauce. I tried this caramel sauce and it did not work. Please post the old recipe. It was easier to follow. Thank you!!
Hello! Thank you for sharing, I’m glad you’re enjoying them! About the old recipe, stay tuned, I will be posting the original Butterscotch recipe just as soon as I can get it drafted.
My crystals on the sides of the pan got worse with the swirling. Sugar continued to bubble and thicken but never turned amber. The whole pan started to crystalized at a clear color.
HI Donna, I’ve had that happen where it seized after looking clear and it was because my heat was too high. See the section on how to repair that – I’ve been able to save it at this stage by adding water and keeping it over medium/low heat.
Is there a link to the former version of this sauce? I really liked it and don’t want to try something new this year… Please advise, thank you!!
Hi Carolyn, stay tuned, I will be posting the original Butterscotch recipe on November 25th, just as soon as I can get it drafted.
I have an electric stove and could not get this recipe to turn out to safe my life. Pan was clean when I started, ingredients measured exactly but I never got past the cloudy stage. I had the burner on 3, which is medium low. Help!!
HI Annie, On an electric stove, the temperature can vary quite a bit from one burner to another, so 3 may not get hot enough for the sugar to melt and caramelize. Try setting it closer to medium heat (around 5–6) and use a light-colored pan so you can watch the color change. Once the sugar starts turning clear and bubbling, it will deepen in color fairly quickly—just stay nearby and swirl the pan gently instead of stirring. You’ve got this!
I tried this recipe three or four times to no avail. I have an electric stove as well and never could get the heat high enough for it to be clear and when I adjusted it to medium five or six, it just crystallized unfortunately not something I will be able to make:(
Hi Natasha,
Can I use this recipe to make flan?
Hi Carol! It’s not the right caramel for flan. It stays soft and greasy and won’t set in the dish the way flan needs. See my Flan Recipe here.
I realize this is coming out of left field as everyone is in the throngs of Thanksgiving hustling and planning now, but I just had to say that your meatloaf recipe is outstanding. Yes….meatloaf often gets a bad rap, but if someone serves your meatloaf, people will certainly change their minds. I know I did!
Thank you so much, Mimi! I’m so glad you love it too!
The recipe for the pumpkin cheesecake should be printable without all the pictures. It is horrendous to follow and I am an expert baker.
Hi Maria! You can print the recipe card. Click Jump to recipe, print, save as pdf in your device and print it.
I’m glad I read the comments that this is a new recipe, I made this back in August and didn’t remember making it this way! I’m excited to try this recipe but I agree, please post the old recipe ASAP! It was a huge hit on your Pumpkin Cheesecake recipe
Hi Sarah, stay tuned, I will be posting the original Butterscotch recipe on November 25th, just as soon as I can get it drafted.
I have been using your caramel recipe for years and have loved it! I was slightly confused when I went on this page today and noticed the recipe was different, but thought maybe I was just imagining things since I hadn’t made it in a few months. I realized after that it was updated this month, so I’m assuming the old recipe is no longer available.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have success with this updated recipe. The other one was much easier and more manageable. My caramel turned out too bitter and dark with the new recipe, as I found that the sauce was darkening too much before the sugar was fully melted. A lot of the sugar also got stuck to the side of the pan and never came off.
Maybe it was just me and I hope others have more success than I did! I love your recipes so I’ll always come back!
HI Angie, I’ll have a video tutorial for this next week (stay tuned!). In the mean time, read the “Tips for the Best Homemade Caramel” which should help a ton. If the sugar syrup gets too dark, it will be a darker caramel. I prefer it lighter which is why I really tried to emphasize to remove it when its golden which is why I really tried to emphasize this in the instructions. This is a true caramel whereas the previous version was a butterscotch which I’ll need to repost as such.
Natasha i prefer your unupdated recipe. It was way easier and according to me tastier……. I must say I adore your recipe in general
Hi Sibylle, I hope you give the new version a try – it’s significantly better and a true caramel whereas the previous one was more of a butterscotch. I’ll have to get it reposted as what it actually is.
Could you share the original recipe with me
HI Cathy, I will be posting the Butterscotch recipe on November 25th so it’s coming back, no worries
Hi Natasha, I’m new to your website and I’ve been enjoying your recipes. Yesterday I tried your brown sugar caramel which was amazing. I tried to find it again to make another batch and I can’t seem to find it. I then tried the recipe above and it didn’t turn out very good. It tastes like sweet butter (lol) so I’m thinking I did something wrong. If you have that brown sugar caramel recipe to share… I’d love that again. Thanks for helping us all make yummy meals!
HI Dana, the original recipe was more of a butterscotch sauce while this is a true caramel and doesn’t use brown sugar. I think I’ll need to repost the other one as a butterscotch.
It used to be easy, you can still see the original ingredients in the photos. This actual method to make caramel is hard and I can’t get the consistency the same as before. I wish you would have left it as is and added another one.
Hi Richard, I’m working on updating this post, sorry for the confusion. We will have a video on the caramel sauce recipe soon which will make it more fail-proof and easy to follow.
Just made it. I took it to 229 degrees F. I used pink salt and it is lovely. It is to go over your pumpkin cheesecake recipe for a party this afternoon. Made the cheesecake yesterday. Thanks so much
You are right….it is just the right amount of salt in the caramel
You’re very welcome, Gale! So glad you loved the recipe.
What’s the shelf life on this caramel sauce?
I would love to make this as christmas gifts
They’re great idea as Christmas Gifts! The sauce should be refrigerated in an airtight container and it’s good for 2 weeks.
Caramel sauce keeps in the fridge for a very very long time. If it crystalizes, she tells you how to fix it. I doubt that you will have it that long, because it is so so good
Goes great with popcorn! Will make again soon thank you!
Yum! This would be amazing on popcorn.
Was very very delicious we put it on our popcorn and it was soooo good!
And also wanted you to know how much I love that your a Christian because so am I (and my family) and im also one of FIVE girls (I’m the oldest) and I’ve gotten to be a better baker with a lot of your recipes and I’m only thirteen and I can do a lot of kinda hard recipes so thank you for the amazing recipes!
This is a butterscotch, not caramel. I made this recipe more than once. The first time it came out grainy. I had to look up how to try and fix it. I tried again, and used low temperature and layered the ingredients. The butterscotch came out much better. The directions need to be a bit more specific. I found a better recipe that I will use from now on.
Hi Katie, I’m sorry to hear that it didn’t work out as expected. Check out the sections in the post titled: “What Causes Caramel Sauce to be Grainy?” and also “To Fix a Grainy Caramel Sauce” which should help.
I have made it and it came out wonderful. I cooked it very slowly, stirring carefully not to get it up the sides of the pot. If it does go up the sides a little, wipe the inside of the pot where the sugar is dried with a wet pastry brush. This is a very good recipe….you just need to go slowly. I stopped at 229 degrees. Remember, it gets thicker when it cools. If you go higher, like 245, it will be a stiff caramel.
This was so so easy to make and it came out perfect. I doubled the recipe and ended up with 3 cups total. I drizzled this over my pecan pie lasagna, made a chocolate poke pie cake and added some to the buttercream frosting, made coffee creamer and gifted some to my neighbor who is still raving about it. Thanks so much.
You’re very welcome. I’m so glad you enjoyed it.