This easy caramel sauce recipe is to die for! It’s a classic homemade caramel recipe that you’ll make over and over again. I know because I’m doing it right now. Caramel sauce on all the things!
Looking for more caramel recipes? Try this Brown Sugar Caramel Sauce, or my easy Salted Caramel Recipe!
AN EASY HOMEMADE CARAMEL SAUCE RECIPE
You guys, it’s officially September. Can you believe it? Get ready for all things fall! I’m so excited for apples, pumpkin and all the awesome flavors of the holidays! Bring it.
And yet I CANNOT believe it’s already September! Where has the year gone?! I feel like the end of the year is fast approaching and I’m totally not ready. Baking-wise, I say let’s do this. Life-wise, however – slow down!
Whatever. I’ll drown my disbelief in a jar of this caramel sauce. It’s so darn good it eases the pain of time flying by.
Last year I shared this Easy Caramel Sauce made with brown sugar with you and this year I’m taking it up a notch! This caramel sauce has a lovely rich flavor to it. It takes a little more care in making, but is totally worth it.
How to Make Caramel
To start, you melt down the sugar. It’s a regular white sugar. It may seem intimidating, but it really shouldn’t be. Melt it over medium-high heat and just watch it, whisking it as it goes. It’ll start to clump together first, then you’ll notice it start to melt. That’s when it gets exciting! The whole melting process should take about 10 minutes, give or take.
The sugar should continue cooking until all the clumps are melted. Once they’re gone, stop whisking and allow the sugar to cook a little more. Keep a very close eye on it. The color will turn to a deeper amber color and you should notice a nutty aroma. It’ll happen quickly and as soon as it does, you want to remove it from the heat. If you let it go too long, it’ll burn. Pressure, I know. But once you notice it really start to turn darker, just take it off the heat.
At that point, you want to add the butter and whisk it in to the sugar. It’ll bubble up, but keep whisking. The butter seems to resist coming together completely, but it will.
Next add the heavy cream and again whisk until combined. There’ll be more bubbles, but then you’re done!
You can let it cool for about 15 minutes, or until it’s however thick you want it, then use it. Or pour it into a jar and store it in the fridge for a couple weeks. It’s easy to reheat and pour over pretty much anything. The recipe below makes about 1 1/2 cups of caramel sauce. I recommend going ahead and making it just to have on hand. It’s in a few upcoming recipes, so why not just have it ready. 🙂
Also, check out my new video showing you what the process looks like!
Read transcript
You might also like:
Caramel Apple Cheesecake Blondie Trifle
Caramel Apple Pecan Layer Cake
Caramel Apple Blondie Cheesecake
Caramel Apple Cookie Cups
Caramel Apple Trifles
Caramel Apple Layer Cake
Caramel Apple Dip
Be sure to check out my new Easy Salted Caramel Sauce too!
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Easy Homemade Caramel Sauce Recipe
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: About 1 1/2 Cups 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Stove
- Cuisine: American
Description
This easy caramel sauce recipe is to die for! It’s a classic homemade caramel recipe that you’ll make over and over again.
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 6 tbsp salted butter, cubed, room temperature
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream, room temperature
Instructions
Keywords: homemade caramel recipe, how to make caramel sauce, easy caramel recipe, best caramel sauce
Enjoy!
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Very clear instructions in the video! Thank you so much! ❤️
★★★★★
I would like to know can I use fresh cream or cooking cream if I don’t have any heavy cream?
Heavy cream has a higher amount of fat, so it’s going to be ideal. But you can certainly try another type of cream.
I agree, 8 mean it came together well, but it was very bitter
So I followed the recipe, but when I added the butter it got real hard on my whisk. Why
The butter was too cool and the caramel seized.
it has been said, the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. And I say, the way to a wife’s heart is through caramel! I whipped this up before the wife got home. I served it on Tillemooks vanilla bean ice cream and
she was in heaven! absolutely loves it! thank you so mich for such a simple recipe!
★★★★★
Thank you so much! This is the first caramel sauce recipe that has ever turned out for me. And it is delicious! Thank you for this wonderful recipe.
P.S. I love your “I love Jesus and naps” shirt!
★★★★★
Glad to hear it! And thank you!
I finally got my pan cleaned! Soaking in the hot water worked for me. I was really nervous about it. It was so hard and up the side of the pan about an inch.
Oh my Carmel!! 😱🤯🥰 This was my first attempt at Carmel and the video and instructions were so detailed and clear I aced it! It came out so good and it is the best caramel that I’ve ever tried in my life! 😋 Thank you so much for this recipe and the video was perfect explanation! yum yum yum my family is so happy!! 😊😊 Happy New Years Y’all, God Bless 2021!! 🙏🏻🙏🏼🙏🏽🙏🏾🙏🏿
★★★★★
Awesome! I’m so glad you liked it. Thank you!
I Made this recipe (easy caramel sauce) to use it with sticky buns. it was too thin, when I flipped the rolls over after baking the sauce ran all over. I think I should cook it a little longer–maybe 4 minutes or maybe add more cream. it tasted scrumptious. My wife is not able to do any more baking so this is my first experience at making caramel rolls.
This sauce is quite thin when warm. You’d probably want to reduce the liquid, not increase it.
I made this and it worked wonderfully for me. My only issue is that my sauce has an ever so slightly burnt flavor. Did I maybe cook the sugar a tad too long? Could I add vanilla to help fix this??
★★★★
Yes, the sugar was cooked a touch too long. Not sure if vanilla would help but you could try it.
That is dulce de leche. Similar but not the same taste. And it takes about 3 hours to cook in the can. Caramel takes roughly 10-15 min
My above comment was in response to someone else’s suggestion on using condensed milk
I made the recipe, followed the suggestion to substitute with evaporated milk; the flavor and color is there but it seems a bit liquidity… 🙁 I’m not sure where I went wrong… and suggestions?
★★★★★
I’m guessing the evaporated milk suggestion was from another comment? I don’t remember recommending that. You are going to get a different result with a different type of milk. Cream has a high fat content and it’s going to give you a thicker result. My guess is that’s where the problem is. But it also thickens quite a bit as it cools so maybe give it a chance to cool a bit and see if you’re happy with it then.
i made this and the directions were perfect. my only issue is that the end product tasted a bit “strong tasting” and lacked a little of the “caramel” flavour. consistency was perfect, Any suggestions as an “add in” after to get more of that carmely flavour?? thank you
★★★★
I’m not sure what you mean by “strong tasting”. If it was strong in flavor, I would think it should have plenty of caramel flavor and not need more. The caramel flavor comes from how long you cook the sugar before adding the butter and cream. The deeper the amber color, the deeper the flavor. You just don’t want to over cook it or it’ll taste a little burnt. There’s a fine line. There isn’t anything you can add after the fact. You’d just want to cook the sugar a touch longer. It can take a few times of making it to really get to know exactly the right amount of cooking it to push it as much as you can without burning it.
Absolutely DELICIOUS!!! Just keep stirring, stirring, stirring and you will win the prize! SO GOOD!!!
★★★★★
This recipe is pretty easy and soooo good! We use it in coffee drinks, desserts, and just dip apple slices in it… thanks for the amazing recipe! <3
★★★★★
So glad to hear that!
I didn’t have any issues with this recipe and WOW!!! This recipe knocked me off my feet. It is INCREDIBLE and tastes like it came straight out of the Werthers Original Factory. Everybody is getting a jar of this for Christmas!
So glad it was a hit!
★★★★★
I have tried this recipe and its DELICIOUS!
My only problem was that my whisk and sauce pan were clumped with hard, dried sugar so I put it in hot water and it worked pretty well.
★★★★★
Hey Lindsay, I am LOVING this caramel sauce, it was absolutely perfect!!! From all the recipes I have tried this one was absolutely Devine! Hope you enjoy my short poem about it (IM OBSESSED)!!!!
my love for you feels unreal,
from the sweet taste you leave on my tongue
to the smooth look of you in the jar
your caramel flavor leaves me in a daze
I will always need you
my sweet sweet caramel
anyway thank so so much for this a-m-a-z-i-n-g recipe 🙂
Lol! Great poem! Glad you enjoyed it!
PLEASE HELP!!!!!!! (see above)
my sugar is hard. even though it is on heat!!! how do i fix????
Easy and very delicious recipe! I too found that it got quite clumpy but I just kept whisking it, and once I added the cream I put it back on to the heat, whisked whisked whisked and it got there in the end. Beautiful smooth caramel sauce. I’ve made it to decorate a birthday cake tomorrow but will it last that long…. I mean I might eat it, dangerously delicious 🙂
I have seen different recipes for caramel but these instructions are by far the best! I have actually sent someone this recipe because she burnt her caramel following other instructions. This is my second time making this recipe and its awesome.
★★★★★
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!