Foolproof Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce (photos and video)

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This Foolproof Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce is made with just 5 basic ingredients and is perfect to pair with a wide variety of desserts. It is easy to make, silky smooth, thick and luscious with a perfect deep caramel flavor, and can be stored in the fridge for months!

Read the full blog post below for detailed notes, tips, tricks, photos and videos.

WHAT IS CARAMEL?

Pure caramel is essentially a form of sugar: it is a substance made by heating sugar until it melts and turns a rich golden-brown color. This process, called caramelization, changes the sugar’s flavor, giving it a nutty and slightly bittersweet taste. Depending on how long it’s cooked, it can range from light and mild to dark and intense.

Pure caramel re-solidifies once it cools down, become a hard, crunchy substance (which is what caramel apples are coated in, for example). However, it is often turned into different forms, like sauces or chewy candies, through the addition of other ingredients.

WHAT IS SALTED CARAMEL SAUCE?

A Caramel Sauce is made from pure caramel, but also includes 2 additional ingredients: butter and heavy cream. These ingredients introduce fat into caramel, which turns it from a runny liquid into a thicker, sauce like consistency. A caramel sauce remains liquid and saucy even when it cools down and does not harden or resolidify like pure caramel. Salt is typically added to caramel sauce to make it a “salted caramel sauce”, because it helps balance out the sweetness. Vanilla is often added for flavor as well.

WET VS DRY CARAMEL

There are 2 main methods to make caramel: wet and dry. Let’s take a quick look at each:

• Wet caramel: In a wet caramel, the sugar is mixed with a small amount of water and the mixture is heated for a long time until the water evaporates, leaving behind melted sugar (pure caramel). The addition of water helps the sugar heat more evenly. However, this method takes a long time, and has a higher risk of the sugar crystallizing if the mixture is heated too slow or too fast
• Dry caramel: In a dry caramel, no water is added and the sugar is heated directly in a pan until it has melted. This method is faster and easier in achieving a deeper, richer caramel without the sugar crystallizing. The only downside is that the sugar does require some stirring to heat and melt properly

I strongly prefer the dry caramel method and find it to be significantly more beginner friendly than the wet caramel method. Therefore, this foolproof homemade salted caramel sauce is made with the dry caramel method.

THREE BASIC RULES OF MAKING CARAMEL SAUCE

You may not believe me, but making caramel sauce at home is really straightforward. It comes down to three important rules that I want you to remember:

1. Cook low and slow

First and foremost, patience is your friend. Sugar is very temperamental and can easily and quickly burn if you turn away for a few seconds. To prevent this and ensure you have maximum control over your caramel sauce, use the smallest burner on your stove at the lowest flame. It will take time, but it is far less likely to have a burnt, crystallized or non-salvageable outcome.

2. Don’t add anything cold

Like I said, sugar is very temperamental. When it has caramelized, it is very, very hot. If you add anything cold to it, the sudden change in temperature will cause the sugar to seize up and solidify. It can sometimes still be saved, but it’s best not to make this mistake. So make sure your butter is softened at room temperature, and the heavy cream is warmed up.

3. Don’t give up too easily

Caramel is a lot more forgiving than you think! I’ve seen so many people discard their batches because they see some lumps of hardened sugar and think the caramel has crystallized and ruined. But I have found that more often than not, it can be fixed by just heating on very low flame. The lumps of sugar will melt and liquefy. Even if you add cream that’s too cold and causes the caramel to thicken up, slowly heating will usually fix it. The only mistake you can’t ever come back from is burnt caramel, which takes you back to rule number 1!

ADDITIONAL TIPS

A few more tips for you:

1. Use a light colored pan. Stainless steel is usually best, like my All Clad pan. This is because you will be able to see the color of the caramel sauce more easily, and know when it is done before it starts to burn
2. Use a wide bottomed pan. A wider pan will help spread the sugar in a thinner layer, which will help it melt more evenly throughout. You never want a very thick layer of sugar as it will be harder to get it all to melt evenly
3. Avoid adding water / moisture. So make sure your pan and utensils are perfectly dry
4. Use your sense of smell! A perfectly cooked caramel should have a deep, nutty, slightly bitter aroma. If you start to smell anything burning, though, you have a problem

STAGES OF MAKING CARAMEL WITH PHOTOS

The detailed recipe is provided in the recipe card at the bottom of this post, but let’s go over the stages of making caramel with photos so you can visualize everything.

Melting the sugar

You start by adding the sugar to a wide-bottomed, light colored pan and letting it heat up on low flame until it starts to melt:

Once it starts melting, slowly stir to encourage all the sugar to melt. This will start to become lumpy, but just keep going:

Eventually, the sugar will fully melt with no lumps remaining. Continue cooking and stirring until it reaches a deep golden color:

Adding the butter

Now, add the softened butter and whisk it in until it has melted. It will be slightly separated from the caramel, which is ok:

Adding the heavy cream

Now, add the warm heavy cream and whisk it in. The mixture will become very bubbly, but keep on stirring and eventually a smooth sauce will form:

Alongside, add in the salt and vanilla:

And that’s it! Now you just let the homemade salted caramel sauce cool down and it should thicken up nicely.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

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