Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce

A gorgeous amber-colored Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce is infused with a pop of sea salt and poised to complement any of your Fall desserts or baked goods. This easy homemade recipe is rich and buttery in texture with a velvety smoothness that coats your tongue and sends happiness to your tastebuds.

Just like pumpkin, I start to crave this Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce when Fall rolls around. There’s such a comfort in drizzling it on my Pumpkin Layered Cake or over plain ole vanilla bean ice cream. How can you go wrong when you enhance a basic cream cheese icing for my Pumpkin Cake Roll or simply dip apple wedges in the messy caramel dripped jar? If I really want to warm myself up on a chilly October evening, I will add it to my Caramel Apple Hot Toddy cocktail. The possibilities are endless!

Why I love this Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce Recipe:

Homemade Caramel Sauce is considerably tastier than store-bought. Pretty much anything you make homemade is far superior to something out of a box or a jar off the grocery shelf. And I’m convinced, once you make this rich decadent sauce, you will never go back to using the purchased product. It’s that much better.

You can’t believe how easy this recipe is. There is NO constant stirring, NO complicated instructions, No lengthy-time demand. Making caramel is a little intimidating at first but once you’ve made it a few times, you’ll wonder why you haven’t done it time and again.

There are literally only four ingredients to this recipe. No need to run to the store with a long grocery list. Other than, maybe, heavy whipping cream, the other three items are found right there in your kitchen.

This sauce can be combined with an abundance of other recipes. This is an item you will want to have in your refrigerator on a continual basis. It enhances so many other foods. And literally, I’ve been known to stand at the counter and eat spoonfuls of it by itself.

What Kind of Pan should you use?

You’ll want to use a large heavy-bottomed pan. Thin pans distribute heat unevenly which in this case could cause the caramel to burn in certain spots.

Also, the pan should be large enough for an expansion of the ingredients through the cooking process. There’s a lot of bubbling and sputtering that takes place, especially when you add the heavy cream at the end.

What Kind of Sugar should be used for Caramel Sauce?

Make sure to use only white refined sugar, not brown or raw cane sugar. These other sugars contain impurities that inhibit the caramelization process. Refined sugar produces a smooth caramel sauce and helps prevent clumping and recrystallization while cooking. Always select sugar that is from the sugar cane or sugar beets when making caramel sauce.

How do you keep the sugar from crystalizing while cooking?

When cooking sugar, if you’re not careful, the sugar will clump and re-crystallize during the process. Here are a few tips to help prevent a ruined finished sauce.

• Make sure your pan and sugar are perfectly clean and free of any stray particles. This may seem a bit silly but if there are any other crumbs or specks the sugar will latch onto them and a solid mass will form and crystalize.
• There are two different processes, a dry process and a wet one, which in my opinion, choosing the later one gives greater control over how quickly and easily the sugar caramelizes. Therefore, this recipe follows the “wet process.”
  • The “dry process” begins with sugar only in a dry pan with no liquid. This takes a little more skill as the sugar can turn brown quickly causing the batch to burn and ruin the caramel.
  • The “wet process” incorporates water with the sugar while cooking. The water helps the sugar to melt more evenly and smoothly.
• Stir the sugar and water only until they are combined. Once you start cooking, DO NOT stir again until you add the cream. You will (like me) be tempted to stir the mixture while it is boiling but if you do, the agitation will cause the sugar to crystallize and become graining.

How long should the caramel cook?

Cook the sugar and water on medium-high. It takes between 12 and 15 minutes. Watch it like a hawk once the mixture starts turning brown because it can get out of control in just a few seconds and burn quite quickly. I let mine get just a tad bit darker than you see in the photo above because I like a deep amber color with a subtle burnt taste. Once the caramel turns that deep amber color, immediately remove it from the burner.

Should the Cream be warmed before adding to the caramel?

Yes! As soon as the pan is removed from the heat, add the cream and stir vigorously. It is important to warm the cream before stirring it in. You can do this while the sugar and water are cooking. Cold cream will cause the caramel to harden.

Once you add the cream, the caramel will sputter and foam up the sides of the pan. Keep stirring vigorously until it is all combined. Be careful because the mixture is extremely hot. Once the cream is stirred in, add the butter and sea salt and continue to stir until it is all combined. This caramel sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

Not only is this Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce “ahhhmazing” on anything it comes in contact with: ice cream, pumpkin cake, apple pie, cheesecake, etc. You name it, it goes with it.  Believe me, it is definitely liquid gold in a jar. You’ll think you’ve died and gone to heaven once you dip into it.

If you love homemade caramel, you will love these recipes that go with it:

Salted Caramel Layered Cake

Salted Caramel Pumpkin Cake Roll

Caramel Apple Hot Toddy

Caramel Drunken Apple Galette 

 

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