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This thick and rich caramel sauce is a delicious addition to all of your favorite desserts. Serve it over ice cream, pie, brownies, or anything else you want to smother in caramel goodness.
Put this sauce on Apple crisp, Apple Cake, and Salted Caramel Ice Cream
In my opinion, just about anything tastes better when it is covered in caramel. This sauce recipe is one I have made for years. It can easily be turned into Salted Caramel Sauce by adding a teaspoon of coarse French sea salt! Either way, it is delicious.
The last time I made the caramel sauce, I split the batch in half and added salt to half. Jim came home from work and tasted the one with salt. He isn’t quite as up on the latest food trends and he was wondering how he was going to tell me that I put too much salt in the caramel!
How to Make Caramel Sauce
- Having a good heavy pan is important. It will help prevent the caramel from burning.
- Be sure to stir often.
- Use a candy thermometer to make sure you have the right temperature. When you reheat the sauce do not let it come to a boil. If it boils too much the sauce will get grainy and harden when you put it on ice cream or anything cold.
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Caramel Sauce Recipe
Caramel Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 C brown sugar
- 1/4 C light corn syrup
- 1/3 C whipping cream
- 3 Tbsp butter
- 1 tsp vanilla
- For salted caramel use 1/2 – 1 tsp coarse sea salt. Add salt to desired saltiness.
Instructions
- Cook sugar, syrup and whip cream over medium heat for 5-6 minutes or until it reaches 230 degrees on a candy thermometer.
- Stir in butter and vanilla.
- Serve warm.
- Refrigerate.
- When reheating do not allow it to boil or it will get grainy and harden when put on ice cream.
Nutrition Facts:
Originally posted Oct. 4, 2011
Lorilee says
I adore caramel. Will have to try the recipe!
Blessings,
Lorilee
Robyn Neville says
mmmm….I love caramel. I had never thought of making it from scratch, thanks!
Leigh Anne says
It’s easy and yummy!
Heather says
Yum, yum. Love the salted caramel trend. In fact, I made a delicious chocolate cake with salted caramel frosting on the weekend. It was amazing. Still nibbling away and savouring every bite.
Jessica says
Hi, Leigh Ann.
I love your blog and am anxious to try some of your recipes. I do have a question on this recipe. Once made, how long is the Caramel Sauce good? One week? Two weeks? And how much does it yield? Thanks!
Leigh Anne says
It has never lasted longer than a week in the refrigerator at our house because we eat it all but I think I would pop it into the freezer after a week or two so just to be sure although I have had store bought caramel sauce last for several months in refrigerator before so you would probably be safe with longer. The recipe yields about a 1 1/2 cups of sauce.
Aline says
Hi!
I´ll start by saying I love your blog! I have no idea how I got here but now I come every day! 🙂
Dulce de Leite (doce de leite here in brazil) is originally made only with milk and sugar, in a huge pot where you stir for hours. After it evaporates you´re left with the doce de leite. The longer you stir the harder it gets (my grandmother makes it in candy bite size little squares – heavenly!). Here the distinction between doce de leite and caramel is that caramel is sugar based (sometimes only sugar) and doce le leite is milk based.
This post made me hungry for my grandmother’s doce de leite…..
🙂