This Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce needs only 4 Ingredients. Make your own caramel sauce for ice cream, cakes, pies, popcorn, apples, or whatever you like. Nothing artificial; just pure goodness.
Homemade Salted Caramel
Some people are natural caramel lovers. They were born with an affection for all things caramel.
I’m not one of those people. I never cared much for caramel sauce on anything. But then I tried it DIY style. It’s a complete game changer, this homemade salted caramel. This will open up a whole new world for those who don’t typically gobble up caramel. Store-bought jars do not even come close.
I’ve played around with various caramel sauces through the years, including the one we use on this Brown Sugar Caramel Pound Cake.
I’ve also made countless batches of yummy caramel popcorn that I always give away so we don’t gobble it all up ourselves in one sitting.
Everything is better with Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce: ice cream, cake, pie, popcorn, apples… you name it. Whatever you want, this caramel sauce has you covered.
How to Make Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce:
It’s super easy to make, but it definitely helps to watch this video before starting up. 👆🏽
4 Ingredients Only
You only need four things. You probably already have these 4 things in your kitchen right now.
Sugar. Butter. Cream. Salt.
Flaky sea salt is best here, but you can use coarse kosher salt in a pinch. Do not use regular table salt, as table salt measures differently by volume, and would be way too salty. Stick with coarse, flaky salt.
A candy thermometer or other kitchen thermometer will be important, too. It allows you to be precise and avoid the accidental burnt caramel that nobody’s a fan of. If you’ve never worked with one before, it’s super easy. Simply insert it into the pot while cooking to get an accurate reading. A candy thermometer is a super handy tool to have in your kitchen beyond caramel.
Your gold caramel will come together rather quickly, so before you know it, you’ll have a beautiful jar of Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce. For yourself or for gifting. These are ridiculously awesome food gifts that keep really well in the fridge.
Way better than anything store bought
This salted caramel sauce is irresistible. So irresistible that you’ll be tempted to taste it immediately. But hold on. You’ll burn your tongue and then your taste buds will be mad at you. Keep in mind that just-melted sugar is hot, so definitely let it cool before doing the highly anticipated taste test.
The golden, delicious-smelling caramel sauce will wow your taste buds, making you wonder where its been all your life. One taste and you’ll never go back to store-bought again.
Pro tip: be prepared for all the eager people in your house coming at you with spoons in hand. This is especially true of little hands.
Drizzle this wondrous caramel over whatever you desire. Jar the rest and chill. Caramel can last a long time when kept in fridge, but chances are it’ll be gone before you know it.
Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce (4-Ingredient)
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 10 mins
- Total Time: 15 mins
- Yield: about 1 1/2 cups 1x
- Category: dessert
Description
This Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce needs only 4 Ingredients. Make your own caramel sauce for ice cream, cakes, pies, popcorn, apples…let your imagination soar. Nothing artificial; just pure goodness.
Ingredients
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 6 TB unsalted butter, sliced into 1-inch pieces and softened
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 2 tsp flaky sea salt
Instructions
- In a heavy saucepan, place sugar in an even layer. Heat sugar over medium-high heat, whisking frequently. Once sugar starts melting down, whisk continuously until all the clumps are melted into liquid (this can happen quickly, so watch carefully that the sugar doesn’t burn. See video in original article for visual.)
- Immediately turn heat down to medium and insert candy thermometer into the melted sugar; continue stirring until liquid turns reddish-brown in color — the minute your thermometer reaches 350F, carefully add all the butter — caramel will bubble up, so be careful.
- Continue to whisk until fully melted. Once mixture is smooth, immediately remove pan from heat. Carefully pour in the cream and whisk until a smooth thick sauce forms. Whisk in the flaky salt. Let sauce cool to almost-room temp before drizzling over dessert. Store leftover sauce in airtight glass container in fridge for future use.
Notes
If you can’t find flaky sea salt, you can use coarse kosher salt in a pinch.
Caramel sauce can be kept in an airtight glass jar in fridge for up to a month. Great for gift-giving, too.
Chilled caramel sauce may need slight reheating in microwave before drizzling.
Kitchen Essentials:
For Your Sweet Tooth:
4. Salted Caramel Kiss Cookies
YES…I love DIY. And I love Caramel. I can not wait to try this out. It looks simple enough my oldest children can try it themselves. Can not wait until our family cookie making day during the holiday season I’m so drizzling this over some kiss cookies.
This sauce can really perk up any dessert you pour it on. I think it would taste awesome. This homemade way you can fit the taste to your liking.
Homemade salted caramel sauce sounds really good to me. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water. I really have to try this this sauce one day.
Caramel is something I always forget about during the fall season! This would be so good on some apple strudel muffins or pancakes!
This looks amazing! I just made caramel apples today, so I’m definitely in the caramel mood. I’d love some salted caramel sauce on ice cream!
Omg…. i m so tempted and salted caramel is my weakness. Going to try to make them this weekend.
Gorgeous photos! You got a new food blogger friend in me!
This is also great for serving my friends coffee & mocha drinks in the house! Love that you’ve showed how easy to do it, thanks!
I never thought making your own salted caramel was this simple! It is for sure way better than the store bought because who even wants to eat all those additives? I hope no one. I’m thinking this sauce on top of vanilla ice cream! YUMMMM…
This homemade salted caramel sauce looks so tasty. I will definitely try to do this next time. This will be perfect to partner in ice cream and to pancakes.
What a perfect simple recipe! What are some good uses for carmel sauce?
Hi, I tried this today and I get a burnt taste. Any suggestions on how I could correct it? Thanks.
Hi, Mel! Most likely, it was cooked too long. Be sure to stir continuously, use candy thermometer to check for 350F, and remove from heat the minute butter is melted. Hope you can try it again, as it’s genuinely sooo much better than store bought caramel 🙂 Thanks for coming over today! 🙂
Hello,
Can we use this caramel sauce as a drip for cake?
Oh, absolutely; it would be delicious 🙂
Tried this caramel sauce out this evening after making this website’s recipe of pecan sandies (gonna dip those babies in it). First time was not so good. Ended up with a dark brown sauce that had a strong burn to it (kinda creme bruleé but more intense). Threw it out and started from the beginning, this time with each level of heat reduced by about a third. So I started melting the sugar on a small burner on lower-medium heat, and then proceeded to turn it down to low once it reached 350. That second sauce came out lovely; although for whatever reason the butter took longer to integrate into the melted sugar this time. I believe the molten sugar had hardened enough where the butter wouldn’t mix. I ended up turning up the heat again to remelt the sugar so the butter would actually incorporate. The problem with the first batch was that, for my range, the heat levels listed were far too high; by the time I put the thermometer in the pot, it was already close to 350. So I knocked off two stars because I feel the heat levels are far too high for stronger gas burners (probably ok for electric though). But it is a good recipe when it doesn’t cook to quickly. Thanks and now to dunk some cookies in it!
★★★
Thanks, Kevin. Glad you were able to try it again with good results. My 6th grader has been making this caramel non-stop lately…at least he’s eating plenty of apples 🙂 🙂
this is a super easy recipe. always love making homemade sauce. it just hits differently!
This is so much easier than I thought. Not sure why I never thought to just make it at home instead of getting those store bought ones. This way I can control how sweet it is because some of the ones I’ve tried is sickly sweet and not really cup of tea.
I made this salted caramel sauce for my cheesecake and it was the perfect pairing. I’ll roast some apples and this sauce willl be perfect with them. Evryone loved how creamy the sauce was and perfeclt seasoned with the flaky sea salt
★★★★★
Fantastic, Eileen! 🙂 🙂
This is absolutely delicious! It’s so easy to make and turned out perfect even though I didn’t have flaky sea salt. I used pink himalayan. Thanks for the great recipe!
★★★★★
It looks incredibly delicious. I wish this were in front of me. My son will love this. Did I mention he’s a fan of caramels?!
★★★★★
I’m 100% a natural caramel lover, I think it’s part of my DNA haha! And this salted version has me drooling and coming up with a million ways to use it. Thanks for this recipe, I can’t wait to have a large jar in my fridge!
★★★★★
I am one of those caramel people and this looks amazing! I love how few ingredients it has and like you said, nothing artificial. A must-make! Perfect for fall.
You are so right about the candy thermometer. I once tried it without one and it was a disaster! It’s been so long. I need to try again!
I have been thinking about making caramel sauce at home and was looking up for its recipe. This is such a great and delicious recipe. Love all the ingredients in there.
★★★★★
WOWIE you had me at salted caramel! And only 4 ingredients?! Amazing! Can’t wait to make this :)!