This Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce needs only 4 Ingredients. Make your own caramel sauce for ice cream, cakes, pies, popcorn, or apples. Perfect for gifting.
In a deep 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; gently stir until liquid turns reddish-brown in color -- the minute your thermometer reaches 350F, slowly add the butter -- caramel will bubble up, so be careful.
Continue to gently stir until fully melted; try not to let mixture splash up the sides of the pan. 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.