Rich and silky salted caramel sauce made even better by the addition of nutty browned butter! This simple recipe requires only 4 simple ingredients, and is perfect drizzled all over your favorite desserts, or eaten by the spoonful.
This is one of my Pantry/Kitchen Basics recipes I know you’ll want to keep on hand! These recipes are great homemade alternatives to store-bought items.
I always thought I wasn’t a huge caramel fan, but as it turns out, I’m just not a fan of the sauce you can buy in the store.
Once I started making caramel sauce at home, I was hooked. I mean, eating it off a spoon type of hooked!
If you’ve never made caramel at home before, I promise, it’s not incredibly difficult… it just takes some patience and faith. And of course, like all skills, you may need to practice a bit before you’re a pro!
There are two main methods for making a homemade caramel sauce; the dry method, and the wet method.
While this recipe has been on the website since 2016, it also happens to be a version of a “dry” method.
There are pros and cons to both methods, and a lot of it comes down to personal preference. I’ll be sharing a “wet” caramel sauce in a couple of days, so you’ll have to give them both a try and see which you like best!
How to make salted caramel sauce?
This is just an overview; the full ingredients and directions are in the recipe card toward the bottom of this post.
- Brown the butter. This is a great kitchen skill to have; just make sure you don’t walk away while it’s cooking. Butter solids can go from beautifully golden to burnt pretty quickly.
- Melt the sugar. Since this is a dry caramel method, there’s no liquid added to the pan; just sugar. Stir often until all the clumps of sugar are melted and it’s a rich golden/amber color.
- Stir in butter. This is best done slowly, whisking as you pour.
- Stir in heavy cream. This is the part where things get really exciting. The mixture will foam up like crazy, but just keep whisking and it’ll settle into a glossy sauce.
- Stir in salt. I like to use sea salt for this.
Helpful Tip!
When making caramel sauce, and browning butter, I highly recommend using a heavy bottomed stainless steel saucepan. The lighter color allows you to be able to see the color of the butter solids and sugar, and the heavy bottom distributes the heat evenly, so you don’t have hot spots and burn the butter or sugar.
Variations of this recipe
- Unsalted – while I love salted caramel, I know not everyone does… so feel free to leave out the salt if you’d like.
- Liquor – try adding a couple of tablespoons of your favorite liquor (bourbon, whiskey, rum, and apple brandy are my favorites!).
- Spices – adding a cinnamon stick or two to the sugar as it melts will add a nice little kick of flavor.
- Chocolate – once the caramel is made, try stirring some chopped chocolate into the sauce!
- Citrus – if you want something a little different, try adding some orange zest to the caramel (at the end)… it adds a subtle, yet yummy flavor.
FAQ’s
You can, but I believe that would technically be more of a butterscotch sauce. Equally delicious, but with a little bit of a different flavor.
There are two main ways we prevent seizing in this recipe. Heating the cream up a bit (so it’s not cold at all), and adding the cream slowly while whisking the entire time it’s added. You also want to make sure you have the pan off the heat when you add the cream.
Making caramel sauce ahead of time
The good news is, homemade caramel sauce has long shelf life!
Feel free to make this caramel completely ahead of time, then cool and refrigerate it in an airtight container.
Freezing
This sauce can also be frozen! Just transferred to cooled caramel to a freezer-safe container and freeze for up to 3-6 months.
Thaw in the refrigerator, warm it back up, and use as desired!
Storage
Caramel sauce should be refrigerated in an airtight container and enjoyed within 2-4 weeks.
Since it’s cold, you may want to microwave it a bit to loosen up the sauce.
Tips for a perfect browned butter caramel sauce!
Making caramel from scratch can be intimidating, but I promise, you can do this. Let’s break it down:
- The pan – I highly recommend using a stainless steel or lighter colored pan for the butter and the caramel. Those processes rely on visual cues, aka the color, and it can be difficult to see that in a darker pan. You also want a saucepan with high sides to prevent bubbling over.
- The butter – browning butter can be a little bit of a longer process, and you can’t really walk away and let it do it’s thing… it needs some babysitting. If you’ve never browned butter before this is a great tutorial.
- The sugar – at first it will look like nothing is happening when the sugar is cooking. You may start to question whether you’re doing it right (you are), but then you’ll start to see small wet clumps that gradually become wetter and wetter.
- The heat – it takes a bit of time for the sugar to be completely melted and liquid, so don’t be afraid to adjust the heat on your burner as needed. If you notice it getting super dark before things are mostly dissolved, turn the heat down and pull the pan off the heat for a minute, then add it back to the low heat.
- The patience – I know it’s hard to wait, because you want to move ahead and have a great caramel sauce, but don’t skip waiting for the sugar to completely melt though… you want the sauce to be nice and smooth, not grainy.
- The bubbling – when you add the heavy cream, the caramel will foam and bubble up like some crazy science experiment gone horribly wrong… but don’t worry, it’s supposed to do that! That’s why you need a saucepan with high sides – you don’t want that caramel sauce bubbling over on your stovetop.
- The clump/seize – if you happen to have some clumps of hard caramel, don’t panic. Most of the time, that can be fixed by whisking steadily over a low heat, and it’ll melt away into a rich sauce.
- The lumps – occasionally, especially if you’re new to making caramel, there can be some small, hard lumps of sugar that just won’t melt. You can pour the caramel sauce through a strainer or mesh sieve to remove those, or if they don’t bother you, leave them in.
- The persistence – making homemade caramel sauce can take some time to perfect, even for professional pastry chefs, so don’t worry if it isn’t perfect the very first time you try. Practice makes perfect, and it means you get to have even more caramel sauce 😉
Recipes to Serve with Salted Caramel Sauce:
My Favorite Stainless Saucepan!
I know this is an expensive brand, but I wanted to be honest with you about the pan I use to make caramel, and this All-Clad pan is it. You can certainly use any brand of saucepan you’d like, just make sure it has a heavy bottom (look for reviews mentioning even heat distribution) and high sides.
Did you make this? Be sure to leave a review below and tag me @the_chunky_chef on Facebook and Instagram!
Ingredients
- 6 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup heavy cream + 2-3 Tbsp warmed up, or at the very least, room temperature
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
Instructions
Prepare
- You'll need a high-sided heavy bottomed saucepan for this recipe. Preferably one that is stainless or light in color, so you can use visual cues (the color) to determine doneness of the butter and caramel.
Brown the butter
- Add butter to saucepan and heat on MED-LOW.
- The butter will melt, foam up, then the foam will start to go away. Whisk or swirl the pan frequently as it cooks.
- Brown flecks (the butter solids) will start to form at the bottom. Once they're golden brown (not dark brown or black), and the butter smells nutty, immediately remove pan from the heat.
- Pour butter into small bowl and set aside to cool.
- Wash out and dry the saucepan.
Melt the sugar
- Add sugar to the saucepan and heat over MED-LOW heat, and stir often with a rubber spatula.
- After several minutes, the sugar will start to melt into a whiteish, then light brown liquid and will look clumpy. More and more clumps will appear, then they will start to melt into a brown liquid. Remember, stir often, breaking up clumps if needed.
- Make sure all the clumps of sugar have melted before moving on to the next step.
Make the caramel sauce
- Pour the browned butter in slowly, whisking as you pour.
- Turn off the burner and remove pan from heat. Add the cream slowly, while whisking continuously.
- It will foam and bubble up like crazy, but keep whisking and it will settle down.
- The bubbling will go down and become a glossy sauce.
- Turn the burner back on to simmer for 1-3 minutes on LOW heat, whisking often.
- Sauce will thicken as it cools, so if it looks thin, just give it time to cool some.
- Once it cools for a little bit, stir in the salt.
Serve
- Use right away or store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 2-4 weeks.
Want to save this recipe for later? Click the heart in the bottom right corner to save to your own recipe box!
Chef Tips
- Recipe makes approximately 1.5 cups, which you can portion into as many servings as you’d like.
- As always, all stove burners will heat differently, and all pans will distribute heat differently. Please use your best judgement and visual cues to decide what’s best.
- If you notice the sugar starting to burn and get very dark while the sugar is still starting to melt, pull the pan off the heat for a minute while stirring. Turn down the heat and continue.
- Warming up the cream is essential to making sure the caramel sauce doesn’t clump into a huge lump on the end of your whisk.
Nutrition Disclaimer
The Chunky Chef is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories can vary quite a bit depending on which brands were used.
Cheryl Di Martino says
Made your apple crisp and salted caramel sauce
Wonderful!!!
Karen says
I did everything accordingly. Each step looked correct, but I ended up making a large chunk of toffee! ( which I make every Christmas!)
I never got the smooth and glossy before the cream. Just a large chunk of hard caramel candy!
Hard crack stage!
The Chunky Chef says
Oh no 🙁 Next week I’ll be updating the photos in this post to reflect what it should look like at each stage, as well as sharing a “wet” caramel sauce that’s a bit easier.
Sophie DogsLoveSophie says
You’re right… you can’t stop eating it!! Your how to is excellent. Mine turned out perfectly. Silky creamy goodness!! Yumilicious. Definitely using this recipe at xmas time. I envision it with chocolate!!
I loved the apple crisp which is how I discovered this gem! 😁
Debbie says
I made this recipe for dessert tonight and it was excellent. I did accidentally use 1 cup of flour instead of 3/4 but no one could tell the difference. And yes, I had ice cream on top, yum. Thank you.
Bev Smith says
I made the apple crisp and the carmel sauce; however, about half my carmel got hard but I was able to get half in a wonderful sauce!! What happened?!?
The Chunky Chef says
Was the heavy cream closer to room temperature? The only time I’ve ever had the sauce harden and clump up is when the cream was cooler.
Eileen says
Hello! Thank you for the recipe!!
Do you think it could work with lactose free cream? Or a plant based cream?! I have a couple of lactose intolerant members of the fam, but would still love to make it for all.
Thank you!!
The Chunky Chef says
You’re welcome! Unfortunately I’ve not tested this recipe with lactose-free or plant-based dairy, so I cant say for certain how well that would work.
Cheri Thrasher says
My main confusion is when do I add the browned butter? Your recipe mentions making the browned butter and then making the melted sugar adding cream, etc. it doesn’t say when to add the butter? Do I mix the butter into the cream? Could I use the browned butter to make whole milk into cream? Do I mix the butter into the caramel after the cream has gone in?
Cheri thrasher says
Oh, I found the step now. It was hiding right under an advertisement. I swear I read the recipe at least 4 times and couldn’t find it. Then it was there all of a sudden lol
Desi says
I made this with the apple crisp recipe you posted and omg!! My picky boyfriend loved it, and I’m head over heels! Thanks for sharing 😸
Phil says
When I added the cream the caramel got thick and sticky. I turned the heat down and continued to stir for probably 10 min until it was nice and smooth. Added a little salt stirred some more and poured it in a jar. It tasted great. Next time warm the cream.
Kellie says
Amazing! I followed you directions exactly and it turned out perfect. I was tempted to turn up the heat, because patience is not my virtue, but stayed true to what you wrote, and it turned out perfectly. Thank you for being so detailed! It went perfectly with your old fashioned apple crisp and vanilla bean ice cream.
Rosemary says
The level of detail in describing how to brown butter, melt sugar, and the worn of cream allowed me to make the perfect caramel sauce! I have it 4 stars because I think the taste is a little off.
Stacey says
It looked great , but tasted kinda burnt , any suggestions
The Chunky Chef says
It sounds like the browned butter was cooked just a little bit too long 🙂
Rosemary says
Mine was the same… yet my butter did not get overcooked….I took it off heat the minute it turned golden.. perhaps we should remove it before it turns golden .
Chris says
Oh, the butter smelled so good? The sugar melted but went dark brown so quickly!
I continued whisking the cream in and out blended nicely.
I got a nice jar of Carmel that tastes exactly like a blackened marshmallow.🙁
I think I had the pan too hot with the sugar. 🤔
Should the sugar be in the pan as you warm it up?
The Chunky Chef says
Oh no 🙁 It does sound like you had the burner up a bit high, or maybe your saucepan has a thinner bottom (which allows the heat to be stronger, but a bit unpredictable). The sugar should be in the pan, but since medium heat was too strong, I would cook it on low just to be safe.
Sheri Sanders says
I was wondering what the little dark specs were in the pictures of your Carmel sauce?
The Chunky Chef says
That’s the browned butter 🙂
Angel says
Outstanding! I’ve never made caramel before, and everyone went CRAZY for this! The apple crisp with the caramel and a scoop of vanilla ice cream is now my family’s absolute favorite!
Tammy says
This is absolutely delicious! I made it to drizzle over your apple crisp recipe the first time. My family loved it and ask me to make it all the time now. What I learned was to be patient and take your time stirring the sauce. The first time it was slightly grainy, so now I stir until I am sure it is absolutely smooth, (taste test for texture) and it is perfect. Thank you so much for this yummy recipe!
Christine says
When I added the cream, the butter and sugar solidified into a hard clump. What happened?
The Chunky Chef says
Oh no 🙁 My first thought is that maybe the heat was still up too high, did you lower it all the way down to low? You also have to continuously whisk as you’re adding the cream, otherwise it can clump up on you. I’m testing an easier method for making caramel sauce, so stay tuned!
Karen says
Please DO come up with an easier (wet?) alternative for the caramel sauce!
My gets hard before I can I get to whisk in the cream.
Two attempts failed!
The Chunky Chef says
It’s on the editorial calendar for next week 😉
Andi says
It also stuck with me keeping a close eye- do not fret keep mixing it will smooth out and be perfect! Great recipe! I used whole milk because I didn’t have cream it’s delicious!!
Jaye says
I made this today and also experienced the sugar/butter mixture clump rock solid within seconds. That got me to thinking that using a candy thermometer may help to manage temperature. I feel like I got the sugar to hard ball stage and was past the point of no return. Would this help and if so, what temp should I bring the sugar up to? As an aside, the hard caramels were delicious once I broke up the glob. :-). Thank you for any insight you can share. I will keep trying.
The Chunky Chef says
Oh no, was your heavy cream fully at room temperature or warmed? If you use cold cream it will lead to that clumping a lot of the time. It could also be that the temperature was a bit too hot. Since all stovetops cook a little differently, and all pans are a bit different (thin bottom vs thick bottom etc), it’s hard to say exactly what happened. A candy thermometer surely couldn’t hurt though 🙂
Margaret Satchwell says
Hi there. I live in Nicaragua and we do not have heavy cream here. It’s lighter than light and you can rarely make it whip well. Any other ideas for the cream bit. Would it work with skinny cream. Or maybe mascarpone which we do have here as an import from USA ? Help please. Love salted caramel sauce and would love to
Make some. Help please
The Chunky Chef says
Hello! Hmm, I’m not familiar with the types of creams you might have in Nicaragua, so I can’t speak with any certainty, but I found this article that talks about different types of cream. I’m guessing your skinny cream is probably similar to light or single cream, in which case I think that would work 🙂 https://whatscookingamerica.net/sauces_condiments/creamdefinitions.htm
Mari Rose says
Everyone in my household loved it, topped with the caramel sauce! Delizioso! Thank you for sharing the recipes.
Jon W Urwiler says
I put this sauce over ice cream and your Apple crisp receipe.
Outstanding ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Noni says
Delish!!!!