Homemade Caramel Recipe
Delicious homemade caramel sauce recipe made with only 4 ingredients. It's sweet, salty, and irrisistable, perfect for drizzling over ice cream and all kinds of desserts or simply eating by the spoonful!
Equipment
- heavy bottom stainless steel pot with taller sides
- silicone whisk, metal whisk, heavy duty silicone spatula, wood spoon (you only need one of these)
- mason jars or glass airtight container for storage
- stove
Ingredients
- 2 cups pure cane granulated sugar
- ¾ cup unsalted butter (softened at room temperature, (1½ sticks))
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream (room temperature)
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Add pure cane granulated sugar in a heavy bottomed stainless steel sauce pot with taller sides on medium heat. Once sugar begins to melt, you'll need to start frequently stirring.Tip: A stainless steel pot can help you see the sugar change color better, which can be especially helpful for beginners.
- Using a metal whisk, silicone whisk, or wooden spoon, stir the sugar around every 20-30 seconds. It will begin to clump up, crystallize, and eventually melt. This is when you need patience because it can take 10 minutes or so to fully melt and break down the sugar clumps. Avoid the urge to turn up the heat!
- Once the sugar melts more, you'll need to stir more frequently every 10 seconds or so until all of the sugar crystals dissolve. Stirring helps to avoid burning - very important! Once all of the sugar is melted, it will turn to a light amber color quickly. This is what it should look like at this point.
- Remove from the heat and carefully add in the cubed room temperature butter. Mix more vigorously and be careful. The caramel will bubble up rapidly and sizzle until the butter is completely melted and mixed in. At first, it might seem like it's not mixing well, but just keep at it and the mixture will come together.
- Carefully and slowly pour in room temperature heavy whipping cream in a steady stream, all while mixing continuously. Be careful. The caramel will boil up rapidly as soon as the cream hits because of the varying temperatures! (This is why you want to use a taller pot).
- Add in the salt and mix. At this point you can decide if you want the caramel to be thicker sticky like caramel or if you want a more fluid caramel sauce perfect for drizzling over your favorite desserts.Option #1.) Should you want the perfect drizzling caramel sauce, stop here and transfer caramel in to a jar to cool slightly before using. Caramel sauce will thicken up as it cools down in temperature. I recommend going this route for most uses of caramel. Option #2.) If you want a caramel that will result in a thicker tackier/stickier consistency, you'll want to turn the stove back on low medium heat and allow the caramel to lightly boil for an extra minute or two - stirring continuously. Allowing the caramel to cook a little bit longer bringing it higher in temperature (around 220 degrees Fahrenheit) will create a thicker caramel as it cools. Please note that it does not thicken immediately while cooking - this just produces a thicker sticky caramel as the end result. Turn off the stove and remove from the heat. Transfer to jars to cool.
- Once completely cool, store in the refrigerator in an airtight container. I love to use mason jars. Caramel does solidify as it cools, so you will need to heat it up again when you're ready to use it. Enjoy!
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
