Easy Homemade Caramel Sauce Recipe (2024)

How to make an easy homemade caramel sauce with cream and butter, no corn syrup. Perfect caramel sauce for apples or other dessert toppings.

Caramel Sauce is a rich and creamy smooth recipe that no household should be without during the fall. This incredibly easy recipe uses only 3 ingredients and will make the best caramel sauce that you’ve ever had.

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Easy Homemade Caramel Sauce

I LOVE caramel dip in the fall for my apples! What I don’t love are the high prices of the store version and the added corn syrup and other ickies.

This recipe is so good. The butter really brings out the caramel flavor and gives it the richness that a wonderful caramel sauce deserves. I also like that this recipe is so easy to make. A few minutes on the stove and you have a wonderful fall treat.

Ingredients for Easy Homemade Caramel Sauce Recipe

Butter. You can use salted or unsalted; it’s your preference based on taste. I usually have salted on hand, so that’s what we use in this recipe to make a salted caramel sauce.
Heavy Cream. You can use more or less of this, depending on how thick or thin you want your sauce to be. Any extra cream can be frozen for future recipes.
Brown Sugar. If you have raw sugar, you can use that in place of the brown sugar, but the most important thing is that you have a sugar that will dissolve into the mixture. If it doesn’t, you will have a gritty mess. You can use light brown sugar or dark brown sugar, whichever you have.

You could also add in a bit of vanilla extract or a pinch of sea salt for variations on the flavor of the basic recipe.

What does adding butter to caramel do?

Butter not only helps develop the rich flavor in this caramel recipe but also helps ensure that your caramel will stay nice and soft and will not harden. Since we are making a sauce or dip here, we don’t want to make hard caramel.

What are the two types of caramel?

A dry caramel is made from sugar and water. A wet caramel is made from butter, and cream, and other ingredients. This recipe is for a wet caramel.

Can I use oil instead of butter in caramel sauce?

You can if you need to but be aware that it will change the flavor. If you absolutely need to use oil instead of butter, be sure and use something mild flavored and not something like extra virgin olive oil.

What to Serve with Homemade Caramel Sauce

Apple Slices. Just use it as a dip for apples (or crisp pears or other fall fruit!) and you will have a delicious snack!
Ice Cream. This makes a wonderful ice cream topping although you might want to add a bit more cream to make it thinner for that purpose.
Cake. This caramel sauce makes a wonderful drizzle for topping a cake or bars.
Cheesecake. Try this as a drizzle over a New York Cheesecake or on my Pumpkin Turtle Cheesecake.
Apple Pie. Use as a drizzle over apple pie or add inside the filling for a Caramel Apple Pie!

Why Make Homemade Caramel Sauce?

This homemade Caramel Sauce uses just 3 ingredients. It’s incredibly fresh and delicious tasting and only takes a few minutes to make. This recipe costs about $1.03 to make.

Smucker’s Caramel sauce contains 8 ingredients (the first one being corn syrup) and costs $3.29 for a similar amount.

Step By Step Instructions for Making Easy Caramel Sauce

Combine all the ingredients on the stovetop in a small pot and heat on medium heat, stirring constantly with a whisk.

If you are going to use turbinado sugar (turbinado sugar is raw sugar) you will want to grind it up before you add it, otherwise, it will be slightly gritty.

Heat the ingredients together until they are at a smooth consistency.

Cook the mixture until it starts to boil, keep stirring constantly, and let it boil for 2 minutes before you remove it from the heat.

Make sure it gets up to about 200 degrees during the boiling time. You will need a Candy Thermometer to keep track of the temperature. Getting the caramel sauce up to the correct temp will help it get nice and thick and make a good thick caramel topping. If you do not get it to the correct temp it might still have sugar crystals in it and make the sauce gritty.

Add a pinch of salt for an extra burst of flavor.

Let it cool slightly before you serve. This amount makes about enough easy caramel dip for 2 or 3 apples.

Easy Homemade Caramel Sauce Recipe

How to make an easy homemade caramel sauce with only 3 ingredients.

CourseSnack

CuisineAmerican

KeywordEasy Homemade Caramel Sauce

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes

Total Time 10 minutes

Ingredients

1/4cupbutter
1/8 – 1/4cupheavy creamdepends on how thin you want your sauce to be
1/2cupbrown sugar

Instructions

Combine all the ingredients on the stovetop and heat on medium heat, stirring constantly.
If you are going to use turbinado sugar (turbinado sugar is raw sugar) you will want to grind it up before you add it, otherwise, it will be slightly gritty. As long as you get it up to temperature though this shouldn’t be an issue.
Cook the mixture until it starts to boil, keep stirring constantly and let it boil for 2 minutes before you remove from heat.
Make sure it gets up to about 200 degrees during the boiling time. You will need a Candy Thermometer to keep track of the temperature. Getting the caramel sauce up to the correct temp will help it get nice and thick and make a good topping.
Let it cool slightly before you serve. This amount makes about enough dip for 2 or 3 apples.

Nutrition Facts

Easy Homemade Caramel Sauce Recipe

Amount Per Serving

Calories 376Calories from Fat 234

% Daily Value*

Fat 26g40%

Saturated Fat 17g106%

Trans Fat 1g

Polyunsaturated Fat 1g

Monounsaturated Fat 7g

Cholesterol 74mg25%

Sodium 140mg6%

Potassium 82mg2%

Carbohydrates 37g12%

Sugar 36g40%

Protein 1g2%

Vitamin A 910IU18%

Vitamin C 0.2mg0%

Calcium 55mg6%

Iron 0.3mg2%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

How to Store Leftover Caramel Sauce

Any leftover sauce should be stored in a jar with a lid or an airtight container. The sauce can be left at room temperature on the countertop (for up to 2 days) or you can place it in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Common Questions About Making Caramel Sauce

What does adding butter to caramel do?

Butter helps to add a richness of flavor to the caramel as well as keeping it smooth and silky.

Should you stir sugar when making caramel?

Yes, you should stir the sugar in the recipe to keep it from burning to the bottom of the pan.

More Caramel Recipes

Easy Homemade Caramels Recipe
Caramel Popcorn in a Jar
Chocolate Caramel Rolls
Homemade Butterscotch Sauce
Amish Cinnamon Rolls or Caramel Rolls Recipe
Old Fashioned Caramel Icing Recipe

Do you like to make an easy homemade caramel sauce in the fall? What do you like to use it for?

Merissa Alink

Merissa has been blogging about andliving the simple and frugal life on Little House Living since 2009 and has internationally published 2 books on the topic. You can read about Merissa’s journey from penniless to freedom on the About Page. You can send her a message any time from theContact Page.

This Easy Homemade Caramel Sauce recipe was originally published on Little House Living in October 2012. It has been updated as of October 2023.

Easy Homemade Caramel Sauce Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How is caramel sauce made from scratch? ›

Combine brown sugar, butter, and milk in a saucepan and bring ingredients to a boil. Remove thickened mixture from heat before adding (optional) vanilla extract. Let the caramel cool slightly before using. The result is an impossibly rich sauce that is guaranteed to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Can I use milk instead of cream for caramel? ›

Caramel sauce is a wonderful topping for ice cream, cake, pie, and bread pudding. While a typical caramel recipe calls for heavy cream, what if you don't have any handy? This easy recipe uses milk and butter instead, ingredients you're more likely to have on hand.

Read On ›

What are the two methods for making caramel? ›

Wet caramel is made by combining sugar and a liquid and cooking them together, while dry caramel is made from just sugar, heated in a dry pan until it liquefies and browns.

Find Out More ›

What's the difference between caramel sauce and caramel syrup? ›

Caramel sauce is easier to mix and dissolve, and it also has a richer flavor because of the dairy / fat. If you want to use it to decorate your coffee (hot or iced) on top of the whipped cream, I'd recommend syrup because it holds well in lower temperatures and it is better to make drawings.

What is homemade caramel made of? ›

Never leave your caramel sauce unattended: To make caramel sauce you essentially toast white sugar until it's melted, before adding in butter, cream, and salt. Your sugar can go from toasty to burnt pretty quickly though, so make sure you keep a close eye on it! Don't forget the salt!

Learn More Now ›

What thickens homemade caramel? ›

To thicken a caramel sauce, use one tablespoon of cornstarch or tapioca starch (sometimes known as tapioca flour) and one tablespoon of water per cup of caramel. Then simmer the caramel, stirring it constantly with a wooden spoon until it becomes thick.

Does boiling a can of condensed milk turn into caramel? ›

What you make out of condensed milk is dulce de leche. It's often called caramel or toffee, but it's not really either. The recipe is trivial: pour the condensed milk in a pan. Heat it over low heat, stirring continuously, until it turns into dulce de leche.

Why do you put condensed milk in caramel? ›

Because it contains a ton of sugar. An easy caramel/dulce de leche that students have made for many, many years: bring a pot of water to the boil, lower heat to low simmer. Put in an unopened can of sweetened condensed milk. Let it cook for at least a half hour, probably more.

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Why does condensed milk turn into caramel? ›

When you add heat to your ingredients, they undergo a chemical reaction known as the “Maillard reaction.” This means that the sugar is cooked to the proper moisture level and caramelization occurs. You know when this happens as the mixture changes colour to a rich brown.

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Which method is quickest in caramel making? ›

For the "dry" caramel method, you simply heat the sugar in an empty pan until melted and caramelized. It's quick and direct, but the risk is that some parts of the sugar melt faster than others, and can burn before the rest had made it even to light amber.

What is the formula for caramel? ›

The typical formula for caramels is C24H36O18 , so the elements of water have been removed from the sucrose.

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What does adding butter to caramel do? ›

Once the sugar has all dissolved and turned brown, we add butter. The heat of the caramel will melt the butter and create even more wonderful flavors. Finally, after the butter has melted, we add heavy whipping cream. This will allow the mixture to be loose enough to be used as a sauce.

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What are the three types of caramel? ›

Caramel can be produced in so many forms such as, sauce, a chewy candy, or a hard candy because of how much of an ingredient is added and the temperature it is being prepared at.

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Should caramel be made with white or brown sugar? ›

Sugar Note: Most chefs say that only granulated sugar can be successfully caramelized; other sugars — such as brown sugar and unrefined sugar such as cane sugar — contain impurities that can inhibit caramelization. It's those impurities that can burn before the sugar has time to caramelize.

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Is caramel just sugar and water? ›

Technically, the only ingredient you actually need to make caramel is sugar (although many recipes for caramel sauce also call for water, butter, cream, and a bit of salt to cut down the sweetness).

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How was caramel originally made? ›

Most believe caramel was created more than 1,020 years ago in 1000 AD by Arabs mixing sugar and water to create a crystallized liquid. Funny enough, the original caramel was not believed to be enjoyed as a sweet treat but rather used as a beauty product.

Is caramel made from butter and sugar? ›

Ok you may not have known this but, ~newsflash~ caramel is literally just cooked sugar with a little bit of butter (for stability) and heavy cream (for flavor & mouthfeel) stirred in at the end. The longest (and “hardest”) part of making caramel is just toasting and melting down the sugar at the very beginning.

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Does homemade caramel get hard? ›

If the temperature gets too hot and the caramel becomes too hard as it cools, you can put it back in the pan with a couple of tablespoons of cold water to try and save it.

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