Salted Caramel Sauce
by Sommer Collier — on Dec 21, 2025 I can’t remember the last time I bought jarred caramel, and I never will again! Because with just 5 simple ingredients, you can stir up the best, most amazing homemade salted caramel sauce from scratch. This easy recipe comes together in less than 15 minutes and is great to enjoy as a dip, drizzled over sweets, or used as an ingredient in your favorite dessert recipes.
Are you on team chocolate or caramel? While I sometimes ride on the fence, as a whole, my family loves all things caramel. For example, I know if I want to get everyone together for a chore, all I have to do is whip up my salted caramel candy recipe or make a few servings of my renowned hot caramel drink, and it’s all hands on deck! But this is the recipe I’ve been using for years when I want a batch of straight-up salted caramel sauce for making the fam happy with recipes like caramel cookie bars, drizzling on desserts, or dipping fresh fruit. It’s thick, luscious, and flowing, with an incredible, robust flavor that bounces back and forth between salty and sweet. If you’re anything like me, with great taste and a dazzling personality (and you know you are!), you’ll never need to buy the jarred stuff again!
Table of contents
Sommer’s Recipe Highlights
Homemade with Love – It’s pretty shocking how many questionable ingredients go into a jar of store-bought caramel sauce. I’m talking about the super icky ones like high fructose corn syrup, artificial flavors, and colors. This perfect recipe keeps things simple with only 5 ingredients and tastes SO much better than the pre-made stuff. And as I mentioned above, you have total control over how salty it is.
Pure Caramel Perfection – Just take a look at these pictures, and you already know this sweet dip has the ideal consistency that’s thick but drizzly, smooth, and sticky but not too sticky. The flavor is buttery, creamy, and sweet, and balanced with the salt to keep the caramel from being overly sweet.
Versatile Sauce – A quality homemade sauce is truly a multipurpose ingredient on its own, perfect to use in all kinds of baking recipes. It’s also great over ice cream, cakes, and pies, and it makes a great dip for thick cuts of fruit like pears and apples. And around the holidays, I’ll make extra to package into cute jars and give as a homemade gift!
Key Ingredients and Tips
- Sugar – Just plain ‘ol granulated white sugar is all you need.
- Heavy cream – Before you even ask…No. No, you should not substitute heavy cream with half and half or milk. You simply can’t get the same level of richness without the real stuff. So if you try to swap it, I don’t want to hear any complaints in the comments section as you’ve been warned!
- Butter – Unsalted butter is definitely the way to go. I am adding just the right amount of salt to the sauce, and using butter with additional salt would throw the flavors off.
- Salt: I use fine table salt that dissolves easily into the caramel sauce. With thicker flakes, you run the risk of having a grainy sauce.
- Vanilla extract – Because the vanilla isn’t baked, you’re able to really taste it in the sauce, which is why I always use quality vanilla. Trust me, it might be a bit pricier, but it makes a huge difference!
How to Make
Find the full ingredient proportions, detailed instructions, storage tips, and a video tutorial in the printable form at the bottom of the post.
Prep & Watch – The first thing I do is cook the sugar in a bit of water on the stovetop. Keep the heat to medium and stir occasionally for 5-10 minutes, until the sugar dissolves and becomes dark. Don’t let it burn!
Stir Stir Stir – As soon as the color becomes all lovely and golden, I pull the pot off the heat and stir in the heavy cream. When you stir the cream into the caramel, it will typically seize up and then loosen again. So don’t worry when it seizes, just keep stirring!
Add the Flavoring – I’m not done stirring just yet! Because now is when I add the butter, salt, and vanilla to the pot, and give it another good stir.
Expert Tips
Keep a close eye on the sugar and water mixture at the beginning! The key to success is to really watch the sugar as it’s browning. You want to reach a teddy bear brown color before adding the cream. This is a strong medium brown, but not a dark chocolatey brown… If you reach this level of darkness, your caramel will most likely taste burnt, and you’ll have to start over.
Although it’s fine and normal for the cream to seize up, you can gently warm the heavy cream in the microwave before adding it to the sugar mixture. This will keep it from seizing up as much, which means you won’t need to stir quite as much. But don’t overdo it!
If you’ve stirred the caramel well, you should have no clumps of sugar left in the caramel sauce. If you do see clumps, no worries and no judgment here! Just pour the salted caramel sauce through a sieve, and it will be perfectly smooth.
Serving Suggestions
I somehow manage to contain myself from adding this sauce to every single baked treat I make. Instead, I use homemade salted caramel sauce to make all kinds of fitting decadent desserts, like:
- Caramel Cake
- Stuffed Caramel Brownies
- Apple Slab Pie
- Apple Dump Cake
- Better Than Sex Cake
- Pecan Pie Bars
I also highly suggest adding a drizzle or two…or nine…of the sauce onto your macchiato drink, or over desserts like:
- Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream
- Kulfi Indian Ice Cream
- Apple Crisp
- Cream Cheese Pound Cake
- Crockpot Cheesecake
It’s also delicious to make my cream cheese caramel apple dip, or simply enjoy with slices of fresh fruit like green apples or red apples, pears, and strawberries.
Storage Notes
If you’re lucky enough to have leftover sauce, make sure you let the caramel cool completely to room temperature before storing it in a heatproof glass container. Storing and refrigerating while it’s still hot can cause it to become grainy, which no one wants!
You can store it in a glass container with a tight-fitting lid in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks. To reheat the salted caramel sauce, scoop however much you need into a microwave-safe bowl…Do not try to heat a cold glass from the fridge! Then gently reheat in the microwave in 10-15 second bursts, stirring in between, until it reaches the perfect gooey, drizzle-able consistency.
Frequently Asked Questions
Make sure the sugar is fully submerged in water when you’re first cooking on the stovetop; or in other words, there are no dry spots. Swirl instead of stir to start! You want to stir sparingly at the beginning while the sugar incorporates, and use a clean, heavy-bottomed pot so the heat distributes evenly.
Don’t worry, this is totally normal! Rest assured that if you keep the temperature at medium heat and continue stirring, it will melt together into the cream.
Unfortunately, you can’t, and you’ll need to start over. Sugar goes from “perfect” to “burnt” really fast, so you’ll need to keep a close eye to ensure it doesn’t turn too dark!
Nope, you don’t need a thermometer. You can rely on sight and smell…Golden brown and nutty is good, dark brown and bitter is bad. You’ve got this!
More Dessert Recipes
Salted Caramel Sauce
Video
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 6 tablespoons water
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 6 tablespoons butter
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Pour the water in a medium heavy-bottomed sauce pot. Place over medium heat and add the sugar. Watch closely while the sugar dissolves and darken, 5-10 minutes.
- The moment the sugar darkens to your desired color (somewhere between golden-brown and medium-brown, not dark brown) remove from the heat. *Darker caramels are very flavorful, but don't let the sugar get too dark, or you'll have to start over.
- Immediately whisk in the heavy cream. When you add the cream, it’s normal for the caramel to seize up. Just keep stirring until it melts into the cream.
- Once the cream is incorporated into the caramel sauce, stir in the butter, salt, and vanilla extract until smooth. Serve warm, or jar and refrigerate until ready to use.
