Homemade Caramel Sauce Recipe

One thing I have missed a lot since living in Thailand is caramel chocolate. I have always loved chocolate filled with caramel and so decided it was time to finally make some homemade caramel for myself.

Caramel is so quick and easy to make and only contains a handful of ingredients. More importantly, fresh homemade caramel tastes so much better than anything you can find at the supermarket.

You only need sugar, cream, butter and salt to make the recipe but I like to add a couple of extra ingredients to give it that extra kick. I included a touch of lime juice and a drop of vanilla just to enhance the flavour that little bit more.

This caramel is perfect as filling for chocolate but can also be used a sauce and poured over ice cream, pie, cake, cookies or any other dessert that you feel like. I also pour it into piping bags and pipe it into patterns over chocolate truffles as you can see with my banoffee pie chocolate truffles.

So follow my steps to make this delicious salted caramel sauce and you’ll never end up buying it again.

And you don’t even need to use a thermometer.

Only a handful of ingredients

It only really takes 3 ingredients to make caramel – sugar, water and cream, but there are a few extra ones you can include to suit your tastes.

Salt is one of those options and if you don’t like salty caramel then just leave it out. I like to add lime juice, vanilla and butter to enhance the flavour and to give it that silky finish.

What are the ingredients of caramel sauce

So here are the ingredients I use:

1 cup of Sugar
1/3 cup of Water
¾ cup of Heavy Whipping Cream
2 tbsp Butter
Lime juice from half a lime (optional)
1 tsp Vanilla (optional)
½ tsp Sea Salt (optional)

Tools Needed

A deep pan
A wooden spoon
A heatproof bowl

How to make caramel sauce – Step by step guide

First things first, have your pan, wooden spoon and all the ingredients ready and at hand next to your stove. It doesn’t take long to make caramel and you need to stay with it until the end. As I have found a few times, it can burn very quickly if you take your eye off it, even for only a few seconds.

Get your pan and ingredients ready next to the stove. Squeeze half a lime into the water and add your vanilla essence to the cream.

2. Pour the sugar and water into the pan and let it settle for a few seconds until all sugar is soaked in water. Add a little extra water if needed

3. Turn the stove on and cook on medium heat, without stirring, until the sugar fully dissolves and forms a clear syrup.

4. Once the sugar is fully dissolved and the mixture starts to bubble, turn up the heat and bring the syrup to a boil. It will take about 10 minutes until you will start to see it turn into an amber colour.

I like the classic simple but sweet honey-coloured caramel, but cook it a minute or so longer if you like the slightly bitter dark amber coloured caramel.

5. When it gets to your desired colour, immediately add the butter and stir until it is melted. Then slowly pour in the cream which will make the mixture bubble, foam and rise up due to the clash of temperatures. Whisk or stir until the cream is fully incorporated.

6. Turn off the heat, sprinkle in the salt and wait until the caramel settles down. It will be quite runny at this stage but it will thicken up as it cools down. I find its best to wait until it cools down to about room temperature before using.

7. Pour it into a heatproof bowl or glass jar and either put it to use it straight away or store it in the fridge for future use.

So there we have it. A quick and easy salty caramel sauce that takes around 15 minutes to make.

How to store the caramel sauce?

The caramel can be stored for around a month in the fridge and only needs to be warmed up in the microwave or a pan before using again.

You can also freeze it for a few months in which case you will need to let it get to room temperature before warming it up to use.

I absolutely love chocolate filled with caramel but it is also perfect on ice cream, on top of a cheesecake, covering an apple or just eaten on its own by spoon.

I hope some of you try to make it yourself and if you do, please comment below to let us know how you got on.