Silky Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce

If you love the richness of caramel and the quintessential sweet-salty combo, this salted caramel sauce will be your new favorite. It's silky, decadent, and made with plenty of cream and butter for an irresistible drizzle. A hint of sea salt balances the sweetness and turns the sauce into something a bit out of the ordinary. Plus, it comes together in under 15 minutes and works with just about any dessert.

I've been making this sauce for years, and I'll admit that I've eaten it straight off the spoon more than once. It's amazing poured generously over gluten free pumpkin waffles or oat flour pancakes instead of maple syrup, lovely as a glaze for oat flour scones or oat flour shortbread, and absolutely divine swirled into frosting for a chocolate cake with salted caramel frosting.

Why Make Homemade Dessert Sauce?

For one, it's not hard. For another, it tastes so much better than almost anything you can buy in a store. And finally, it's naturally gluten-free so everyone can enjoy it without worry. In addition:

• It's quick to make - In about 10 minutes or less, you'll have a totally spoonable, deliciously salted caramel sauce ready to go.
• It's versatile - Keep things easy and drizzle caramel sauce over ice cream. You can also use it in sundaes, buttercream, tarts, and so much more.
• It keeps well - Make this sauce before you wish to serve it and stash it in the fridge. Or, keep a fresh jar in the fridge at all times so that you can be spontaneous! Salted caramel sauce keeps well in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
• AND ... you know what's in it - Many commercial chocolate or caramel sauces have a lot of added ingredients I prefer to avoid. Plus, it's quite economical to make it myself. But really, I love knowing that there are only 5 ingredients in this bit of yumminess, including sugar, salt, cream, butter, and water.

Ingredients Needed

You'll need just a handful of ingredients, outlined below, to make this salted caramel sauce recipe. The full ingredient amounts and detailed instructions are in the recipe card at the end of this post.

• Granulated sugar - I prefer good old-fashioned granulated sugar when I make caramel sauce, although you could experiment with other varieties (see below) or even maple syrup.
• Water
• Heavy cream - Cream is what makes this sauce so gorgeously rich! In a pinch use half-and-half.
• Butter - I prefer unsalted butter, though you can use salted butter. If you do so, you may wish to adjust the amount of added salt.
• Salt - I use fine sea salt here, and table salt also works.

Variations to Try

• Make it plain caramel sauce - If you wish to make this into a classic caramel sauce, reduce the amount of salt called for in the recipe to ¼  teaspoon.
• Try brown sugar - For a darker salted caramel sauce, swap the granulated sugar for light or dark brown sugar.
• Make it dairy-free - Use coconut milk or cream for the heavy cream and substitute your favorite non-dairy butter or margarine for the butter.
• Go refined sugar-free - Swap coconut sugar for the granulated sugar.

Tips & Recipe Notes

Caramel sauce can be a little tricky, but it's totally doable. My advice is to pay attention to the sugar and water mixture while it's cooking so that it doesn't burn, although you still want to achieve that dark amber color.

• Use fresh cream. The carton of cream you pick up at the store should just be a few days old, so that the caramel sauce tastes the best it can. No old cream, please!
• Add the cream slowly. Pour in the cream slowly while you're whisking. It will foam and bubble up - this is normal! Just keep whisking until a smooth sauce forms.
• Make sure the sugar is fully dissolved. Cook the sugar-water mixture, whisking, until the sugar dissolves and the mixture looks clear. This will ensure the smoothest sauce. Then, move on to the next step.
• Use a thermometer. When I'm in a rush, I go by my eyes and a timer. But I also find it helpful to use a candy thermometer. What temperature should it reach? Read on ...
• Caramel sauce temperatures: For a darker, more amber-colored sauce, cook the sugar mixture until it reaches 320-340°F  on a thermometer. For a thinner, more pourable sauce (like what I've shown in my photos), cook it to a bit lower of a temperature at 220-230°F.
• Don't go above 350°F. This is the temp at which caramel burns! Avoid at all costs!
• If it breaks ... A trick I use if my sauce "breaks" when I add the butter is to return it to the stove on low heat, where I whisk until the butter melts and is incorporated into the caramel.
• Salt to taste. I list 1 teaspoon of salt in the recipe card, but you may wish to experiment with more or less salt depending on your tastes. Or, try another type of salt, like Kosher salt or flaky sea salt.

Serving Suggestions

• Over ice cream: A classic and simple way to serve homemade caramel sauce is over ice cream! I love it over vanilla ice cream because you can taste the flavor of the caramel when there aren't a lot of other flavors and textures competing with it, but it would also be nice with vegan chocolate peanut butter ice cream.
• With a sundae: Make gluten free brownies, then top them with ice cream, whipped cream, and a drizzle of salted caramel sauce!
• In frosting: This sauce is perfect for adding to the frosting for my chocolate cake with salted caramel buttercream recipe.
• As a glaze: Make any butter cake into a salted caramel cake by pouring sauce over the top.
• In a pie: Swirl a couple of spoonfuls of salted caramel sauce into a homemade gluten free apple pie, Gravenstein apple pie, or gluten free apple galette for a flavor boost.

Proper Storage

Store cooled salted caramel sauce in an airtight, glass container - like a Mason jar with a tight-fitting lid - in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.