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Making your own caramel sauce from scratch is a lot easier than you might think! It takes practically no time at all.
I learned how to make caramel sauce this way years ago from my friend Suzanne and now make it any time a recipe calls for caramel sauce. There’s really no reason to buy it when you can so easily make it with just three simple ingredients — sugar, butter, and cream.
How to make easy homemade caramel sauce
To make caramel sauce, first you start by heating white granulated sugar. (Make sure you are using real sugar, not a sugar substitute.) As the sugar heats, it will melt and start to “caramelize” (hence the name “caramel”), changing color and creating caramel flavors.
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.
Use a thick-bottomed, sturdy pan
Making caramel requires that you cook the sugar evenly, which is much easier to do with a thick-bottomed, sturdy pan that can distribute the heat.
If you find that your sugar is burning and not melting, the culprit is most likely the pan heating unevenly. In this case you can either lower the heat and cook the sugar more slowly, or you can start over and add some water to the sugar in the beginning.
Use a pan with high sides as well. When you add cream to the caramel mixture the hot caramel will bubble up. You want to make sure you have a pan that will not overflow when this happens.
To use water or not to use water
If you are having problems with sugar burning before it is all melted, you might try adding a half cup of water to the sugar in the beginning of the process. This will help the sugar dissolve and heat more evenly. It will also take quite a bit longer to caramelize the sugar, which is why I usually don’t use water.
Safety first!
My one note of caution is to be extra careful while you are cooking the sugar, as with any candy making process. Once the sugar has melted it has a much higher temperature than boiling water. It helps to wear oven mitts and long sleeves to prevent burns if the caramel splatters.
Try Caramel Sauce on These Recipes:
- French Vanilla Ice Cream
- Apple Pie
- Classic Cheesecake
- Coffee Bourbon Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
- Chocolate Brownies — drizzle it over the top before baking
Caramel Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup (210g) of sugar
- 6 Tbsp (85g) butter (salted or unsalted)
- 1/2 cup (120ml) heavy whipping cream
Special equipment:
- A 2- to 3-quart thick-bottomed saucepan
Method
1 Assemble ingredients: First, before you begin, make sure you have everything ready to go - the cream and the butter next to the pan, ready to put in. Making caramel is a fast process that cannot wait for hunting around for ingredients. If you don't work fast, the sugar will burn.
Safety first! Make sure there are no children under foot and you may want to wear oven mitts; the caramelized sugar will be much hotter than boiling water.
2 Heat sugar: Heat sugar on moderately high heat in a heavy-bottomed 2-quart or 3-quart saucepan. The sugar will begin to melt in a minute or two. As the sugar begins to melt, stir vigorously with a whisk or wooden spoon. The sugar will form clumps and will start to melt at the edges of the pan.
As the sugar starts to melt, lower the heat a bit to keep the sugar from burning.
Keep whisking until all of the sugar has melted. Once all of the sugar has melted, stop stirring. You can swirl the pan a bit if you want.
Note that this recipe works best if you are using a thick-bottomed pan. If you find that you end up burning some of the sugar before the rest of it is melted, the next time you attempt it, add a half cup of water to the sugar at the beginning of the process, this will help the sugar to cook more evenly, though it will take longer as the water will need to evaporate before the sugar will caramelize.
3 Add butter: As soon as all of the sugar crystals have melted (the liquid sugar should be dark amber in color), immediately add the butter to the pan. Whisk until the butter has melted.
4 Add cream: Once the butter has melted, take the pan off the heat. Count to three, then slowly add the cream to the pan and continue to whisk to incorporate.
Note that when you add the butter and the cream, the mixture will foam up considerably. This is why you must use a pan that is at least 2-quarts (preferably 3-quarts) big.
5 Whisk until smooth: Whisk until caramel sauce is smooth. Let cool in the pan for a couple minutes, then pour into a glass mason jar and let sit to cool to room temperature. (Remember to use pot holders when handling the jar filled with hot caramel sauce.)
Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Warm before serving.
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Elise Bauer is the founder of Simply Recipes. Elise launched Simply Recipes in 2003 as a way to keep track of her family's recipes, and along the way grew it into one of the most popular cooking websites in the world. Elise is dedicated to helping home cooks be successful in the kitchen. Elise is a graduate of Stanford University, and lives in Sacramento, California.
Caramel Sauce
I am just wondering if you can explain why David Leibovitz’s caramel sauce recipe says to cook the sugar and butter together and then add the cream at the end.
Hi Kelly, there are different ways to make caramel. Have you tried asking David?
No I haven’t. I followed your recipe and it turned out perfect. I guess I can ask him. I was just curious bc his is the only recipe that says to melt the sugar and butter together. Thank you for replying. I think you are amazing and have been using your recipes for a decade now!
I followed instruction to the t.when I added the butter the caramel started to lump.i kept whisking. Then removed from heat and added cream and whisked again it did start to blend but there are lots of sugar lumps that won’t melt or break up. I got maybe 2 tablespoons of sauce after removing all the lumps
xxxxxyyyyy
Hi Regina,
I’m sorry this gave you trouble. Caramel can be tricky, even though it seems so simple.
When you added the butter, how long did you whisk the mixture? If it lumps up, you need to keep cooking over heat and whisking until any lumps dissolve. This has happened to me a few times and it’s frustrating. If you add the cream and it lumps up, once again, keep simmering and whisking over medium heat until the lumped-up sugar dissolves. BTW, the caramel lumps up because the difference in temperature prompts the sugar to re-crystallize. All you need to do is keep cooking the sauce to re-melt those crystals. By that point you may be over it, though!
This is a great recipe, except I wouldn’t use a whisk. I just made this using a whisk, like the pictures show. My caramel sauce got stuck inside the whisk, and it just took a while to mix. I would definitely recommend using a spatula. Otherwise, it makes a fantastic caramel sauce!
xxxxxyyyyy
Help! I’ve made this recipe before a dozen times and it turned out *great*. Have not made for a few years, though. I tried to make again today in a different pan (heavy bottom, high sides, specifically made for this sort of thing) and I have ruined 2 batches so far… first time I didn’t use water and it crystalized with giant chunks and I didn’t think I could save it so threw it out. Second time I used water, and it was going very well, bubbling nicely; I stopped using my wooden spoon as soon as it started bubbling; just swirled the pan. It took quite a bit of time, but it started turning amber and smelling like caramel. I didn’t want to burn it, so I took it off the heat and added the butter, whisked, then the heavy whipping cream. It is awful. It just looks like a jar full of butter after cooling. What the heck did I do wrong? And is there any saving it?? Can I reheat it and simmer for a while, will it get that “caramel” look and taste if I do?
Hi, Maggie! In your first batch, it sounds like the sugar wasn’t heating evenly and/or a speck of unmelted sugar got into the melted sugar, either of which can make the caramel crystalize. Your second batch might have split if the caramel cooled too quickly. For your split caramel, try reheating it gently over low heat and whisking really vigorously. Adding a little bit of water can also help. Good luck!
Thank you! I was able to save the batch. It’s not perfect but still tasty. I’m going to give it one more try and make sure it gets really amber before adding the butter and cream. (In the previous batch I pre melted the butter so I think I just hadn’t gotten it amber enough.)
Maggie, the pan stays on the heat while melting the butter. Once incorporated, then take the pan off the heat, wait a few seconds, then add the cream. Good luck. It’s so yummy!
Yikes! Am making it now. Was thinking 1/2&1/2 cream instead of heavy whipping. Will it be ok?
No. It requires the fat content and thickness of heavy cream. Half and half is just that, half milk and half heavy cream.
I just made it with half &half and it came out fine!