Thick and creamy homemade caramel sauce is one of the most amazingly divine treats and it’s super easy to make! You simply melt some sugar in a pan and simmer it until it starts to turn a nice amber colour before adding some cream and butter and optionally some flavours like vanilla or salt. After letting it cool a bit you are ready to go to use the caramel sauce on whatever you like from simply with apples to on melting vanilla ice cream to apple pies, etc. (Take a look below the recipe to find some ideas about what you can use it on!) The caramel sauce will keep in the fridge for months and it makes for a great present for the holidays! That is if you can bring yourself to part with it! My precious!
The recipe easily doubles, triples, etc; so make a lot of it! 🙂
Caramel Sauce
Prep Time:5 minutes Cook Time:15 minutes Total Time:20 minutes Servings: 16(~1 cup or 16 1 tablespoon servings)
Velvety smooth, melt in your mouth homemade caramel sauce that is so easy to make!
ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt (optional)
directions
- Mix the sugar and water in a large sauce pan, bring to a boil over medium heat and let simmer until it turns a medium amber colour.
- Carefully pour in the heavy cream, stir the mixture until it is smooth and simmering until any lumps have melted.
- Stir in the butter, remove from heat, allow to cool for a few minutes and stir in the vanilla extract and salt if using.
Tip: If the sugar seizes and turns into solid lumps after melting, carefully add 1/4 cup water and let the sugar sizzle and melt before continuing to simmer until it starts to turn amber.
Nutrition Facts: Calories 73, Fat 2.8g (Saturated 2g, Trans 0), Cholesterol 9mg, Sodium 12mg, Carbs 12g (Fiber 0, Sugars 12g), Protein 0.1g
Nutrition by: 
Use in:
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Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake
Pumpkin Cinnamon Role Pancakes with Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting
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Slow Cooker Pumpkin Pie Steel Cut Oatmeal
Pumpkin Pie Quinoa Parfait with Gingersnap Pecan Streusel
Apple Crumble Quinoa Parfait
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Pumpkin Pie Cinnamon Buns with Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting
Caramel Apple Grilled Cheese Sandwich (with Bacon)
Pumpkin Caramel Cheesecake Turtle Bread
Chocolate Turtle Cookies
Caramel Pumpkin Cheesecake Dip
Apple Cinnamon Spiral Bread with Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting
Caramel Apple Crumble Cheesecake Dip
Grilled Pineapple and Banana Sundays with Caramel Sauce and Cashews
Carrot Cake with Dulce de Leche Cream Cheese Frosting
Caramel Soaked Almond Cake
Rolo Cheesecake Bars
Apple Crisp Pizza with Caramel Sauce
Vanilla Apple Crisp with Caramel Sauce
Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars
Apple, Cheddar and Bacon Fritters in Caramel Sauce
Pumpkin Pie
Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake
Pumpkin Cinnamon Role Pancakes with Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting
Pumpkin Greek Yogurt Banana Bread
Rolo Cheesecake Bars
Pumpkin Pie Pancakes
Slow Cooker Pumpkin Pie Steel Cut Oatmeal
Pumpkin Pie Quinoa Parfait with Gingersnap Pecan Streusel
Apple Crumble Quinoa Parfait
Slow Cooker Apple Pie Steel Cut Oatmeal
Pumpkin Pie Cinnamon Buns with Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting
Caramel Apple Grilled Cheese Sandwich (with Bacon)
Pumpkin Caramel Cheesecake Turtle Bread
Chocolate Turtle Cookies
Caramel Pumpkin Cheesecake Dip
Apple Cinnamon Spiral Bread with Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting
Caramel Apple Crumble Cheesecake Dip
Grilled Pineapple and Banana Sundays with Caramel Sauce and Cashews
Carrot Cake with Dulce de Leche Cream Cheese Frosting
Caramel Soaked Almond Cake
oh my gosh! i disappeared for a few days and you posted like 100 amazing recipes! they all look so good! do you do delivery?! 😉 I want every single one of those pizzas!! this caramel sauce looks really, really good, too. i love apples with caramel – and the pictures are gorgeous!
this is awesome Kevin! Seriously, I haven’t tried the apple-caramel combination before… I so have to!
Thanks for stopping by my blog! This looks so delicious and rich. I like caramel but I’m on SUCH an apple kick this year.
It looks delicious, Kevin!
Alton Brown also has a really appetising-looking recipe for caramel sauce I’ve been wanting to try. It says it lasts a week.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/banana-splitsville-recipe2/index.html
Of course, as another standby, you can always dip the apples in honey. I was addicted to that treat for a while.
I love making caramel. This is one of my favorite indulgent snacks.
Awesome and nice click.
Love caramel sauce, love it. And the short canning jars are way cute and I love the autumn plate for this. Interiors is my first love, can you tell, hence the table setting luncheon every year. Honey crisp apples are sooo good but really expensive, $2.99 per pound. But everything is high this year. Do you think you could create a sandwich with caramel? That is a good challenge. I’ll be watching.
Wonderful! I was looking for a recipe for caramel sauce just yesterday. I look forward to trying this.
Wonderful pictures. I love honey crisp apples and we only get them in Oregon for a very short period of time. They go great with caramel sauce.
Oh, awesome. I have some extra caramel in the fridge right now, and I didn’t know what to do with it. Apples! Of course!
Not too many men making their own caramel sauce. You are a catch!
I made some this year for the first time, a recipe similar to yours.
Love honey crisp too, we are near Algoma and pick them up there.
Beautiful photo, lovely lighting.
my heart’s a flutter! but i doubt i would be able to control myself around this 🙂
This looks sinfully delicious. I love caramel and apples.
Wow! Do try it with salt– it’s fantastic 🙂
Kevin, this is such a sweet treat, apples and caramel are so perfect combination. Hmmm, delicious!
salt only makes caramel better. do try it. this looks so yummy and perfect for fall.
Beautiful. My sister is a huge fan of caramel sauce with apples – it looks so good. Great photo.
Lovely looking caramel sauce! I love it on vanilla bean ice cream! The drips look very appealing…
wow with this caramel sauce, i will probably start loving apples ^_^
Seriously delicious looking Kevin. I wish you lived closer. You cook the best food, and I’d be angling for a dinner invite!
If you want to experiment adding other ingredients, chopped toasted pecans carries this to a whole different level. Then you have a praline sauce.
thanks for sharing your wonderful caramel sc recipe:)0
I like the fact that the only problem with this sauce is that it doesn’t last long! That’s a GOOD THING, ‘cos then you just have to make some more…
Really awesome! Caramel sauce, now that’s scrumptious! A delightful combo, wow!
Cheers,
Rosa
Caramel porn at its best I would say, lol! That’s more or less my recipe for caramel sauce and it’s delicious! I must dip apples in it too!
This is the best caramel sauce i have ever seen in my whole life. Really they looks so delicious. I am sure going to make them. The will be excelent with ice cream too.
And i woudn”t get a chance to lick to pot or the spoon as my daughter will be waiting there like a hawk to do it 🙂
i just love your sauce… so deliciously sinful… thanks for sharing, kevin… 🙂
OMG, This is so very goood. So simple but soooo goood.
Oh thank you for finding this easy recipe, I love caramel sauce. When we were children Mom would make a pot and we would dip apples and then roll in nuts.
Thanks for the memory 🙂
I love caramel sauce on apples, ice cream, my finger, a spoon – it’s a little bit too good!
I have tons of apples around here again so this is perfect right now. I’m sure my son will love this!
EPITOME of lusciousness. Oh my.
Absolutely gorgeous. It makes me want caramel now!
This sauce looks great – nice color and I’m loving the texture of it!
-DTW
http://www.everydaycookin.blogspot.com
Always a fun thing to have handy, whether it be for dipping, topping off ice cream, or whatever. Great photo
It is quite an indulgence huh ? ;P
THANK YOU! This is perfect. I am making a spice cake today and was wanting to make a caramel sauce to top it off.
I love homemade caramel sauce.
You had me at “eat it by the spoonful”
That dripping caramel is making me mad!! I want to lick it up now!! What a yummy fall treat!
I love your photos and presentation, Kevin! It’s so like magazine shots. Before I came to N.America, I did not even know there is such thing ‘ apples dip in caramel’ Pretty sad, huh? 🙂 Then my host sister got me hooked.
That picture is making me want to lick my screen.
Love that last picture. It is so provocative.
the picture is fantastic; no exlusion of any of caramel’s messy, sticky, syrupy sweet goodness!
I would enjoy dipping this carmel just the way you did with a honey crisp apple! Love those thick drips!
I saw your photo on tastespotting and it looked fabulous! I just made some salted butter caramel and it was brilliant on everything (the SBC popcorn was delish!). Must keep this recipe in mind for when I run out.
Caramel, in any form, is fantastic. Love the photos with this post!
Kevin, apples and caramel are always on my mind, particularly this time of year. And your pictures are teasing my taste buds.
Caramel and apples are a perfect combo!
I love your blog, and I seriously want you to come and be my best friend and invite me over for dinner every night! It always looks great!
That looks amazing, the photos blow me away!
Hurray for you! Making perfect caramel is (I think) no small feat.
Looks like you’ve done just that!
Looks delicious – your photographs are amazing!
This is a great Guy Fawkes night dish!
The caramel looks drippingly delicious. Love caramel with apples!
love your photos and ideas!
Oh this is lovely! I laughed when you mentioned cleaning out the pan with your fingers! We’re seeing more and more of your personality in your posts! This sauce would be a great addition to the Thanksgiving menus that your blog fans from the U.S. will be preparing for soon! YUM!
My husband, who has a wicked sweet tooth, loves any kind of caramel (yes, crunchy salt would be a great addition); I’m passing this recipe on to him.
Oops, I nearly licked my screen. That caramel sauce looks awesome, Kevin! Wow!
I saw your fabulous pic on Tastespotting!
If you ever see McCoun apples, try them! Sooooo good.
Finger-licking good Kevin…I love this sugar overdose! Gorgoeus pictures too!
I’ve not yet had a chance to try out the caramel-apple combination but it sounds wonderful.
I *love* the 2nd pic, Kevin.
Beautiful! It’s so hard to make the perfect caramel sauce. You’re doing so good with your recipes.
Oh my goodness Kevin this is awesome!
Rosie x
Great pics!
I made caramel sauce for the first time last week – I will never go back to anything else. It was so easy and so much more delicious!!
That’s a great recipe! Looks so good with the apples!
I just made your sauce. It is amazingly easy, rich, and delicious. I used whipping cream instead of heavy cream because I had it. No problem with that. I also used a whisk instead of a wooden spoon, which worked fine.
Can’t wait to try more of your recipes!
I’ve been at the computer less this past week and so missed this stunning recipe. I could easily eat this by the spoonful!
Holy guacamole, look at that. I haven’t made caramel sauce in years but now I think I will have to! I had my first honeycrisp apple in Chicago last month and now I think I’m in love…
one of my favorite things in the world is caramel!!! this looks wonderful, esp w/the sliced apples
caramel!! although it is too sweet for my taste, i just love caramel bars hehehe…
Just made this to serve with your vanilla apple crisp tonight. The sauce is fantastic. And so easy. No reason to spend the money on ready-made stuff when this is superior in every way.
What a very delectable caramel sauce for my apples tonight!!! Thank you so much for your delectable recipe!!!
What would be the difference between caramel sauce and dulce de leche?
I know the differences in how they're prepared, but when would you use caramel sauce and when would you use dulce de leche?
Anonymous: I would say that in a lot of cases dulce de leche and caramel sauce are interchangeable. I have only just started getting into dulce de leche and I have a lot more experimentation to do with it! 🙂
So what is the wet method? I want to be able, to dip something into the caramel. Can this be done with the dry method? I hope.
How do I make caramel? I want to be able to dip something into it, or even pour it on something.
Anonymous & Mr. Piemaker: This recipe is for the wet method and for the dry method, simply omit the water and syrup. Both methods will yield caramel sauce that you can dip or pour. When it comes out of the fridge it will be fairly solid but at room temperature it will be dip-able and at a slightly warmer temperature you can easily pour it.
I have tried this recipe twice and have never achieved the color in the picture. What could I be doing wrong? I have waited two different amount of times to have the sugar mixture turn into this amber color. Neither times have I achieved it. This last time my mixture got pretty thick from the wait with no change in color at all. The first time I made it I used light corn syrup so I thought that could have been the problem…this time I used the dark one and the color changed by only a couple of shades. Please help or I might give up on this one. 😀
Jesmyn Hibbard: All of the colour is going to come from simmering the sugar before adding the cream. You want to keep simmering it until it turns a mid to dark amber and then add the cream. What colour are you getting when you make it?
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i49/Jesmyn/caramelsauce.jpg
I think if you copy and paste, or maybe just click on the above link it will show you a picture of mine.
Thank you for your help.
Jesmyn Hibbard: Let it simmer in the pan longer and get darker before adding the cream.
How many cups of caramel sauce does this recipe yield? I'm planning on making it with your vanilla apple crisp recipe (which calls for 3 cups of this bad boy) and you say this recipe doesn't make much. Should I double the recipe? Triple it ? Thanx!
Sarah Aberman: This recipe makes 1 cup caramel sauce which should be enough for the vanilla apple crisp. Enjoy!
Looks good Kevin! Have you ever tried making brownies with leftover caramel sauce? It's one of my favorites:-)
Åh altså! Jeg elsker karamel! Jeg må næsten prøve at lave den her karamelsovs Ö
Simone
Microcut.dk
How long does this keep?
Unknown: This keeps for months in the fridge!