Caramel Sauce

This is the only caramel sauce recipe you'll ever need! Make it thick for filling cookies or keep it thin for drizzling over sundaes or cheesecake. Just 25 minutes to make!

Course Dessert, sauce

Cuisine American

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 20

Servings cup

Calories 1618kcal

Author Sam Merritt

Equipment

Ingredients

1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
¼ cup (60 ml) water
2 Tablespoons light corn syrup see note
¼ - ½ teaspoon salt use ½ tsp for salted caramel sauce, and less for classic caramel
½ cup (120 ml) heavy cream room temperature (see note for using less cream for thicker caramel)
3 Tablespoons (42 g) unsalted butter room temperature and cut into 3 pieces
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions

SAFETY NOTE: melted sugar is very hot, do not touch the caramel until it’s cooled.
Combine sugar, water, corn syrup, and salt in a small saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar is dissolved. If any sugar crystals form on the sides of the pan, dip a pastry brush in water and use it to sweep away any sugar crystals.
1 cup granulated sugar, ¼ cup water, 2 Tablespoons light corn syrup, ¼ - ½ teaspoon salt
Continue to cook without stirring (if you notice uneven browning you can gently swirl the pan) until mixture turns amber in color (this can take about 15 minutes or so). If using a thermometer this usually happens between 320-340F (160-172C).
Remove from heat and very slowly drizzle in cream while stirring. Mixture will bubble a lot, use caution.
½ cup heavy cream
Once cream is incorporated, stir in butter, one piece at a time, until mixture is smooth.
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter
Add vanilla and stir until incorporated.
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
Allow caramel to cool before using (unless serving warm over ice cream, then just let it cool until warm enough to consume).

Notes

Corn syrup

Caramel may be made without corn syrup but is more likely to turn out grainy, which is why I recommend including it. You could also substitute golden syrup.

Cream/Making a Thick Caramel Sauce

For a thicker caramel sauce, you may reduce the heavy cream to ¼ cup (60ml). This makes a chewier, taffy-like caramel that can be used for filling caramelitas or alfajores.

Troubleshooting

While a candy thermometer is great for precision, since this is such a shallow amount of liquid it can be difficult to get an accurate reading with a candy thermometer. Because of this, it's easier to go off of color so watch your caramel carefully. When I tested this and wanted to gauge the temperature, I used my instant-read thermometer to temp this and have found I typically reach the proper color around 320-340F.

Nutrition