Salted Caramel Recipe (How to Make)

❤️Why you will love this recipe

• This is a great recipe for easy caramel sauce with just a few simple ingredients (4 basic ingredients).
• If you are a fan of caramel sauce, you will love how simple it is to make your own homemade caramel sauce with this easy recipe. You don’t need any special tools, not even a candy thermometer and can make yourself a batch in under 15 minutes.
• You can use it to make caramel desserts or simply drizzle on your favorite desserts.
• Packed in small mason jar, this easy salted caramel sauce makes great gift for family and friends.

Like this easy recipe? See how I have used this salted caramel in my mini salted caramel cheesecake, mini snickers cheesecakes, chocolate peanut butter cheesecake, salted caramel pumpkin cupcakes, Halloween pumpkin cupcakes and these decadently moist chocolate pumpkin cupcakes.

And while you are here, you might also want to check out how to make your own lemon curd and use it to make the most luscious lemon curd cheesecake, pumpkin puree (without oven) to make soft and fluffy pumpkin spice pound cake, cherry coulis for your own homemade black forest ice cream and kiwi coulis for a creamy and tangy kiwi mousse.

📋Ingredients

• Granulated sugar - I prefer to use granulated sugar as it dissolves quicker compared to coarse sugar.
• Heavy whipping cream - use full fat cream for a creamy sauce.
• Butter (salted) - I prefer to use salted butter but you can also make this recipe with unsalted butter. Increase the amount the rock salt below.
• Rock salt - enhances the taste of the caramel.

🧾Substitution and Variations

• If you prefer to use unsalted butter, increase the amount of salt added to the salted caramel to compensate for the unsalted butter. The salt mentioned in the recipe is rock salt which is slightly less salty compared to table salt. You only need to add a small extra pinch.
• Rock salt can be replaced with table salt. If you are using regular table salt in place of the rock salt, you would need to reduce the amount indicated in the recipe to avoid overly salty caramel sauce.
• You can also use flaky sea salt or fine sea salt.
• Granulated sugar can be replaced with brown sugar.

The cooking process

Here is the step-by-step photos and instructions with images on how to make your very own homemade salted caramel sauce.

1. Start by measuring the sugar into a deep medium saucepan. Melt it over low heat, stirring every now and then until the sugar dissolves. At this stage, if you see clumps of sugar in your pot, it is fine. Dissolve it over very low heat. At the end of the process, the sugar should caramelize into a light amber shade.
2. Keep the heat on until the sugar cooks into your desired shade of deep amber color, keeping very close attention on it at this stage as it can very quickly get burned. 
3. Once it reaches the shade you prefer, add the butter to the hot sugar. Whisk both (be careful of splashes) for about a minute. The sugar might bubble up rapidly when you add the butter if the butter is cold and that is fine. If the butter melts and remains separated from the sugar even after vigorous whisking, that is fine too. 
4. Carefully add the cream into the melted butter-sugar mixture in a thin steady stream. Again, if the cream is cold, the caramel mixture will start bubbling rapidly. Continue to stir until the bubbles subside.
5. Cook the caramel until it has thickened slightly, but not too thick. The sauce will thicken considerably as it cools down.
6. Sprinkle the salt into the plain caramel. Stir and pour it into a small jar. Keep the caramel refrigerated. Once chilled, the salted caramel will be very thick. To soften it, heat up the caramel for a few seconds in a microwave or double boil until it reaches drizzling consistency.

🍽️Serving & storage

• The salted caramel will thicken considerably after it has completely cooled down to room temperature.
• It will thicken even more once chilled so do not try to thicken the sauce to your desired consistency with heat. To bring the salted caramel back to its drizzling consistency, heat it up over a double boiler or the microwave.
• This sauce has a rather long shelf life. It can be kept in the refrigerator for a good one month.
• If you wish to keep it longer, this salted caramel can be frozen for up to 3 months. Pour it into an airtight container. Simply heat up the sauce to bring it to a soft, drizzling consistency before using it on your dessert.

💡Expert Tips

• The taste of your salted caramel is predominantly dependent on the degree to which the sugar is caramelized before the butter and cream are added. Some people like a more intense tasting caramel and therefore prefer to let caramelization happen to a deeper amber color. Others prefer a lighter flavor and choose to not let the caramelization beyond a light amber color.
• The choice is entirely dependent on your personal taste, but do take note that once the sugar starts to caramelize, it will continue to do so at a very quick rate and therefore the tendency to get burnt is very high.  Overly browned sugar will result in a burnt salted caramel that can be bitter to taste.
• Once the sugar is melted, it will turn amber very quickly.  For effective monitoring of the color, it is best that the interior of your saucepan is light so that you are able to see the color as it caramelizes and decide on the exact point to add butter and cream to it.
• Adding cold butter and cold cream into the melted sugar can cause rapid bubbling. There is no impact on the taste or texture of the salted caramel though. If you want to reduce the bubbling, bring both the butter and cream to room temperature before adding to the caramelized sugar .

⭐What can you use the caramel sauce for?

Salted caramel is a delicious combination of sweet caramel with a hint of saltiness. It is often used as a drizzle or topping and is also included as an ingredient in making desserts. Here are some of the common uses for salted caramel:

• Drizzled as a topping on ice cream sundaes, brownies, cakes, cheesecakes (like this salted caramel cheesecake, Snickers cheesecake and chocolate peanut butter cheesecake) and pies.
• Used as a sweetener for lattes and hot chocolate.
• Used as a filling for layer cakes, cupcakes (like these salted caramel pumpkin cupcakes, Halloween spider cupcakes and decadent chocolate pumpkin cupcakes), tarts or these homemade brioche doughnuts.
• Drizzled over freshly popped popcorn for a sweet and savory snack.
• Incorporated into buttercream frosting to make salted caramel flavored buttercream.
• Used as a filling for tarts.

💭FAQs