This easy Caramel Sauce is rich and amazing with no thermometer required! Drizzle this decadent treat on ice cream, cake or even apples!
Easy Homemade Caramel Sauce
Caramel sauce is one of my favorite things! It’s perfect on pretty much any dessert and just has a totally decadent flavor.
This easy caramel sauce is actually simple to make… the key is making sure you get the mixture the right amber color before you add in the cream. Just keep an eye on it because if it cooks too long you can get a bit of a burnt flavor… which I personally still love! It will slightly bubble up when you add the cream so make sure you are using a large enough saucepan to allow some extra space.
Serve it on ice-cream or cheesecake, drizzle it over brownies or Dessert Nachos, stir it into hot milk or coffee… or eat it with a spoon, I won’t tell!
Tools You’ll Need for This Recipe
* whisk * large saucepan * Karo (corn syrup) *
Easy Caramel Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 cup white sugar
- 4 tablespoons corn syrup Karo
- 2 tablespoons water
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- In a small saucepan, combine sugar, corn syrup & water. Bring to a boil over medium heat.
- Allow mixture to boil until the liquid reaches an amber color (approx. 15 minutes… but keep a close eye on it starting at about 10 minutes).
- Once the mixture has reached a nice amber color, remove from heat. While stirring, slowly pour in cream. Stir in remaining ingredients and enjoy!
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Dessert
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could I use light corn syrup?
Yes, that will work perfectly in this recipe Candice. Enjoy!
How much store bought carmel do you use?
Hi Deb, this recipe is for homemade caramel sauce so we don’t use store-bought caramel in it. You can find the recipe using the jump to recipe button at the top or scrolling toward the bottom of this page. I hope that helps!
this looks good, but when do you put the butter, vanilla and salt in? Does it solidify in the refrigerator?
The remaining ingredients are added in step 3. This does not solidify but it will thicken somewhat.
Can you double this recipe?
Hi Leslie, it should be okay to double. Let us know how it turns out.
Outstanding sauce. I was so happy it didn’t crystalize. Plus it was straightforward and easy. I did have one problem. Like another reviewer the caramel seized up on me. It was solid candy in the pool of cream. I put it back on the burner and slowly reheated it so it melted and the sauce was perfection. Did I add the cream too quickly perhaps? I know it was something I did.
Thanks for this really terrific recipe.!
Unless I’m going blind, it seems like you included butter and vanilla in the ingredients, but not the instructions. I’m guessing you’d want to include the butter during the step that’s heated?
Hi TB, we add the butter and vanilla in Step 3. After the cream, we stir in the remaining ingredients.
I always know your recipes will be dependably delicious, but this…PHENOMENAL! A world of difference between this and all the sauces people call “caramel” that are really just butterscotch. The depth of flavour in this makes it the only caramel sauce recipe I’ll ever use in the future!
You are too sweet Jenna! So glad you loved this recipe as much as we did.
After a disaster with a different recipe (crystallization, anyone?), I was on the verge of giving up and getting store-bought caramel. I’m glad I decided to try this instead! It is sooo easy and delicious, and I can’t stop eating it! I made it to drizzle over my Christmas cheesecake, but may need to make a second batch LOL
Yummy! Easy Peasy. I love this easy delicious recipe
This looks amazing! I’d like to try it as a filling for some chocolates similar to what you have pictured. How long would the caramel last when in chocolates?
(They wouldn’t get chance to go off in our house, I’m giving them as gifts!)
This caramel is a little bit too runny to put in chocolates. I do have caramel cups that have a better consistency. Hope that helps.
Nice and simple