Caramel Sauce Recipe (2024)

This homemade caramel sauce recipe is easy to make from scratch with 6 ingredients including butter, heavy cream and brown sugar. Learn how to make caramel sauce and never buy store-bought varieties again!

This homemade caramel sauce is so rich and delicious you will want to serve it over everything – vanilla ice cream, brownies, skillet cookies, etc.

This caramel sauce recipe is easy to make with whole-food ingredients (no condensed milk) in only 20 minutes. Plus, it’s rich caramel flavor and smooth texture make it worlds better than any jarred, store-bought sauce!

Caramel Sauce: Ingredients & Substitutions

• Light brown sugar.If you like a richer molasses taste, use dark brown sugar (or substitute up to half the light brown sugar with dark).
• Salted butter.Unsalted butter works well too.
• Heavy cream.There is no substitute for heavy cream in this recipe.
• Vanilla extract.an equal amount of vanilla bean paste can be used in place of the vanilla extract.

How to Make Caramel Sauce

Let’s walk through this caramel sauce recipe step-by-step, and don’t forget to watch the video for further help!

Begin by adding water and brown sugar to a heavy-bottom pan. Cook over medium-high heat until the sugar dissolves, whisking often.

Then, add the butter to the water/sugar mixture and whisk until the butter is melted.

Once the butter is melted, bring the mixture to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat and cook/boil over medium heat until mixture is thick and pulls away from the sides (about 10 minutes), whisking occasionally.

Whisk in the heavy cream and sea salt until smooth, bring the mixture to a boil again and boil for 1 minute.

After 1 minute, remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the vanilla.

Transfer to a glass storage dish or jar and let cool completely before serving. The caramel sauce thickens as it cools.

Serve

There are so many ways to enjoy this homemade caramel sauce. Here are a few suggestions:

• Ice cream. Drizzle it over vanilla ice cream, chocolate ice cream, or (my husband’s favorite) Oreo ice cream.
• Brownies. Who doesn’t love a brownie sundae topped with caramel sauce? Try it over these fudgy homemade brownies or even better – caramel brownies (you can use it to make these brownies)!
• Cookies. Serve it over this skillet cookie or chocolate chip cookie bars – yum.

Store

Store homeamde caramel sauce in an airtight container (glass jar with a lid) in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Caramel Sauce Recipe FAQS

If you make and love our recipes, it would mean so much to me if you would leave a comment and rating! And don’t forget to follow along with us on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and Youtube – be sure to tag @joyfoodsunshine and use the hashtag #joyfoodsunshine so we can see your creations!