Easy Homemade Caramel Sauce

Skip the store-bought caramel sauce. This homemade caramel sauce is so easy. Made with only six ingredients, it is delicious and comes together in less than 15-minutes. Caramel sauce can be used as a cake/cupcake filling, drizzle over ice cream or cake, or to flavor buttercream.

Caramel to me is like chocolate. It’s so good you have to try everything humanly possible not to drink it with a spoon. I learned how to make homemade caramel sauce many years ago. Moreover, to my surprise, it was so easy. Of course, no crazy ingredients are included. You know the ones that you can’t pronounce. Also, no high fructose corn syrup. After making your own, you won’t go back to the other stuff.

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Ingredients needed to make Caramel sauce

Caramel/liquid gold needs only six ingredients: sugar, butter, corn syrup, water, vanilla extract, and heavy cream. While it is tempting to eliminate an ingredient, don’t do it. Each ingredient is essential to making the best caramel sauce.

Granulated sugar– granulated sugar is the base of the sauce. When combined with water makes the most beautiful amber color sauce.
Water-Water is used to melt the sugar.
Butter– Everything is better with butter right? Butter helps stop the browning and makes the caramel pourable.
Light Corn Syrup– Corn syrup makes the sauce nice and smooth. Also, it helps prevent graininess that can arise from crystalized sugar or overcooking the sauce.
Heavy cream– heavy cream makes the caramel creamy and stops the caramelization process.
Vanilla extract– vanilla adds flavor to the caramel, use only the best vanilla.
Deep pot– any pot will do, but the best is a pot with a heavy base to make the sugar melt evenly.

How to Make Caramel Sauce

There are few things you need to keep in mind when making caramel sauce.

One, use a deep pot, this prevents the caramel from spilling all over the place.
Two, it is essential not to move away from the stove at any time. This prevents the sugar from over-browning (bitter) and burning (extremely bad).
Three, the heavy cream will cause a reaction, remove the pot from the stove and place it in the sink to handle any spill.
Four, do not try to make too much sauce at once. If you are, make sure the pot is large enough, for the reasons mentioned above.

Now that’s out the way, here is the step by step:

Heat the sugar and water over medium heat in a deep pot. I used a small pot, but you can see how much room is in the pot.
Once the sugar reaches an amber color, add the butter. The heat from the sugar should melt the butter.
Once the butter is melted, remove the pot from the stove and add the heavy cream slowly. Stir to incorporate the cream.
Then, add the vanilla and the corn syrup.
Let the caramel sauce cool in the pan. As it sits, it will darken and thicken.
The whole process should take about 10 minutes or so. Store in the refrigerator for up to 10 days. Once in the refrigerator, it will harden a bit, place in the microwave for 30-second intervals until it is melted again. Stir between each interval to see if it is at the right consistency. Now you are ready to use it any way you like. See if you can resist licking the back of the spoon.