[donotprint] Caramel sauce is a wonderful sweet condiment to have on hand. The beauty of making your own sauce is how simple it truly is. A candy thermometer is helpful but not necessary if you have attentive eyes and a wooden spoon or whisk ready to be used in a seconds notice.
When people discover I make my own caramel sauce they are often surprised by how easy it is to make. I’m surprised by how many people don’t realize caramel is basically sugar, water, butter, and cream. I find the most problematic part of making caramel sauce is the sugar water burning, making it inedible or hardening to rock candy stage, which leaves you with (ehem..) candy. However if you are concerned about this, I would recommend purchasing a candy thermometer such as the Taylor Classic Candy and Deep-Fry Analog Thermometer.
Homemade caramel sauce will be better than anything you can purchase from the store. I recommend using it for desserts, sliced apples, beverages, ice cream, or straight out of the jar for a late night pick-me-up-treat-myself-with-a-large-spoon. Once you make homemade sauce, there is no returning to store versions (never ever again). And if you’re feeling really adventurous, add a few tablespoons of rum and you will have elevated your caramel sauce to “Gourmet” status. With or without rum, enjoy!
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Simple Caramel Sauce Recipe
Makes 2 cups
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup heavy cream, heated to luke warm in microwave (30 seconds)
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup heavy cream, heated to luke warm in microwave (30 seconds)
*optional 2 Tablespoons Rum
*optional 1/4 cup corn syrup – for those of you who are concerned your caramel sauce will turn to candy)
DIRECTIONS:
In a medium sauce pan, add sugar and water (and optional corn syrup). Cook the ingredients on medium-high heat. Carefully watch the sugar syrup change colors around the outer edge to an amber-brownish color, or if using a candy thermometer – 350 degrees. Remove from heat immediately and using a wooden spoon or whisk, quickly stir everything to keep the sugar water from burning. Your simple syrup should be a golden ale brown. As you continue to stir, pour in 1/2 cup of warm heavy cream and pats of butter. When the cream makes contact with the sugar water it will start bubbling violently. Continue to stir until the sugar crystallization dissolves. Finally, add 1/4 cup of additional warm heavy cream (and rum) until caramel sauce is nice and smooth. Transfer to a heat proof jar and allow the sauce to cool on the counter slightly covered with plastic wrap for an hour. Use immediately or seal the jar and store in the refrigerator. Enjoy!
Note: *As caramel sauce cools, it will thicken. Before serving, re-heat in the microwave for 30 seconds for 1 cup.
{Related Post} Chocolate Ganache Recipe 3 Ways
{Just pour the water in and give it a stir…}
{Sugar/Water mixture cooking kind of looks like 7-Up.. don’t you think?}
{Now we’re going somewhere}
{Ahhh.. this is what we want.. but we don’t want it to burn so REMOVE from heat fast and start stirring that baby like you’ve never stirred before}
{Isn’t the color here beautiful? Wish I had a sweater this color, would be perfect for Fall – color should be a golden maple syrupy hue}
{This is the fun part… caramel ain’t real caramel until it has some HEAVY cream- now stir!}
{Looks like a crazy science fair experiment, except its better!}
{From 7-Up looking sugar water to this…. GLORIOUS!}
{Don’t you wish you could stick your finger in that stream of caramel?}
{Remember to soak your pan in warm soapy water… but not before scraping it down and licking your spoon… (as many times as you need to so you don’t have to clean as much later)}
{Related Post: Dulce De Leche}
My tip for this recipe is to Not stir once it begins to boil. Add the Corn syrup with water/sugar. Take off of heat at 345 degrees as heat continues to climb a few degrees!! Once off heat stir vigorously and then add rest of ingredients.
Verenice: Heavy cream goes by that name “Heavy Cream” or can also be called “whipping cream”. The brand name depends on whatever company services your local supermarket/market/sales area.
Oops. The very first line of the recipe! That’s what I get for reading before breakfast. nevermind 😉
When in the process do you add the 1/4 cup of corn syrup?
I received a jar as a gift and couldn’t wait to find the recipe. Will be trying it tomorrow. Just one question, as I would also like to gift this, can the batch be doubled? I tried to double a batch of marmalade and ended up with syrup. And we won’t even talk about my mother doubling a batch of peanut brittle (the only thing that wasn’t covered was the cat!).
I have this problem too, every time I’ve tried to make caramel except once: Put cover on it which keeps the water amount the same (ish) so the sugar doesn’t crystalize, the steam just condenses on the cover and the sides and keeps the sugar moist. A clear top is best, since you don’t have to take the top off to see the color of the sugar
heya could some1 help me i used to make this as a teen and i used to make it with brown sugar and condenced milk i made it tonight that way but i took my eye of the ball as kids desturbed me so the sugar dident mealt rite but i still eat it it was good but im lost as i see people saying white sugar and cream so dnt no if any1 has made it with brown sugar and condenced milk if so could u tell me im doing it rite well it tasted good would have been better without the lumps of sugar so looks like i dident melt the sugar enough but has any1 ever heard of doing it that way with the brown sugar and condenced milk as i dident think u could do it with white sugar so could some i tell me if they have done it like that oh and also if u want to make a bigger batch how much more sugar and cream would u use i just went with the recipe i got on the can of condenced milk as it tells u how to make caramel cake on the tin and how to make the caremel so i just followed the steps on that it worked but i dident brake the the sugar down enough and kids distracted me
Don’t stir after it starts to boil. It’s some crazy chemical reaction and the water just disappears. Ugh!!!
Don’t stir the simple syrup after it starts to boil. I think they forget to tell you that. Rookie mistake that I made as well. I cried and tried again. Much better the second time.
I tried this as a child and always failed, ending up with sappy looking sweet milk. Wanting to make it perfect this time, I methodically followed your tips. Pictures were very useful, as were the comments. Well it came out amazing first time. I will definitely remember this recipe. Thanks for posting it!
Hi Peggy,
It’s 1/4 cup. Sorry about that!
The instructions say to add 1/4 corn syrup….1/4 what? (I know it’s optional). Thanks
Mmm. It really look tempting
Update:
I decided to let it cook farther and see if it clumps up like I heard in other replies. I was happy to see that it did! Big clunky crystals!
So I followed your instructions and let them dissolve. It turned amber and beautiful!
I removed it from the heat, continuing to stir, then put it in a mason jar.
I decided to follow your last step and eat a little of it from the spoon…
…well, as another commentor mentioned, it was rock-hard when it cooled! It’s candy caramel, like what’s used for brittle. (If I had nuts, I would’ve made some. Unfortunately I didn’t, so the caramel just hardened in the jar and I had to throw the whole thing out — jar and all.)
How do you ensure that it doesn’t do this and stays liquid even when not hot? 🙁
I tried making this today and failed. 🙁 I thought the sugar turned amber but when I added the butter and cream, it never became as dark as yours looks. I cooked and stirred for a while, added the rest of the cream, and now I’m stuck with a light-colored grainy mess. I wouldn’t be distraught if I hadn’t used a real vanilla bean for this! That’s $3.75 down the drain. 🙁
I guess I’ll give this another try sometime, but I’d like some clarification:
What do you mean by stirring “until the crystallization dissolves”?
Thanks.
I just made this recipe and it was absolutely divine! Can’t wait to try the salted caramel recipe 🙂
What kind of milk should you use?