Caramel and I have a long history. I want to be good at making it and it just wants to keep bringing me down. I have scars on my arms from caramel attempts gone wrong to prove it. There was this tart on the cover of Saveur magazine that almost killed me. It was a salted caramel tart in a chocolate base with a ganache topping. It took 3 tries to get it right, 1 sauce pan casualty, and one serious burn. But I was determined to get it right. The thing that I discovered that I was doing wrong was not trusting my instincts. Like in life, you need to trust yourself to know that you know what you are doing. I did not trust myself to know that maybe my thermometer was not calibrated anymore, or maybe there was a misprint in the recipe. Finally on the third attempt I threw the thermometer out and just watched for the signs from the stove that the sugar was ready. You need to trust your senses. Does the color look right? What does it smell like?
After a few more attempts at making caramel for different things, I am no longer afraid. The worst thing that can happen is that I am out of a cup of sugar and I need to start over. My new outlook on caramel has made making caramel an enjoyable experience instead of one where I felt like my domestic prowess was being judged. I have learned a few things that I will share with you though.
1. Have everything out and ready to go. Keep a cup of water and a pastry brush next to the stove. You can brush the sides of the pan with water if crystals start to form. Measure out your cream and have the vanilla out.
2. Once the sugar starts bubbling, do not walk away from it. Do not check email or go fold a load of laundry, you really need to keep an eye on it.
3. Do not stir the sugar. Once dissolved if you stir the sugar it will form crystals up the side of the pan. While a cool science experiment, it is not something that you want when you want a smooth and rich caramel sauce.
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup water
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Put the sugar into a sauce pan.
Cover the pan with the water. Cook the sugar and water over medium heat.
Bring the sugar to a boil. Have your cream and everything ready to go.
When it starts to get to this stage, keep a close eye on it. This takes about 10 minutes.
When it turns a dark golden amber color (350 on a candy thermometer, but who needs one of those?) you are ready to pour in the cream.
It is going to bubble like crazy. Just keep whisking and it will all come together.
See, I told you so. Just like magic.
Add the vanilla off of the heat.
Allow the caramel to come to room temperature. It will thicken up as it sits. Keep it in the fridge.
Once you eat homemade caramel sauce, it will be hard to eat the kind from a jar. It is so smooth and rich and has that caramelized taste that is like none other.
Remember the chocolate ice cream that I made the other day? This sauce just might be amazing on it. With some crushed up pretzels. Oh. My. God.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1/3 cup water
- 1 1/4 cups heavy cream
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Put the sugar into a sauce pan. Cover the pan with the water. Cook the sugar and water over medium heat.
- Bring the sugar to a boil. Have your cream and everything ready to go.
- When it starts to get to this stage, keep a close eye on it. This takes about 10 minutes.
- When it turns a dark golden amber color (350 on a candy thermometer, but who needs one of those?) you are ready to pour in the cream. It is going to bubble like crazy. Just keep whisking and it will all come together.
- Add the vanilla off of the heat. Allow the caramel to come to room temperature. It will thicken up as it sits. Keep it in the fridge.
Hi Bree
I am so glad I found your blog! First, I made your taco salad the other night….huge hit with the hubby. I did a post on it, hope you like http://www.thecottagesisters.com/2010/05/taco-salad-with-honey-lime-dressing.html. My sister just made a dessert the other night that called for caramel sauce I was going to try since I have leftover pineapple from Mother’s Day and you do this recipe just in time! I will be trying this tonight, a little nervous because I have never made caramel anything. Hopefully, it will go as easy as you made it look. Thanks! Denise@cottagesisters
I love your blog…I just found it from thekitchn. I’m incredibly jealous of your natural light in your kitchen. My kitchen is at the center of the house…sort of a t-shape that acts as a hallway as well…so no windows actually border the kitchen. I’ve definitely found yet another food blog to follow now. Your format is great, clean and simple and your pictures are honestly what I’m striving for. You’ve also got a lot of lemon recipes…which is great since I have an ever-producing meyer lemon tree in the yard. Keep up the good work and I’ll keep on reading.
Cheers!
I just made caramel ice cream and I had the same problems, except mine was with a dry caramel. Eventually I realized it was the directions, not me. I did go through a few cups of sugar before I realized it though.
Another tip from a long-time caramel maker. Have your cream heated to just below boiling before you add it to the hot sugar. That way, the caramel doesn’t seize as much, or doesn’t seize at all. My family’s old caramel icing recipe does it that way, and I use the method every time I make a caramel cream combination. Works!
Congrats on the caramel! It looks fantastic.
It’s totally addicting stuff isn’t it? I’ve gotten so addicted I bought a copper sugar pot just for candy making (all of my heavy pots are too dark to see the correct color so the guessing game was getting a bit too frustrating).
Great post!
Thanks for the tips! I am terrible at making caramel…
I have made caramel the dry way, with just water and then with corn syrup + water. The latter method is the easiest to not screw up, but the dry method is definitely the quickest. I love making caramel! Yours looks fantastic!
I recently found your blog and love it! I attempted caramel sauce last Christmas and ended up with the worst smelling kitchen I’ve ever had. The thermometer never got past like 250! You’ve inspired me to try again (after I get my ice cream maker this week – yay!).
P.S., I’d add some salted peanuts to that chocolate ice cream with caramel. Yum!
I have had some major kitchen fails while trying to make caramel. But it is so worth it in the long run.
Have you ever tried making a dairy free version, using something other than cream? Great tips and step-by-step instructions.
no I haven’t, but I bet that you could use soy half and half.
I used this recipe. It is delicious! Thank you very much!
you are very welcome.
i wish i had found your blog about 6 months ago. i was on a quest to make caramel sauce and it took me 3 times too! finally got it when i figured out that its like a controlled burn of the sugar. now it seems so easy, but those other times i was about to cry and pull my hair out. now i just use my senses-no thermometer, just like you said!
I have so been there. Throw away the thermometer I say to get a great caramel sauce.
Hello!
Could you please provide exact measurements in ml/g/etc?
Thanks in advance!
if I can, I will.
Oh my God is right. I’m bookmarking this and loving it forever. Thank you!
You are welcome!! Let me know how it turns out for you.
Hi! I just found your blog and this was the first page that came up!
I’m making chocolate cupcakes with a caramel drizzle… just wanted you to know that I’ve just now tried (for the first time since graduating culinary school!) to make caramel, and let me tell you – I LOVE your recipe!!!
The way you’ve got it panned out… amazing. You’re lovely, and I’m so glad that I’ve found another blog to follow!!!
Lots of love from Pennsylvania, Abbey
Thank you so much Abbey! I am glad that you found this post helpful.
Oh dear lord.
I’ve had caramel sauce before…or at least thought I did… but this stuff… it’s the food of the gods. It was all I could do not to just sit in the kitchen with a spoon and eat the whole batch.
BRAVO!
You will never be able to eat caramel out of a squeeze bottle ever again. Homemade caramel is in an entirely different dimension than store bought.
I totally should have been cleaning up my kitchen from my gingerbread house-making yesterday, but instead I was making your caramel. (I did have to add some butter, because butter is king) Thanks for such an easy, fast recipe! My kitchen is still a mess, but now I have caramel to eat with chocolate molten cakes tonight
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Glad that I could help you make even more of a mess.
Love your recipe. Something so simple yielded something so complex and worked wonderfully on the cheesecake and chocolate molten lava cake I made for my wife’s birthday yesterday. She loved it!
Next time, I might try to heat the cream and then maybe try adding butter, thanks to ideas from the above people. Still, this recipe stands by itself, but I bet it is versatile as well.
You say to refrigerate it, but I would like to know if you microwave it to warm it up, or if there are other ways. This is a new area for me since I don’t like store bought caramel sauce, but I love this stuff! Thank you and Happy Holidays.
I am glad that you liked this caramel sauce. I would either warm it at 50% power in the microwave or to heat it in a hot water bath.
Hello, I found your website while searching for caramel tips. I keep ruining the water and sugar part of it. I have the heat on medium low trying to dissolve the sugar and water, but I think the water is starting to boil before the sugar is dissolved because even though I don’t stir, by the time the sugar water starts turning an amber color, it’s like rock candy. Please help!
Turn your heat up. Also mix the sugar and water together before you put it on the heat.
Hi, i love your web. The step by step picture really help me. A couple days ago i tried your caramel sauce. It goes very well with my homemade vanilla ice cream. Thanks
I am glad that it helped.
Have made the caramel sauce twice and the whole family loves it. We use it as dipping sauce for raw apples (trying to have healthy’ish desserts and snack)!!!
Yum. Sounds like a perfect snack.
This is my first visit to your fantastic blog!
Want to really knock their socks off? Just add a dash of Kahlua.
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Why didn’t I think of that?
Will this work for candied apples?
Honestly, I am not sure. I don’t see why not though.
I made this recipe tonight becauses I am sick of seeing the wordsd “high fructose corn syrup” on the caramel sauce jars! It is fabulous and I did not mess up even though this was my first attempt! Thank you so much!
I am so glad. I am proud that it only took you one time. I did not have that luck the first time I tried caramel sauce.
This looks amazing, I am just wondering how long you can keep it in the fridge for?
a few days at least, probably a week.
My caramel came out great! At least until I realized it didn’t thicken. Tastes yummy! I wonder what I did wrong. I plan on using it on an ice cream cake made with ice cream sandwiches and need it to be a little thicker. This was my first time making caramel so I don’t feel bad. Perhaps my problem was a small pat of butter I added with the vanilla when I removed the pan from the stove?
It will thicken after it has been in the fridge. It needs some time to set up.
Thanks! You were right- it thickened just like you said it would. People were practically licking their plates! What a hit!
try adding a vanilla bean and about a teaspoon of sea salt next time, I did that the other day and about died. I did not think that it was possible to make it even better.
Oh, my golly. This is exquisite—just made a batch and had to come back and share the joy.
I thank you. My kids thank you. My waistline thanks you.
thank you Wendy! I love this sauce and make it all the time.
If you ever have trouble with the sugar turning into crystals try adding about 1/8 tsp of cream of tar tar. You can also cover the saucepan with plastic wrap until it starts to get any color. This is like constantly using a brush, without actually having to use it. The condensation will do the work for you. I am going to try this recipe this weekend.
PS. Can I leave a link on my blog for your web site?
thanks for the tips. And of course you can!
So to die for! I’ve always loved caramel…it looks like the perfect addition to some homemade chocolate icecream….yummm
Me too. Love it. Perfect on anything really.
I used your recipe for the second time yesterday making some delicious Boom Boom Pow cupcakes (vanilla cupcakes, chocolate frosting, caramel sauce on top, and then sea salt sprinkled to add the perfect salty and sweet combination) and it turned out to die for again! I love the steps and pictures of all of your recipes and can’t thank you enough for making things so simple!
That cupcake sounds amazing. So glad that you find it helpful.
Bree, I can’t tell you how great this recipe is! I have tried making caramel before and it was a complete disaster, thank you for the really helpful explanations and pictures. My caramel sauce turned out PERFECTLY.
This makes me so happy! Glad that it helped you.
I was appalled after reading the ingredients on the label of the brand-name “caramel” sauce in our pantry. Now that I have found your recipe – with four ingredients that I can pronounce! – our family will never eat that fake stuff again. THANK YOU!
Plus, it tastes so much better. You will never eat store caramel again.
Hi, Bree! Love your blog and this recipe! First time I tried to make it with the milk instead of heavy cream. It was great, but in a couple of minutes I realized that it was too thick, I couldn’t even put a spoon into it. I wonder how to make it more liquid kind of a sauce? For the next two times sugar turned into crystals before it changed the color. Please tell me what I did wrong?
Thanks!
First, you cannot use milk. When are you making something like a caramel sauce, you cannot really improvise or it might not work. Did you stir the pot? That causes sugar crystals.
Here I am on round 3. 1 and 2 failed. Thermometer is in the garbage. Fingers crossed, mouth drooling…..
Oh no! Are you using a dark pan? If you are, you might not be able to see the color of the caramel.
Great instructions and pictures! This is the same recipe I have used for years and it works great every time, now that I too trust my instincts and add the cream when the sugar mixture just looks right. I do use European vanilla essence in all my baking now instead of extract and love, love, love it… if you can find some, give it a try!
I’ll have to try the vanilla essence. Where do you get it?
Thanks for answer! I finally did caramel sauce exactly like I wanted it to be. But I improvised and used butter, milk and lemon juice so sugar didn’t turn into crystals. Good luck!
glad that it worked for you Anna.
Made this for the first time today and the color turned into dark brown. However, the it tasted great! Will make a second attempt tomorrow. Thanks for sharing!
you are welcome Grace. it takes some practice sometimes.
Perfect the first time! Thank you so much!
I am so glad Karen!
I just made your caramel sauce; it only took me 4 times of doing it wrong, throwing it out, & starting
all over again to get the perfect one! And we all love it! thank you! Think I’ll add sea-salt to this one.
It is perfect Christmas gifts!
Sounds like my first attempt!
Hi there. I tried the sauce today to make butter pecan cupcakes with your salted caramel frosting and it was an epic fail..lol. I think I let it sit too long and it crystalized and got super thick. I read through some of the other post and I think I may have done a couple of things wrong. I used a dark pan and couldnt really tell if it was getting dark or not, I walked away because my 2 year old had to have something at that moment (figures!). I didn’t stir it but it did move a little bit, do you think that might have did it or that I just cooked it too long? Unfortunatly, I used all my cream that I had (total last minute sweet need!), so back to the store I will go later and give it a try. I really want to make your frosting recipe with the butter pecan cupcakes!!
You probably cooked it too long. You really have to babysit it, and follow directions carefully. I speak from experience.
I found that when I added 2 TBsp of corn syrup to the sugar, it was much easier to keep the mixture from crystalizing. Don’t even have to wash off the inside of the pot with a brush.
That is a way, but I prefer to not use corn syrup in a sauce.
Hi Bree!
I’m planning on handing this out to people for Christmas and I was wondering how long this will keep in the fridge. Thanks!
At least a week, but probably 2.
Great recipe! I find that if I put the water in the pot first, then slowly pour the sugar in the middle of the pot (do not stir!), then turn on the heat and let it boil then I don’t get any crystals forming on the sides. It’s REALLY hard not to stir, but trust the process and it should work perfectly.
thanks for the tip.
I tried this last week, and it was a disaster. Today? I took your advice and tossed out the thermometer and I have the most beautiful and delicious caramel sauce I have ever tasted. I’m never buying commercially made caramel sauce again. Thanks for posting this simple to follow recipe!
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I will not buy it anymore either. I love making it, and the taste is amazing.
I have successfully perfected the caramel sauce, thanks for your recipe. It’s a big help, seriously. I have added also 1 ingredient to this recipe. I added 1/3 cup / 75g of unsalted butter, and it turns out delicious and flavorful.
Thank you so much.
I bet that it does!
How would you recommend making this sauce in bulk?? I have an event this weekend, and I wanted to make a caramel sauce that i kept in a crock pot to put over apples. Do you for see any problems with this idea??
You know what, I wouldn’t make it in bulk. Maybe double it, but sugar can be really weird. I would look for a specific recipe for a large quantity. I just would be afraid that you spent all of the money on cream and it did not work.
Oh. My. Gosh! I cannot thank you enough for this recipe and the fantastic and clear tutorial. I just made this, and it really was easy — and is seriously heaven to eat! Mmm. Yummy. Thanks!
I am so glad that this helped you!