Name: Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 10 min
Ingredients: 1/4 cup water (- room temperature); 1 cup granulated sugar; 1/2 cup heavy cream (- room temperature); 1/4 cup unsalted butter (- room temperature); 1 teaspoon sea salt

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Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce is a simple five-ingredient recipe combining water, granulated sugar, heavy cream, butter, and sea salt. This caramel sauce has fantastic flavor and is perfect over cake, muffins, cheesecakes, ice cream, and so many other things!

Make my Old Fashioned Caramel Icing next!

Overhead view of a small jar of caramel sauce with a spoon.

Best Caramel Sauce

Caramel Sauce makes the world go around. 😀

I’ve been making this sauce on repeat lately to drizzle on all the things – Caramel Apple Cheesecakes, Apple Spice Cake, Caramel Latte, Applesauce Muffins, ice cream, and more. It’s simply a miracle sauce that makes everything taste better!

People, this is SO unbelievably easy to make! It takes just 15-20 minutes from the time you get the ingredients from your pantry to pulling the pan off the heat. You can use it immediately or let it sit for a little while to thicken slightly. A MIRACLE!

Ingredients needed for Caramel Sauce:

Yup, just 5 ingredients, friends!

Water – Helps to liquify the sugar.
Granulated Sugar – The best base for anything caramel. The sugar will turn a lovely amber color as it cooks.
Heavy Cream – Use REAL heavy cream. No light or half and half versions allowed!
Butter – I use unsalted butter for this sauce and in all of my recipes.
Salt – I recommend sea salt for caramel sauce.

** Make sure all ingredients are at room temperature for optimal results!

The ingredients for the homemade caramel sauce, labeled.

How to make Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce:

This caramel sauce is SO easy. Only about 15 minutes to make, and unbelievably delish.

Step 1
Cook water and sugar. In a small saucepan, heat the water and sugar over medium heat. Stir constantly until the sugar has dissolved. Turn up the heat, bring the mixture to a boil, and stop stirring. Let the mixture continue to boil until it turns amber in color. This could take several minutes.

A pan of the water and sugar with a wooden spoon.

A pan of the caramel sauce when it turned amber.

Step 2
Add remaining ingredients. Remove pan from the heat and slowly (and carefully!) whisk in the (ROOM TEMPERATURE) heavy cream. Then mix the butter into mixture and add the sea salt. Stir well.

A pan of the sauce after adding the heavy cream.

Step 3
Serve. Pour the sauce into a mason jar and drizzle it on all the things.

Step 4
Store. Store the caramel sauce in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. You may need to microwave it slightly as it will thicken over time.

Recipe Tips:

Use a heavy bottom pan that has a little extra surface area. This is a small recipe but having a larger pan than you need is important for proper cooking.
Use ROOM TEMPERATURE ingredients. You can even warm up the heavy cream a bit if you’re short on time.
Make sure you let the sugar and water turn amber (see photos above) before removing from heat and adding remaining ingredients. DON’T STIR during this process.
Add the heavy cream in SLOWLY and whisk or stir constantly.
If the sugar starts to clump up, add a bit more water and continue stirring.
If you sugar clumps and you can’t get it all to dissolve, it’s ok. Simply discard that clump and use the remaining caramel. It’s happened to me and it’s still delicious!

A jar of homemade caramel sauce with a spoon.

How to use this easy caramel sauce:

Use it in my Mini Caramel Apple Cheesecakes.
Drizzle it on top of my Applesauce Cake.
Add it to some Cozy Caramel Lattes.
Top your ice cream – like Butter Pecan Ice Cream Recipe, Homemade Vanilla Bean Ice Cream, and Coffee Toffee Ice Cream.
SO many other ways to use this caramel sauce!

This sauce will thicken as it sits. It will be easy to drizzle at first, but after it thickens, you’ll need to heat it up in the microwave for a little bit.

Other delicious fall recipes for you to try next:

There are so many other choices on the blog. Try one of these or some others I’ve recently shared.

Pumpkin Streusel Cake – A moist pumpkin cake with a brown sugar streusel layer in between, and then topped with an easy cinnamon icing.
Puff Pastry Peach Tartlets – Semi-homemade for a super quick and easy dessert.
Apple Pie Banana Bundt Cake – The perfect fall mash-up, combining a banana cake with an apple pie sprinkle.

Side view of a slice of applesauce cake with a spoonful of caramel sauce drizzling on top.

Kitchen Tools Used: (affiliate links)

xoxo ~Sue