Salted Caramel Sauce

By Manali Singh

Published May 11, 2015, Updated Feb 07, 2025

46 Comments

Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce makes the most amazing topping for ice creams, brownies & much more!

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The weather is warming up and we are getting lots of sunshine! yay! I am so thrilled and what adds to the enthusiasm is that we have found our own house! Yes, it took us some time but we finally found “the one” for us! My biggest criteria was that it should have a big kitchen and this one has a HUGE kitchen, like really huge and I can’t wait to move in. From 1 bedroom apartment to 2500 sq ft house, it’s definitely going to be a huge transformation. We will be moving mid-June and so things might be a little slow around here during that time. Also my parents are visiting us from India and they will be staying for a month. It’s going to be a super busy summer but I am not complaining! 🙂

Summer means more refreshing drinks and lots of ice cream. One of my favorite ice cream topping is salted caramel sauce. To be honest, I love all things salted caramel. Isn’t it a magical sauce? I sure think it is. The buttery goodness with the salty bits is definitely an irresistible combination. Whenever I make it, I find it hard to not eat the entire jar with a spoon!

Salted caramel is such a versatile sauce. Whatever you add it to becomes kind of special. Ice creams, brownies, cupcakes they all taste extra delicious when there’s some salted caramel involved. The experts say that to make the best salted caramel sauce one must use “fleur de sel”, which is the French sea salt. If you have it great, if you don’t (like me!) use any other sea salt, the Himalayan pink sea salt also works well. And if you don’t have sea salt, use regular salt, it is okay. You might not get the most amazing salted caramel but you will still get a very good sauce.

I used salted butter for this recipe. Most people prefer using unsalted butter however I am kind of partial to salted butter at times like in this chocolate cake frosting. Yes I love using salted butter in my frosting and also in this sauce. If you aren’t a fan, use unsalted butter and then add probably 2-3 teaspoons of salt in the end.

Method

Heat a heavy bottom pan on medium-high heat and add sugar to it.

Keep stirring, at first nothing will happen and then the sugar will begin to clump.

Keep stirring and all the sugar will will finally clump up and then begin to melt.

All the sugar will melt, keep stirring till it reaches a deep amber color. At this point add the salted butter. Remember to cut the butter into cubes before you add it to the pan, mixes easily that way.

Keep whisking til all the butter melts. Remove pan from heat and add in the heavy cream. The sauce will bubble up, whisk till combined.

Add the salt and mix. Let the sauce cool down for 20 minutes and then transfer it to another container.

Cover the sauce and keep it refrigerated, it should stay good for more than 3 weeks. Reheat the sauce before using.

* Always be very careful while making salted caramel sauce. I have burnt my fingers a number of times and it’s no fun.

* Always have all your ingredients ready to go before you start making the salted caramel sauce. Cut the butter into cubes, measure the cream and salt and keep everything ready before you start. Once the sugar melts, there isn’t much time between caramelizing and burning so you can’t do things in between.

* Choose a tall and heavy bottom pan to make this sauce. When you add butter and cream, the sauce bubbles up and if your pan isn’t tall enough, the sauce might overflow and you might burn yourself.

Recipe adapted from Two Peas & Their Pod