This easy, homemade Caramel Sauce is delicious drizzled over ice cream or apple pie!

spooning caramel sauce out of jar

If you want the most amazing dessert sauce that is so much better than store-bought, then you need to make this homemade caramel sauce. It’s buttery and sweet and wonderful. And you’re going to find that it’s extremely difficult not to eat it by the spoonful right out of the jar!

ingredients displayed for making caramel sauce

What is caramel sauce made of?

  • granulated white sugar
  • water
  • heavy whipping cream
  • unsalted butter
  • light corn syrup

three photos showing process of making caramel in pan

How do you make caramel sauce?

The full, printable recipe is at the end of this post. You will need a large, heavy saucepan for this recipe.

Combine sugar and water in your saucepan. Simmer over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Then increase the heat to high, and swirl the sugar water around until it begins to turn a darker amber color.

Once the darker color has been reached, remove the pan from heat and add heavy cream, butter and corn syrup. The caramel will sputter and steam. Put the pan back on the stove, and bring the mixture to a boil. Whisk and continue boiling for three minutes. 

Pull the pan from the heat, and cool slightly. 

spoon with jar of caramel

Pour the caramel into jars. Cover, and chill until ready to use.

How do you make salted caramel?

Add a good pinch of sea salt to this recipe to turn it into salted caramel!

spooning caramel sauce out of jar

How long does homemade caramel sauce last?

Homemade Caramel Sauce can be kept in the refrigerator for up to three weeks. Freeze it for up to three months.

drizzling caramel over ice cream

Consider drizzling this over your favorite vanilla ice cream. It’s also pretty amazing served over pound cake, cheesecake and chocolate cake. There are so many desserts that are so delicious when caramel sauce is added to them. Yum!

spooning caramel sauce out of jar
5 from 1 vote

Caramel Sauce

A delicious sauce that can be used to top ice cream, cheesecake and many other favorite desserts.
Prep: 15 minutes
Cook: 10 minutes
Total: 25 minutes
Servings: 42 servings (2 tablespoons per serving)
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Ingredients

Instructions 

  • In a large, heavy saucepan, combine the sugar and water. Set over medium heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat to high and cook, swirling the pan for even color, until the mixture turns a very deep amber.
  • Take the pan from the heat and carefully add the cream, butter and corn syrup: the caramel will sputter and steam.
  • Put the pan back on the stove and bring the mixture to a boil, whisking frequently to mix the ingredients. Continue boiling for a total of 3 minutes.
  • Let cool slightly, pour into jars, cover, and chill.

Notes

  • This sauce will keep in the refrigerator for 3 weeks, but it can be frozen for up to 3 months.

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving (2 tablespoons), Calories: 159kcal, Carbohydrates: 21g, Protein: 1g, Fat: 9g, Saturated Fat: 6g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 2g, Trans Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 28mg, Sodium: 7mg, Potassium: 10mg, Sugar: 21g, Vitamin A: 307IU, Vitamin C: 1mg, Calcium: 9mg, Iron: 1mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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4 Comments

  1. M.Purdy says:

    I like the recipe, made it great the first time.
    This time it never turned amber? I boiled it for over 10 minutes

  2. bc in edmond says:

    This looks delicious! If I’m going to make the recipe to give as gifts, I’d like to know how many ounces or cups it makes so I can buy the appropriate number of jars! Thanks in advance for your help!

    1. Lori Lange says:

      I’d say it makes between 2 and 3 cups.

    2. Cindy Mayes says:

      42 servings x 2 Tbl. is 5.25 cups when I googled it. I was wondering the same thing.