This homemade caramel sauce recipe is easy to make from scratch with 6 ingredients including butter, heavy cream and brown sugar. Learn how to make caramel sauce and never buy store-bought varieties again!
Add water and brown sugar to a heavy-bottom pan. Cook over medium-high heat until the sugar dissolves, whisking often.
Add butter and whisk until the butter is melted. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cook/boil over medium heat until mixture is thick and pulls away from the sides (about 10 minutes), whisking occasionally. (started 9:23)
Whisk in the heavy cream and sea salt until smooth. Bring mixture to a boil again and boil for 1 minute.
Remove from heat, whisk in vanilla.
Transfer to a glass storage dish or jar and let cool completely before serving (mixture thickens as it cools).
Video
Notes
Ingredient Substitution Notes
Light brown sugar. If you like a richer molasses taste, use dark brown sugar (or substitute up to half the light brown sugar with dark).
Salted butter. Unsalted butter works well too.
Heavy cream. There is no substitute for heavy cream in this recipe.
Vanilla extract. An equal amount of vanilla bean paste can be used in place of the vanilla extract.
Store Store homemade caramel sauce in an airtight container (glass jar with a lid) in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.