Just enough salt makes this Salted Caramel Sauce perfect—with caramelized sugar and vanilla. The now classic flavor of salted caramel wins again!!
There are so many delicious uses for this sauce. In and on pie of course, on fresh apples, on ice cream, cake, cookies. In a cocktail, apple cider or hot chocolate. Let’s go on…comment when you figure out a new one!!
Salted Caramel Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- 2 teaspoon sea salt
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon butter
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Combine ½ cup water, sugar and salt in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir until sugar is dissolved, then remove spoon.
- Brush inside edges of pan with water to dissolve any sugar crystals. Reduce heat to medium, then allow mixture to boil, gently swirling pan occasionally. Cook to a light amber color, 20 to 25 min, remove from heat and stir in cream and butter with a clean spoon (mixture will bubble, then settle). Stir in vanilla and set aside to cool. Sauce can be refrigerated for up to a month.
Notes
Nutrition
- Use this sauce in and on Salted Caramel Apple Pie
Recipes for Pies and Tarts
Tara Teaspoon
I’ve been in food publishing for over 25 years, creating recipes & food-styling for magazines, books, television, food brands, & advertising. With two cookbooks under my belt and thousands of my recipes at your fingertips, I hope you'll be inspired to spend more time in the kitchen!
Recipe by Tara Bench. Food Styling by Tara Bench
Mary Bench
I could just drink this stuff!
Beth Buschman Kelly
It took me three tries to make this, but I used it for the Salted Caramel Apple Pie and it was delicious. You only need to brush the sides of the pan with water at the beginning to dissolve the crystals. I kept doing it and found out too much extra water will keep it from caramelizing. Should the sea salt be coarse crystals? I used fine crystals and the sauce tasted a little too salty.
Tara
Beth you're awesome! I'm so happy you kept at it. Caramel sauce is super tricky the first few times and just takes practice. Thanks for sharing your tips. Fine crystals on the salt is fine because it dissolved faster. Either work. That being said, I did make this sauce on the salty side so it could stand up to the sweet apples in the pie. For sure note on the recipe that you'd like it less salty next time around though. It's smart to take the recipe as a guide and make it taste good for YOU. Happy Holidays!
Marie
This is my go to recipe for caramel sauce. I use it on ice cream, cheesecake, and sometimes just a spoon!