My oh my!! I just made Homemade Caramel Sauce and it is absolutely amazing. I’ve been wanting to make Homemade Caramel Sauce for quite some time but I’ve been a little fearful that I’d never get it right. There’s so many things that I’ve wanted to make with caramel sauce that I thought it was about time I gave into my fear and at least attempted to make it. I figured I would completely ruin my first batch, which is okay. Many fails have happened in my kitchen. Thankfully, I was wrong to be fearful. My first batch of caramel sauce turned out to be so dang delish that I was in shock how easy it was to make. I should’ve tried this sooner!
The key to making Homemade Caramel Sauce is not to be afraid of the rapid boiling of the sugar-water mixture, to have a little patience and to know when to add the heavy cream. I cooked the sauce on a portable single burner that I bought so I could make cooking videos easier. I had read there are sometimes issues keeping the single burners at a constant temperature so I was a little nervous using it for the Homemade Caramel Sauce. I made sure to monitor how violently the sugar-water mixture was boiling. I either turned up or down the heat to keep the mixture at a very rapid boil.
There has to be some pretty violent bubbling going on to be able to reach the correct amber color.
Once the amber color is reached, like above, it’s time to add the heavy cream. I knew there would be a big reaction between the very hot sugar-water mixture and the heavy cream, so I cautiously added about 1/3 of the cream and POOF! The mixture puffed way up and scared the bejesus out of me! Honestly, at that point I was going to abandon the whole thing but I stood strong and kept stirring. Sorry the pic is a little out of focus below but I grabbed a snippet from the video to show you the difference in color of the mixture when the cream is added.
Once all the cream was added to the mixture, I boiled it for a few more minutes while stirring constantly. I took my Homemade Caramel Sauce off the heat and then added some vanilla extract. I let the caramel sauce cool for about 10 minutes.
Confession time; at this point the caramel sauce was still a little warm thus runnier than I expected. I felt bummed about the runniness and thought maybe I did something wrong. Don’t be disappointed like me. If you finish making this sauce and it’s not at thick as you thought it would be, it will thicken up when it cools completely and even thicker still if you put it in the fridge for about an hour.
After I let my Homemade Caramel Sauce sit in the fridge and cool off, I tested to make sure the consistency was thick and, of course, did a taste test just to make sure it was as good as I thought. I’m happy to report my Homemade Caramel Sauce passed both tests so now I’m sharing it with you. Enjoy!
Homemade Caramel Sauce
Ingredients
- ½ cup water
- 1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup of heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Combine water, sugar and salt in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Stir with whisk for about 5 minutes. The syrup should be at a boil. Without stirring, let the syrup boil for 10 minutes or until the syrup is a medium amber color.
- Carefully, stir 1/3 of heavy cream into the syrup. Turn heat down to medium-low and stir in the remaining cream. Simmer the mixture about 3 more minutes. Remove the mixture from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract. You now have Homemade Caramel Sauce but it will be runny because it’s still warm. Let the caramel sauce cool in a heat resistant container and plop in the fridge for about an hour. Once you remove the Homemade Caramel Sauce from the fridge, it will have thickened up. Enjoy!