This easy caramel sauce is made with heavy cream and your choice of flavorings. Make it salted or unsalted, or with vanilla, whiskey, or bourbon. Rich and delicious, it's superior to store bought!
1tablespoon(20grams)light corn syrup, optional, see Recipe Notes
¾cup(180grams)heavy cream, warmed between 100°F to 110°F
¼cup(57grams)unsalted butter
flavorings, optional, see Recipe Notes
Instructions
In a 3-quart heavy saucepan, stir together the sugar, water, and corn syrup until the mixture looks like wet sand. Bring the mixture to boil over medium heat and cook until the caramel has a deep amber color, about 10 to 12 minutes. DO NOT STIR during this process, but wash down sides of saucepan with a wet pastry brush. Watch it carefully as the caramel will turn dark very quickly at the end.
Once a deep amber color is reached, remove from heat and SLOWLY add the warmed heavy cream. The mixture will boil up, so stir continuously to keep the mixture from bubbling over. Stir until combined, then return to heat and add the butter and any flavorings.
Keep boiling the caramel, stirring occasionally to keep the mixture from bubbling over, until a digital thermometer or candy thermometer registers 230 °F, about 1 to 2 minutes more.
Remove from heat, pour the caramel into a storage container with a tight-fitting lid (like a canning jar), and cool to room temperature before using. It will thicken as it cools.
Storage instructions: Store the caramel for up to 1 month in the refrigerator, sealed tightly in the jar. When you want to serve it, reheat it gently in the microwave (20 second increments at 40% powder) or on the stove over low heat until it has reached your desired consistency.
Notes
Adding water to the sugar while it's caramelizing (called a "wet caramel") helps to keep the sugar from burning. If you leave it out, the sugar will turn amber faster, but you have to be super diligent, swirling the sugar in the pan to melt it evenly.Corn syrup helps to keep the sugar from seizing up during caramelization. It's optional, but recommended. You can also use honey, agave syrup, or golden syrup instead of the corn syrup.If the sugar does end up crystalizing during the melting stage, add some water with 1 to 2 tablespoons corn syrup to soften sugar crystals, then cook the mixture again until it's reached the correct color.The sugar syrup can go from light amber to a black mess very quickly, so keep an eye on it and remove from heat as soon as the desired color is reached. The boiling sugar will also go from noisy to quiet as the sugar caramelizes, so you can listen for that.Flavoring Variations:
Salted Caramel Sauce: Add 1 teaspoon salt with the butter.
Vanilla Caramel Sauce: Add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or scrape the seeds from ½ a vanilla bean) with the butter.
Salted Vanilla Caramel Sauce: You guessed it...add both the salt and vanilla with the butter.
Whiskey Caramel Sauce: Adding 1 to 2 tablespoons of your favorite whiskey or bourbon at the end will give your caramel sauce a boozy kick. Or, use wine, whiskey, or bourbon as a base to take your caramel sauce to another level of flavor.