Easy Salted Caramel Sauce

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This caramel sauce tastes as if you slaved over it for hours, yet it’s only a few minutes in your microwave or on your stove top! Brown sugar eliminates the need to caramelize the sugar and tastes just as good, if not better.

Why not use this caramel sauce to top your Classic Apple Pie? Or maybe make an even quicker Caramel Popcorn instead?

Easy Salted Caramel Sauce

Making a caramel sauce yourself at home can be a pretty daunting task. This is because of how easy it is to accidentally mess up and ruin your caramel sauce if you aren’t being careful.

Alongside the risk of caramelization, caramel sauces have a tendency to burn really easily if you aren’t being careful.

This is because of how quickly sugar manages to go from a beautiful dark, caramel brown to a burnt, blackened mess. However, in this recipe, if you find that you are struggling with accidental burning, you can always use the microwave instead to make it easier!       

Easy Salted Caramel Sauce Ingredients

Make sure you look at the recipe card at the very bottom for the exact amounts so that you know exactly what to buy for this recipe.

• Butter

• Light brown sugar

• Heavy cream

• Salt

How To Make Easy Salted Caramel Sauce

Stove Top Method

• Combine the butter, sugar, and cream together in a medium-sized pot and whisk until well blended

• Heat over medium-high heat on your stove, whisking well

• Keep cooking until the sauce has thickened

• Remove and use on desserts

• Store in a closed container in the fridge for up to a month

Microwave Method

• Combine the butter, sugar, and cream together in a large microwave-safe bowl and whisk until well blended

• Microwave for 2 minutes and then stir

• Microwave for another 2 minutes or until the sauce has thickened

• Remove and use in deserts, and store in a closed container in the fridge for up to a month   

How To Avoid Accidental Crystallization In Your Caramel Sauce

One of the big risks when making caramel sauce at home is unwanted crystallization.

This crystallization occurs when large sugar crystals are allowed to develop along the exterior surface of the sauce. The crystals then get mixed into the sauce later and attach themselves to more crystals, eventually ruining the whole thing and turning it grainy.

To help avoid this, you want to make sure that you are really whisking and mixing well when combining all of your ingredients together.

This frequent whisking and mixing will help to ensure that any exposed sugar crystals get submerged in the cream and butter before they get a chance to develop until large crystals.

If you are being a bit slow with mixing, you might start to notice sugar crystals developing along the side of the pan. If this happens, then simply wipe the sides of the pan with a little bit of water, ideally using something like a pastry brush or even a bit of damp paper towel.

So long as you get rid of those exposed sugar crystals, you should be fine.

How To Get The Consistency Of Your Caramel Sauce Just Right

The big benefit of making this easy salted caramel sauce is that it is extremely adjustable based on what you want to serve it with.

Fresh out of the pan or microwave, the sauce should be glossy, thick, and yet pourable, perfect for serving on top of some ice cream once it has cooled down a little bit.

However, if you are looking for something with a slightly thinner consistency, maybe so that you can drizzle it more freely, then add just a little bit more heavy cream to the recipe.

The other thing you might want to think about controlling is the level of saltiness in your sauce.

This is obviously a salted caramel sauce, and thus it should be pretty salty, but it is definitely possible to over salt this recipe if you aren’t being careful.

While the best thing to do is just to make it a few times first, you can also taste it as it cooks and see if it is as salty as you like and then add more salt if it needs just a little bit more.

It is usually better to add too little salt and adjust it later than it is to use too much – after all, you can add more, but you can’t take it away once it is already in.

Looking for more delicious Sauce recipes? Try these out:

• Homemade Cranberry Sauce

• Raspberry Sauce

• How To Make Ganache

Happy Cooking

Love,

Karlynn

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