Homemade Salted Caramel Recipe

What is Salted Caramel?

Salted caramel is sweet, sticky sauce which tastes just fabulous. This can be made with only 6 ingredients. Sometimes, only 4. These are easily available in our pantries 😊. Difference between the salted caramel recipe using 6 and 4 ingredients is, 6 ingredients recipe uses water and vanilla extract where 4 ingredients recipe doesn’t.

Here, I am going to show how to make Salted caramel by using 6 ingredients. For beginners, using water in the salted caramel recipe is best because it helps you to avoid getting burnt taste.

This is one of my favorites. I have made this recipe almost 8-10 times to make it perfect and trust me, this is very easy to make and one of the best salted caramel recipes I have ever had. This tastes so yummy and can be enjoyed with many baked goods such as cheesecakes, brownies, cake, cupcakes, cookies, pies.

In short, this can be used as filling, topping or as a sauce.

Where can it be used?

You can use it in cakes, cupcakes, cookies brownies, cheesecakes pies. You can also use this salted caramel recipe in Swiss meringue buttercream (SMBC) to make Salted Caramel SMBC (Swiss meringue buttercream)

What information this blog contains?

1. List of ingredients and Importance of each ingredient.
2. Equipments required to make this.
3. Step by step recipe (with images) to make homemade salted caramel recipe.
4. Pro tips to make homemade salted caramel recipe.
5. Video representation of the recipe
6. Frequently asked questions
7. Detail recipe card with quantity of ingredients and detail steps to make homemade salted caramel recipe.

1. List of ingredients and Importance of each ingredient.

Ingredient’s pic

• Butter

I am using salted butter in this recipe. You can use unsalted butter if salted is not    available at home. Just increase the quantity of salt by ½ pinches.

• Heavy Cream

Please use room temperature cream. Heavy cream or heavy whipping cream which is 36% of milk fat is used in this recipe. You can also use light whipping cream (30% milk fat) or double cream (48% milk fat) as a substitute. I have never tried half and half cream so, I won’t recommend that. Also, do not use milk instead of cream.

• Sugar

Sugar is heart of this recipe. Please use granulated sugar. There is no substitute of sugar in this recipe.

• Salt

As this is salted caramel recipe, salt is an important ingredient. If you want to make just caramel sauce, please skip salt if using salted butter. If you are using unsalted butter, please reduce the salt quantity by half but do not skip it altogether. Remember salt always brings out flavor of sweet baked goods. You can also increase the amount of salt by half to make it saltier.

• Vanilla extract

I recommend using pure vanilla extract in this salted caramel recipe.

• Water

You just need little to water so that sugar is fully dissolved. This method of making Salted caramel is also called as Wet method.

2. Equipments required to make this

1. Heavy bottom sauce pan
2. Rubber Spatula or wooden spoon
3. Measuring spoons
4. Measuring cups

3. Step by step recipe (with images) to make homemade salted caramel recipe

1. Put sugar in a thick bottom pan.
2. Now add water to that.

3. Boil it till it become brown.

4. Remove from gas. Add cream little by little and add continuously.

5. Now add butter and stir until it melts.

6. Lastly, add salt and mix it.

7. Cook until it starts to boil.

8. Homemade salted caramel is ready.

4. Pro tips to make homemade salted caramel recipe

• Use Heavy Bottom Pans

Make sure to use heavy bottom sauce pan to make this salted caramel recipe. In this recipe, mixture will start to bubble up. To avoid any wastage, use a pan bigger than you think.

• Use room temperature Cream

Our mixture of water sugar and butter is already very hot. So, if you add room temperature cream to this hot mixture, it is going to bubble up rapidly. Think if you add cold cream, what will happen 😊

• Use mittens if required

This recipe consists of steps which includes bubbling up the mixture. If the pan is small, it will start splattering. So, use mittens to avoid any burning.

• Keep on stirring the mixture

When we are adding water to sugar, we are reducing the possibility of burning the sugar. But this recipe requires continuous stirring to avoid burnt smell of sugar in the salted caramel recipe.

• Use Rubber spatula or Wooden spatula

As I mentioned many times in this recipe, this involves lot of heat, continuous stirring, So, it is better to use high resistant rubber spatula. Wooden spoons are best.

• Never use Icing Sugar / Powdered Sugar

Powdered sugar or icing sugar has impurities like corn flour which prevent caramelization. This means, your chances of burning caramel are higher if you use powdered sugar / icing sugar.

5. Video representation of the recipe

6. Frequently Asked Questions

• Can we make this salted caramel recipe in advance?

Absolutely. You can very well make this in advance and keep it in fridge or freezer.

• How long can this stay?

Make sure to cover it tightly. This can stay at room temperature for 1 day

This stays good for one month in fridge and can stay up to 3 months in freezer.

• How to store this homemade salted caramel?

As I mentioned above, this can be kept in tightly covered jar. Caramel has tendency to solidify once it cools down. And, if you keep it in fridge, it is going to get hard. Do not worry, just heat it in microwave for couple of seconds and you are good to go 😊

• Can we use this caramel to make soft caramel candies? Or can we use this caramel in chocolates?

The consistency of this caramel if pourable. So, this is not suitable to make soft candies and cannot be used in chocolates.

• How can we prevent salted caramel from crystalizing?

1. Make sure there are no impurities such as coffee powder / any spices, in sugar. Also, the equipment should be clean.
2. You can prevent crystallization by brushing edges pf pan with water by using pastry brush
3. You can prevent crystallization by adding some acid such as lemon juice or cream or tarter because it helps water-sugar mixture to stay fluid.