Salted Caramel Sauce Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How do you make salted caramel sauce thicker? ›

If you're using heavy cream, note that it contains more water (less butterfat) than double cream. If your caramel sauce ends up too runny, cook it for a few minutes longer to remove some of the moisture – this will thicken it up. (And next time, try using a slightly smaller amount of heavy cream.)

Absolutely! You can use any milk you have at home, whether whole, non-dairy, or evaporated, to make a deliciously creamy caramel sauce.

And salted caramel is one of the easiest recipes. This truly the best salted caramel I've ever had and there's only 4 ingredients required: sugar, butter, heavy cream, and salt. This salted caramel is a reader favorite recipe, marking its spot in the top 10 most popular recipes on my website.

If you have added too much butter to your caramel sauce, you may find that it is too oily or it might even begin to separate. To fix this, add 1 tablespoon of either water or milk and stir while cooking over medium heat. Adding 1-2 Tbsp of a simple cornstarch slurry may fix the problem, as well.

Add more sugar to the sauce.

Most caramel sauces are made by caramelizing sugar and adding milk and a little salt. If you increase the amount of sugar in the recipe you'll end up with a thicker caramel. Try increasing the sugar by about 1/3.

To thicken a caramel sauce, use one tablespoon of cornstarch or tapioca starch (sometimes known as tapioca flour) and one tablespoon of water per cup of caramel. Then simmer the caramel, stirring it constantly with a wooden spoon until it becomes thick.

Pour the condensed milk into a baking dish and bake. Alternatively, pour it into a double boiler and simmer. Either way, you'll have caramel sauce in about two hours.

Why Did My Caramel Seize? If too many bits of sugar get stuck to the side of the pan, they will harden and can cause the caramel to seize or become gritty or grainy when you add in the butter and/or the cream.

The Science Behind The Flavour

Salt, on the other hand, stimulates the taste buds responsible for detecting sour and umami flavors, which can enhance the perception of sweetness. The addition of salt to caramel not only enhances the sweetness, but also adds a savory element to the flavor profile.

What is the difference between salted caramel and caramel? ›

The primary difference between salted caramel and normal (or unsalted) caramel lies in salt in the former, which significantly impacts both the flavour profile and the overall taste experience.

These are sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami. Salted caramel combines two of these, giving an effect that chefs call “flavour layering”. Salt also acts as an enhancer of flavour (that's why you sprinkle it on your chips, for instance), so that's why it makes caramel taste even better.

The butter, sugar and syrup are melted together and should form a smooth sauce. When the sauce cools it should remain amalgamated. If the butterfat separates out then usually this is due to the mixture being either heated or cooled too quickly, which "shocks" the mixture and causes the fat to separate out.

Yes, you can make a caramel sauce without butter, but you have to add either water or... something else. If you use water, you'll get a pure caramel syrup that looks like honey.

If caramels are too hard, you can try placing them back in a saucepan, adding a couple tablespoons of water and stirring until the thermometer reads 242°F. Pour back into a prepared buttered pan. If caramels are too soft, that means the temperature didn't get high enough.

The water evaporates, leaving sugar crystals behind. If even one sugar crystal falls back into the pan of cooking caramel, it starts a chain reaction of sugar crystals and the entire pan will harden. The result?

Here's how to make soft caramel harder: Put the caramel back in the pot, add 2-3 tablespoons of water, and remelt the caramel. Cook the caramel until it reaches the correct temperature, and pour it back into a foil-lined pan.

When making a wet caramel, water is added to help dissolve the sugar before cooking. Like dry caramel, you want to gently move the sugar mixture in that same side-to-side paintbrush-like fashion until the sugar dissolves.