Homemade caramel sauce has been on my to make list for a long time, but recipes that include melting sugar often scare me. I finally got around to making homemade caramel sauce with an easy recipe that uses only five ingredients. I also found some tips and tricks to make sure that your homemade caramel sauce is a success!
This week’s Secret Ingredient for Iron Chef Mom is caramel! Yum, right? Well, as it turns out, I have absolutely NO recipes that include caramel! It’s a travesty, really. I’m not sure how that happened considering caramel is a favorite of my husband. I have, however, had homemade caramel sauce on my list of recipes to make for ages. The problem is that melt sugar scares me. It’s just so fussy! I’ve ruined my fair share of homemade toffee recipes. Honestly, instead of making homemade caramel sauce, I’ve just bought it. Shame!
But no more store bought caramel sauce for us! I can’t believe how easy it is to make homemade caramel sauce. The recipes are basically all the same, but I found a few tips and tricks on successfully making homemade caramel sauce from Danielle over at Hugs & Cookies (she has one insane blog — you have to check it out!). Danielle makes two suggestions that I didn’t see on other recipes for homemade caramel sauce. First, warm the whipping cream so that it’s not such a shock to the caramel when you add it. Second, add the heated cream very, very, very slowly. I added mine a tablespoon at a time and I did end up with small hard chunks in the sauce. I’d like to avoid that so next time, I’ll add even less cream at a time.
This homemade caramel sauce would be really delicious on some pumpkin ice cream or drizzled on top of Snickers Cheesecake. Pair a jar of homemade caramel sauce with a jar of homemade hot fudge sauce and add an ice cream scoop for a fun Christmas gift for pretty much anyone!
Homemade Caramel Sauces: Iron Chef Mom
Ingredients
- 2 cups white sugar
- 1 2/3 cup heavy cream, warmed
- 2 Tablespoons salted butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3/4 teaspoon coarse salt
Instructions
Evenly distribute sugar over the bottom of a large metal pan (mine was 8 quarts).
Heat sugar over medium to medium low heat without stirring. Turn heat down if it seems like the sugar is burning.
When the sugar around the edges begins to melt, begin gently stirring with a wooden spoon.
Continue to stir gently until all the sugar is melted and turns a nice amber brown. You will smell caramel at this point.
Tun off heat. Slowly, slowly, slowly start adding warmed whipping cream and stirring constantly. I used a Tablespoon and that was too much. Take your time and keep dripping in the cream and stirring.
Once all of the cream has been incorporated, add butter, vanilla, and salt. Stir to combine.
Sauce keeps in the fridge for 2 weeks.
This week’s Iron Chef Mom is hosted at Lemons for Lulu! Head on over and link up your favorite recipes using caramel! I will definitely be pinning ideas since I obviously need more caramel in my life!
This post is also linked up to these link parties!