Have you noticed that salted caramel has become a “thing?” With a history of disastrous attempts to caramelize sugar, I was fearful of trying to make anything with caramel. Still, I decided to try a recipe for homemade salted caramel sauce without a thermometer for this month’s Secret Recipe Club. And all I can say is wow!
With just 4 ingredients and a bit of organization, the salted caramel sauce comes together in less than 30 minutes, start to finish. I’ve tasted a lot of salted caramel sauce in my time and this version from Traci of Burnt Apple is definitely among the best. It’s not too salty and just the right amount of sweetness. I can’t wait to try it on ice cream, in baked goods, and maybe even drizzled on chocolate.
If you don’t know about Secret Recipe Club, it’s a fun way to broaden my horizons and the recipes available to you on Mother Would Know. The organizers pair up the food blogger members. After checking out our partner’s blog, each of us chooses one of the partner’s recipes to blog about. We can follow the recipe “as is”, make minor adaptations, or use it as inspiration.
My Secret Recipe Club partner this month is Traci, the blogger behind Burnt Apple is one busy lady. Besides being a mom to three active kids, she works, goes to school, and writes her blog. Burnt Apple is filled with recipes that are simple and mostly healthy. With an index that designates which recipes are gluten free, paleo, vegan, and naturally sweetened, the blog is a treasure trove for those of us who need a quick dish to fit a particular diet or health regime.
I thought seriously about making Traci’s steak tacos with lime mayo dressing or her strawberries and cream quinoa pancakes. Still, like a siren song, the homemade salted caramel sauce without a thermometer called to me and I just couldn’t resist. If you’ve never attempted salted caramel before, this recipe is for you. It doesn’t require a candy thermometer or any other special equipment and the directions are simple and straightforward.
Here’s all you need to know to make this amazing sauce.
Tips for Making Homemade Caramel Sauce without a Thermometer
- Be patient when heating the sugar. It takes a while for the sugar to go from grainy, to clumpy, to melted. The process is not difficult, but the sugar can easily – and quickly – burn once it is close to melted. So keep whisking and don’t look away, even for a few seconds. (This is not a good time to answer a text or check email.) In her recipe, Traci said that it takes only 5 minutes to cook the sauce from start to finish. I found that the caramelizing step took almost 15 minutes.
- Use a pot with high sides. The caramel sauce with bubble up twice, first when you add the butter and then again when you add the heavy cream. Even though the sugar doesn’t take up much height, you’ll want a few inches of room above the top of the sugar. the photo below was taken after the bubbling subsided the first time. But at their peak, the bubbles brought the sauce up to where you can see the marks on the side of the pot.
- Organize all your ingredients by the stove. Remember mise en place? This caramel sauce is like stir frying – you have to have each ingredient at the ready. No searching around for a measuring cup for the heavy cream or cutting the butter into chunks as the sugar melts.
- Use high quality sea salt. Just like using high quality chocolate is always a good choice, when you’re using sea salt in a recipe like this one, where it stands out as a major ingredient, it is worth going for high quality. I don’t have the one David Lebovitz recommends, fleur de sel de Guérande, but use another French variety known as sel de Camargue. It’s available from Amazon and in specialty food stores in the US. I’ve even seen it in Whole Foods.
- Refrigerate the finished sauce. Because it uses heavy cream, like pies that contain custard, this sauce must be refrigerated.
- Use heat resistant glass containers to hold the sauce. Traci suggested canning jars and I found that they worked well. Her recipe says it makes two cups, but I found that it made enough to fill three 1-cup (small) canning jars. Do not pour the finished sauce into plastic jars!! It is piping hot and will melt them.
Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce without a Thermometer
Ingredients
- 2 cups granulated sugar white
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter softened and cut into chunks, 12 tablespoons
- 1 cup heavy cream room temperature
- 1/2 tablespoon flaky sea salt also known as fleur de sel
Instructions
-
Heat the sugar in a pot with high sides under medium heat. Stir it often with a whisk, especially as it clumps and then melts. Once melted, continue whisking until it turns a medium-dark amber color. You may need a silicone spatula to pull the sugar off the sides as it melts.
-
Once the sugar is melted and amber-colored, add in the butter chunks and continue whisking as the mixture bubbles up..
-
Once the sugar and butter are combined, take the mixture off the heat and slowly stir in the heavy cream. Whisk the sauce continuously. It bubbles up again and then smooths out.
-
Then add in the sea salt and whisk it until well combined.
-
Pour into one or more heat-resistant glass jars and refrigerate.
Recipe Notes
The sauce is thin when it is hot and becomes much thicker as it cools. Once it has been refrigerated, it may be too thick to pour. You can thin it out by warming it up, either in a microwave at low or medium-low, or by warming the glass jar in a few inches of hot water.
SallyBR says
This post is a real tutorial for something tricky and intimidating! Great series of photos and explanation…
awesome!
Happy Reveal Monday!
Laura says
Sally, So glad you liked it. I love doing the tutorials because they help me next time around too – if I forget how I did a step, the photos remind me:) #BadMemory
Karen Burns-Booth says
I am DEFINITELY going to make this, as I am a caramel addict! It looks so smooth and creamy and totally delicious! What a FAB pick for SRC and June, I love it! Karen
Laura says
thanks Karen. I love the recipe and it was so much fun perusing Traci’s recipes this month for the SRC.
Erin @ Making Memories says
I could just drink that! It looks samazing!
Laura says
Thanks Erin – Great straight from the jar (after cooling) or drizzled on ice cream or a brownie. Of course, your comment about drinking it gives me another idea – adding it to a beverage. Homemade caramel macchiato anyone?
Anna says
I NEED some of that now! I looks wonderful.
Laura says
Anna – I don’t blame you. I’ve eaten way more than my fair share of this batch:)
Karen says
I absolutely love that fleur de sel. It’s the best. I always keep a little canister on my counter. This caramel sauce looks delicious!
Rachael says
I have the same pot of fleur de sel – it must mean I am destined to try this recipe! 🙂
Laura says
Rachael, Don’t you love this fleur de sel?! Yes, you’re destined to try this salted caramel sauce 🙂
Emily @ Life on Food says
Caramel is such a thing right now. I don’t mind though because it is so tasty. This is a great tutorial post.
Laura says
Thanks for stopping by Emily. Hope you’ll try this recipe – it’s a winner! (And thats not even bragging since it’s from my Secret Recipe partner.)
Katie Zeller says
That looks easy – and I certainly have access to all the fun sea salts, living in France. 😉 I’m going to do that for my next dinner party!
Nicole @ Crazed Mom says
Oh my. I need this in my life! Perfect recipe!
Laura says
Haha – a woman after my own heart Nicole:)
El says
Hi, is this sauce thick enough to pipe on macarons and does it get melty at room temperature? Cheers!
Laura says
I don’t think it is thick enough to pipe on macarons.
Susan Dattolie says
Is this good for drizzling on brownies?
Laura says
Susan, Sure, drizzle it on brownies. Though I have to say that drizzling on ice cream is my preference, but that’s just personal taste:)
Dave Chartrand says
Great recipe but I have to exception with the information about salt. The idea of “high-quality” salt or “sea” salt are complete red herrings. All salt ultimately comes from the sea and sodium chloride is sodium chloride…you can’t have more or less selinity in salt – it has the same chemical makeup. Also I defy anyone in a double blind test to pick out the one containing a small amt of fleur de sel or other “designer” salt. Clearly this is confirmation bias in action and a bit pretentious actually.
Laura says
Dave, It made be my imagination (or simply the cut of the salt crystals), but I can taste the difference between some kinds of salts. I would agree with you that all salt has the same chemical makeup – it’s sodium chloride. Anyway, thanks for stopping by and sorry for the late response.
Kimberly Brunet says
Can you substitute milk and extra butter for the heavy cream? It’s after midnight but I want to make this NOW! Any suggestions?
Laura says
Kimberly, I’ve never made that substitution in this recipe but I’ve done it in others where you don’t try to whip it to stiff peaks. So I can’t say for sure but it seems like it should work. Did you try it? Results?