A few days ago, when we were checking-out at the super market, I noticed that my husband (it still feels a bit weird calling him that) slipped in a bottle of caramel sauce, which actually was nothing more than an overdose of corn syrup with artificial vanilla and half a dozen chemicals. If that weren’t bad enough, he paid €6.50 for it!
That bottle of fake caramel struck a nerve. I couldn’t stand watching him drizzle that god-awful sauce over a gorgeous triple chocolate mousse cake he and a good friend made for my birthday (l’m one lucky girl). Sacrilege. So I made caramel sauce with farm fresh butter and Maldon sea salt.
I quickly read up on tips laid down by David Lebovitz on making the perfect caramel and within minutes I had my caramel sauce. Deep amber, thick, unctuous salted caramel sauce. The best. Ever.
Here’s a tip: When adding salt, you can add a part of it while the sauce is warm so it flavors the entire sauce evenly as it melts in, and then some more once the sauce has cooled and thickened so as to enjoy a bit of the salty crunch. Also remember, making caramel is a very quick process – you can’t step away from the pan of sugar even for a bit!
After I was done eating the sauce as if it were soup, I made myself an apple tart with puff pastry and Canada apples I bought from the farm. Nothing too elaborate; just puff pastry topped with thin slices of apples sprinkled with a bit of cinnamon sugar (just a bit – we want the sweetness from the salted caramel sauce later) and baked at 200ºC/400ºF until the pastry was golden brown.
Salted caramel sauce drizzled on the apple tart: heaven at home.
Salted Caramel Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 200g / 1cup white sugar
- 90g / 6tbsp unsalted butter (the best you can get your hands on)
- 120g / 1/2 cup cream (double cream, preferably)
- 1 tsp (or more) Maldon Sea Salt or Fleur de Sel
Cooking Directions
- Add the sugar in a thick bottomed pan and cook it till it melts. Keep swirling the pan so that the sugar can cook evenly.
- Once the sugar has reached a deep brown colour, pull it off the heat and add all the butter. It will foam up, so make sure you're using a pan with high sides. Stir until it's completely melted into the sugar.
- Next, pour in the cream (more foaming) and whisk in until you have a consistent sauce.
- Stir in half the salt. Let it cool completely. Stir in the remaining salt. Bottle it.
- Serve it on a cake, in a cake, over ice-cream, tarts, crumbles, pancakes, brownies, waffles, toast, granola. Everything.
- Store in refrigerator for upto two weeks.
UPDATE!
11th January: I made the caramel sauce again for a cake. This time, using salted Bordier butter. Turns out that this batch had a slight bitter taste that a bunch of you have written about in the comments. That’s our answer! For making this caramel sauce we must stick to using unsalted butter in case we want to avoid that bitter taste. Just for this recipe, Bombay folks, bite the bullet and spend a little extra on unsalted President butter available in most supermarkets. You will be hooked. I promise.
{ 52 comments… read them below or add one }
Yum yum…..actually it is that easy is what I felt when i read the recipe while reading David’s book. Ofcourse it is a bit of a process to find double cream so I was happy Amul what is easily available.
Cheers licking…..
Of course. Amul was my best friend back in Bombay.
How come Salt is added to a caramel sauce? I thot it’s supposed to taste sweet!
To balance out the cloying sweetness. Adding salt will change your world. I promise. I had the most delicious salted caramel ice cream here in Paris and I’m a convert.
Do I need to refrigerate this? And, how long will it keep?
Sara, updated the post to include details.
Ok to add regular salt?
Absolutely!
Would love to enjoy with a simple bowl of fruit salad, delicious sauce..
David Lebowitz is so amazing, isn’t he? I also learned a lot from that article. And I absolutely love any dessert with salted caramel.
Yes please!! I wish I had some right now and it’s not even lunch
As soon as i saw your link via twitter I knew this would brighten up my day. I just made the first batch with my boy after school and it is rich and sweet and very moreish (I let the sugar catch ever so slightly by mistake so there is a strong caramel hit that is too sophisticated for the younger boys).. i used my vanilla sugar and cornish sea salt and we will pour it over vanilla ice cream at teatime.
That was quick! Glad you enjoyed it. : )
Hey! Iv been thinking of caramel sauce for days now! So glad you posted a recipe. Will make soon
So, you living in Paris is working out so well for us
I love caramel sauce! Thank you for posting this!
Oh, how much does this make?
I think it was about 300ml. Can’t be sure because I ate up a lot straight from the pan.
The caramel sauce was obviously much better (and cheaper) than the Hershey’s sauce, which is also good, but who am I to complain – I’m in a win-win situation. I get Hershey’s caramel so my wife get’s jealous and makes more caramel. Now that’s life!
- The Husband.
How is it that you don’t put on weight with all this that you bake and am sure occasionally eat? Everything on your blog is beautiful and you are obviously very talented but I wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole.
Please start blogging about photography tips soon…your photos are spectacular
You flatter me.
hey, can i have details of your baking class?
thanks!
vandana
I’ve moved to Paris for a bit. Will let you know when I’m back in Bombay conducting classes.
Man, I just discovered the magic of salt on chocolate milk after watching an episode of Modern Family. I’m pretty sure this salted caramel tastes awesome!
Hey Shaheen does the caramel sauce solidify if you keep it in the fridge? I tried making caramel sauce once and it turned brittle and glassy like candy. I shall use double cream like you have advised! Looks great.
Just warm it up a bit or let the jar sit in hot water for 10 minutes.
Wow…..looks great! There are so many things that you could serve this with……yummy!
Hey!
Made this sauce today after hours of absolute boredom! It just transformed the mood! And the colour of my sauce is like yours! Yayy!
this sounds wonderful and you can use it on so many things. i am thinking of vanilla ice cream!
If we weren’t doing a lot of dairy free due to a milk intolerance in the family I would be making it right now. Looks delicious. For now, I will live vicariously.
Does anyone have this recipe based on volume,
I do not have a food scale. Thank you
Updated to reflect!
Will this sauce hold layers of cake together?
Hei Shaheen, I tried the caramel sauce and some of the cream and the butter turned to ghee when added into the hot caramel. It tastes good, but still has a ghee smell, which I don’t like. Is that expected? Any idea how I can avoid it?
Yikes, that’s odd. Did you take it off the heat when you added the butter and cream? Maybe add cold butter so it doesn’t split?
Let me try cold butter next time. Thanks
I just made the sauce yesterday and I found it yummy. However, I’m not sure if I burnt the sauce (I dint see it burning) as there is a slight bitter after taste. Is it supposed be like this or have I burnt it?
My caramel sauce follows Smitha’s…I made it and there was a slightly bitter aftertaste. Not bad, just a little bitter. Is that supposed to be there? (Either way I managed to polish it off with a little help!)
It’s not supposed to taste burnt/overtly bitter. The sugar continues to cook even after you’ve pulled it off the heat – that’s probably why.
Can I avoid salt if I am using salted butter (most probably I would be using Amul)?
Thanks.
You can. If I were using Amul, I’d still add the salt because I love how the sweet and salty flavours work together so beautifully.
As soon as I took the melted butter off the stove And tried to swirl in the butter and then cream, the sugar solidified completely and turned into big rocks. What did I do wrong??
‘Took the melted butter off the stove and tried to swirl in the butter and then the cream’ I don’t understand.
Whoops, I meant “melted sugar.” I’m guessing the I didn’t use a heavy saucepan so it didn’t retain the heat to keep the melted sugar gooey. I ended up firing up the heat again while stirring in the butter & then cream and then picking out the chunks of sugar rocks. It was still pretty tasty! Thx!
I tried making the caramel sauce a few days back and my first attempt looked exactly like what yours looked like in the photo, except that my sauce too had a slight bitter after taste (and I’m sure I didn’t burn the sugar… I was watching the pan VERY VERY closely). I had used salted butter (Amul, as that was what I had at hand, Amul Cream and regular table salt as I didn’t have sea salt and/or Heavy cream available) The sauce was delicious despite the bitter after taste and was consumed with great speed.
I decided to make the sauce again yesterday, but this time the only thing I did change was the butter. I went out and bought the best quality french unsalted butter that I could lay my hands on. And this time, there was no bitter aftertaste to my caramel sauce at all. All the other ingredients remained the same (still used Amul cream and salt) so I don’t know if the butter is the answer to the bitter after-taste mystery… I just thought I’d add my two bits..
Interesting. Thanks so much for demystifying this!
The sauce is super addictive though… Thank you for sharing. Your blog is one of the most joyful places on the internet…
I am totally with you about the packaged sauces! Not caramel sauce in our case, but nutella (my worst nemesis), chutneys, ketchup, jams ….. I am on a make-my-own jag, and this caramel sauce will be part of it!
I tried to make the caramel sauce with your recipe, step 1 and 2 worked perfectly enough, however when I pour in the cream to the melted sugar the sugar became firm and crystalise, then I know that my sauce was failed. The cream I used was kept in fridge when I want to use it I just take out from fridge. Is it the temperature for the cream too low? Or need to preheat the cream before pour the cream into the melted sugar?
Hi Jun, I’m not entirely sure. I’ve used cream from the fridge as well as cream at room temperature. Same goes for butter.
Where does one get the Maldon Sea Salt in Del ?
I’m sorry, I don’t know where, I got mine from London. You can use Fleur de Sel as well.
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