Quick and Easy Caramel Sauce

Quick and easy caramel sauce that takes only 5 minutes to make. No thermometer is needed!

If there is one thing I love more than chocolate (and Nutella and peanut butter and Snickers), it’s probably salted caramel. As much as I love caramel, I’ve always thought it is way too sweet (imagine that) – a phrase that barely exists in my sweet obsessed life.

A few days ago, Erez and I ate at one of our favorite restaurants. We were very excited about their new menu. Erez picked the dessert for us – a chocolate and salted caramel mousse (nom nom nom… great choice), He clearly ignored the word salted because when he took the first bite he looked at me (surprised) and said, “It’s salty”.
Me: Yes, because it’s salted caramel.
Erez: Salted caramel?
Me: Yes, when you add salt to caramel.
Erez: Why would you want to put salt in a sweet dessert?

You imagine the rest of the conversation… No agreement on that one.

Then yesterday I made this amazing caramel sauce and let Erez taste it. You know how a baby’s face looks when you let him taste something sour? He had the same expression on his face 🙂 Then he said: “it’s salty”, as if we’ve never had this conversation before.
Anyway, you get the point. He doesn’t like salted caramel. But I love him so much that I forgive him.
He did mention though, that the caramel itself tastes amazing so we’re good.

This caramel sauce is so delicious – salted or not. This caramel tastes just as good as caramel made in the traditional way (i.e. caramelizing granulated sugar first), but this one is much easier to make. The brown sugar in the recipe is what gives the sauce its amber caramel-y color.
No thermometer is needed. All you need to do is to mix the ingredients in a saucepan and let it simmer for about 4 minutes. Don’t be tempted to cook it for longer, otherwise it will get too thick once it’s cooled. Remove from the stove and add vanilla extract. Be careful though, because the mixture is very hot and will foam up.

The sauce can be kept refrigerated for up to 5 days. Warm it up in the microwave before using.

Now guess what I did with the caramel I’ve made?

5 from 3 votes

Quick and Easy Caramel Sauce

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Ingredients

• 1 cup (200 grams) dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick or 56 grams) butter
• salt (a pinch for classic caramel sauce or ½ teaspoon for salted caramel)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

1. In a medium saucepan, mix together the sugar, heavy whipping cream, butter and salt and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and let the mixture simmer for about 2 minutes, whisking occasionally.
2. Remove the saucepan from the heat, add the vanilla extract (be careful, the mixture is hot) and stir. Let mixture cool in the pan for 2 minutes, then pour into a jar. Let cool to room temperature and refrigerate until ready to use (up to 5 days). Warm it up in the microwave before using.