Easy Salt Caramel Sauce, a salty sweet, gooey, decadent caramel, is so easy to make, and will outshine any store-bought brand!
Why Do We Love Salt Caramel?
Ah, salted caramel, that irresistible combination that seems to make everyone swoon! The reason we love salted caramel so much is actually a perfect blend of science, psychology, and pure sensory delight.
The Balance Of Opposites
Our taste buds adore contrast. The deep, buttery sweetness of caramel is rich and comforting, but just when it might verge on being too sweet, a sprinkle of salt snaps everything into balance.
That touch of salt highlights the caramel’s buttery complexity and tempers the sugar rush, keeping your palate intrigued instead of overwhelmed.
Caramel’s Flavor Amplification
Salt is a natural flavor enhancer. It doesn’t just add its own taste; it magnifies the flavors around it.
When added to caramel, it brings forward notes of toasted sugar, vanilla, and cream that might otherwise stay hidden.
A Little Neuroscience Sauce
Salted caramel hits multiple pleasure centers in the brain. Sweetness triggers dopamine release (the “feel-good” chemical), while salt activates the body’s natural craving for sodium, a mineral essential for survival. Together, they create a kind of flavor euphoria that’s hard to resist.
Salt Caramel Texture and Aroma
Whether drizzled over ice cream, baked into cookies, or whipped into mousse, salted caramel combines creamy smoothness with a hint of stickiness, a mouthfeel that’s both luxurious and nostalgic.
And the scent? That buttery, toasty aroma hits before the first bite, already setting off the brain’s pleasure response.
Sugar Makes Caramel
As simple as that; melting sugar is basically how caramel is made.
When sugar melts, it becomes a liquid, which then becomes a syrup as it boils, which is not careful will boil into a dense rock.
The trick to making caramel is to boil the sugar only until the temperature is about 350 degrees and then add butter and cream.
A Tip About Sugar
Have you ever noticed how refined sugar pours, almost like powder, while coarse raw sugar can become clumpy and stick together?
The more processed the sugar is, the dryer it becomes, with all of its natural moisture removed.
However, a good coarse raw sugar has far more flavor for cooking, and for making caramel, it is the preferred flavor.
Often, though, raw sugar will clump together in our canister and cause us to think it is no longer good to use.
This, however, is not the case, the sugar simply needs something to help manage moisture; and I’ve got just the solution for you!
Salt Caramel Everything
While caramel apples, or salt caramel cookies might come to mind first when you think of Salt Caramel, think again!
It is said that Salt Caramel should be the next brown butter for savory dishes simply because of its classic umami flavor.
Salt Caramel Sauce On Meats
Try a little salt caramel in your next glazed chicken or sticky spicy hot chicken wings. The salty sweet flavor is perfect when added to chili peppers, roasted tomatoes and any favorite slow simmered savory sauce.
When making your favorite fruit jams, particularly a fruit that is brown in color, such as my Fig Jam, salt caramel is perfect to whisk in, instead of sugar. The sugar flavors have been cooked down into something much richer in flavor.
Certainly a pork pie, or lamb tagine lend themselves to a sweet, sour and spicy hot sauce.
Add salt caramel sauce to your favorite barbecue sauce for more flavor than you imagined. Don’t forget how fantastic those pork sauces will taste on duck meat.
Salt Caramel on Veggies
Imagine salt caramel on your Thanksgiving sweet potatoes, or in a fabulous Sweet Potato Pie.
That’s right! Cut open a sweet potato, roast it in the oven for a bit, spread salt caramel into the par-baked sweet potatoes, sprinkle a smokey jalapeño powder on top and… Boom! Fantastic sweet potatoes for any meal, or maybe just alone.
Salt Caramel and Booze
Add a little bourbon or chili peppers to your salt caramel, give a stir, and the possibilities are endless.
Ever had a salted caramel coffee cocktail? Mix coffee liqueur, bourbon, and caramel syrup, then finish with a dash of sea salt. Top with lightly whipped cream and a caramel drizzle, like dessert in a cup.
Salt Caramel the Queen of Desserts
Want a quick and easy weeknight dessert?
Just pull out the jar of salt caramel sauce you made days ago, spread it over sliced apples and you’ve got a luscious, almost healthy dessert.
Who doesn’t love a good ole salt caramel apple? Go ahead, toss a few chopped peanuts over the salt caramel apples and you will swear you are at a carnival on a summer’s eve!
What would Halloween be without those old fashioned Caramel Popcorn Balls, folks used to give out to neighborhood kids, when life was… well, let’s not go there!
If sweets are your thing, than my Chestnut Cookies with Salt Caramel Filling are just what you will want every year for the best Christmas cookies you will ever make.
Afterall salt caramel and chocolate have been a ‘thing’ for a very long time.
This recipe goes amazing on my Chestnut Cookies With Salt Caramel Filling, check out the recipe here.
Ingredients Needed
These four humble ingredients come together like a little kitchen symphony. Each one has a role to play in turning something simple into pure salted caramel magic:
- Sugar is where it all begins, the foundation. When heated, it melts and transforms, deepening in color and flavor as it caramelizes. That golden amber hue comes from the Maillard reaction, creating hundreds of aromatic compounds that smell like toasted marshmallow and taste like nostalgia. The trick is to let it darken just enough to develop complexity without tipping into bitterness.
- Butter is the soul of caramel. Once whisked in, it adds a silky richness that softens the sharp edges of burnt sugar. Its milk solids deepen the flavor, making every bite taste round and full. Butter also helps emulsify the sauce, blending the sugar and cream into a smooth, glossy harmony.
- Heavy cream is what gives caramel its luscious pour. It cools the molten sugar slightly, preventing it from becoming brittle, and turns it into a sauce that’s thick, velvety, and spoonable. Cream lends body, while its natural sweetness balances the intensity of the caramelized sugar.
- Sea salt is the alchemist’s touch. Just a pinch unlocks hidden dimensions in the caramel, brightening the sweetness, sharpening the butteriness, and adding those tiny bursts of flavor that make your taste buds sit up and pay attention. The subtle crunch of a flaked salt crystal against the smooth sauce can make the whole experience sing.
Equipment Needed
- Saucepan to simmer the sugar until it magically turns into something scrumptious.
- Cooking thermometer is needed to register the correct temperature of the melted sugar for the perfect caramel texture, color and flavor.
- Wooden spoon is my preferred spoon for working with hot sugary sauces. No metal reaction and easier to clean.
- Measuring cup and measuring spoons as are any bakers basic tools.
- Airtight jar, preferably a Mason jar for storing the caramel.
Nostalgia Meets Indulgence In This Salt Caramel Recipe
Caramel reminds us of childhood, simple, sweet comfort, but salt elevates it into something sophisticated. It bridges the gap between familiar and grown-up, between cozy and decadent.
Now, get out your saucepan, a cooking thermometer and some good ole sugar and let’s make the best darn salt caramel you’ve ever had!
Easy Salt Caramel Sauce
Equipment
- Saucepan
- Candy thermometer
- Whisk
Ingredients
- 2 cups Sugar
- 3/4 cup Unsalted Butter 12 tbsp
- 1 cup Heavy cream
- 1 tbsp Sea salt
Instructions
- Have cream and butter at room temperature. Place sugar in a saucepan and begin to melt on medium-low heat. Continue cooking the sugar, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes or until the temperature of the sugar is no more than 350 degrees.
- Turn off the heat. Whisk in the butter, it will sputter a bit. Add cream and whisk. Add salt. Cool 15 minutes and transfer to a jar.
Video
Notes
- Will keep up to one month in the fridge.
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