Old Fashioned Salted Caramel Sauce (This recipe freezes and freeze-dries well too!) - Whole-Fed Homestead (2024)

A buttery rich homemade from scratch salted caramel sauce! Made with just a handful of simple ingredients including real cream and butter, and nothing from a can! Caramel isn’t hard to make, but there are a few tips that will ensure your salted caramel sauce turns out just lovely.

CARAMEL MAKING TIPS

#1 Measure out all your ingredients first and have them ready before you get started. Once this gets cooking it goes fast, and you need to have the ingredients ready to go.

#2 Use a heavy-bottomed 2-quart saucepan. Anything smaller and you risk it boiling over, anything bigger and the sugar will be spread too thinly over the bottom surface of the pot and risk burning.

#3 Do not leave the kitchen. In fact, do no even look away from the pot while this cooks. It doesn’t take long to make, so give it your full attention.

#4 DO NOT STIR IT! You can stir at the very beginning when it’s heating up, just to help all the sugar crystals become moistened. And then of course you stir it at the end after you add the cream. But do not stir or even put a utensil in the pot between these times or you risk it crystallizing.

#5 Take careful note of the color of the sugar once it starts bubbling, so you can watch for the color to change to a deeper golden brown later.

#6 Adding the cream stops the caramelization of the sugar, so be ready to add the cream as soon as the desired color is reached. Literally the second it turns golden, add the cream. If you wait to long or have to take time to measure it out (you should have it pre-measured) your sugar will burn.

#7 Use a fine sea salt; if the salt is too coarse in too large of pieces it will not dissolve into the caramel well.

Sugar: You can use organic cane sugar, or regular white granulated sugar. White sugar will be easier to work with if you’ve never made caramel before. This is the brand I use –> Organic Cane Sugar.

Corn Syrup: There is only a small amount and it helps to prevent the caramel from crystallizing. You can use organic or regular light corn syrup. You can leave it out, but I’d recommend that only if you are a more experienced candy maker. This is the brand I use –> Organic Corn Syrup.

Vanilla: You can use any form of vanilla here– a real vanilla bean, vanilla bean paste, or vanilla extract. Here’s my favorite –> vanilla bean paste.

Sea Salt: Use the best quality, finest sea salt you have. If it’s too coarse it won’t dissolve properly. Here’s a brand I recommend –> Sea Salt.

Can you Freeze Salted Caramel Sauce?

Yes! Well… I don’t think you can freeze just any caramel sauce, but I have frozen this particular recipe before and it freezes wonderfully. I freeze it in straight-sided 4-ounce jelly jars. This is the perfect amount to take out for eating with apples, or for making my favorite salted caramel buttercream frosting.

Yes! Well… I don’t think you can freeze-dry just any caramel sauce, but I have freeze-dried this particular recipe before and it freeze dries wonderfully. It will expand and puff up, so this is best suited for drizzling conservatively onto apples or bananas. Freeze-dried caramel apple slices are one of my favorite things to freeze-dry. And this caramel is perfect for that!