Caramel Sauce

Have you ever looked up how to make caramel sauce and got confused by finding out there are 2 ways to make it? - the dry caramel and the wet caramel. If so, you are in the right place! Today, I will show both ways and the comparison so you can decide which one you want to try next time!

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homemade caramel sauce and pecans on ice cream in a glass cup

Wet Caramel vs. Dry Caramel

Wet caramel

Wet caramel refers to caramel sauce made by heating water and sugar initially. After the caramel is darkened enough, heavy cream is added.

Dry caramel

On the contrary, dry caramel is made by heating only sugar initially. The rest of the process is the same as wet caramel.

The Mystery

As I continued learning about baking and making caramel desserts, such as caramel ice cream, caramel pound cake, and custard pudding, I noticed some recipes used the wet caramel method while others used the wet caramel method. And it started making me wonder... So, which one should I pick? Any difference in the results?

I'm guessing many of you have wondered or will wonder the same thing sometime during your baking journey. That is why I decided to make the in-depth tutorial!

Understanding both methods is also beneficial to master caramel sauce. I felt more confident making it after knowing both methods.

You'll learn essential baking tips such as:

How to make caramel sauce with both dry caramel and wet caramel method.
The detailed comparisons of the thickness while hot, cold, and at room temperature.
Tips to avoid sugar crystalization.
How you can avoid caramelizing sugar too dark.
+ all the other troubleshooting!

... and so on!

Let's get started! 💪🏻

Jump to:

Wet Caramel vs. Dry Caramel
You'll learn essential baking tips such as:
📌 What's In Caramel Sauce?
📌 How To Make Caramel Sauce
📌 Aya's Tips
📌 How dark the caramel sauce should be?
📌 The Comparisons Of The 2 Methods
📌 Uses For Caramel Sauce
📌 Frequently Asked Questions
📌 VIDEO: Watch How To Make It!
📌 Other Fillings
📌 The Printable Recipe
Caramel Sauce | 2 Ways
📌 Pin It!

📌 What's In Caramel Sauce?

Granulated sugar
- Use regular granulated sugar for the best result.
Water
- Omit water for dry caramel.
Heavy cream
- Use regular heavy cream. I don't recommend using milk for the best result.
Vanilla beans
- You can also use vanilla extract instead.
Salt
- I used regular table salt.
Unsalted butter
- In this post, I will also compare them with and without butter to show what butter does to caramel sauce.

📌 How To Make Caramel Sauce

The Dry Caramel Sauce Method

Heat sugar in a pot.
Once it starts caramelizing in one spot, mix it and melt the sugar gradually.
Add heavy cream and vanilla to the caramel.
Add salt (& butter) and mix.
Heat the caramel sauce one more time.

The Wet Caramel Sauce Method

Heat water and sugar.
Once it starts caramelizing in one spot, turn your pot to even out the color.
Add heavy cream and vanilla to the caramel.
Add salt (& butter) and mix.
Heat the caramel sauce one more time.

📌 Aya's Tips

Now, let me share detailed tips with images, which are all crucial for making the 2 caramel sauce.

Prep (For both dry & wet caramel sauce)

Cut butter into smaller pieces.
Scrape off the vanilla beans and add that to the heavy cream in advance. Today, we are adding the pod as well.
Heat heavy cream. Ensure it is hot when you add it to the caramel.
Prepare a clean pot. Any liquid or impurity can affect the final result.

Let's get started with the dry caramel method.

The Dry Caramel Sauce Method

Step 1: Heat sugar in a pot.

First, add sugar to a pot. Heat it at medium heat.

Don't touch it for now.

You do not need to move the pot or mix the sugar until the caramelization starts. When you touch it too early, the sugar sticks a lot more to a spatula and all around the edges of the pot. It’s harder to take them off later.

Step 2: Once it starts caramelizing in one spot, mix it and melt the sugar gradually.

Turn it down to low heat.

Once you see it has started caramelizing on the edges slightly, turn it down to low heat to prevent it from caramelizing quickly.

You might not be able to catch up with the caramelization process when you heat it at high heat. And your caramel might get too dark by the time you finish melting all the sugar.

granulated sugar in a pod that just started melting

Mix inward.

The caramelization always starts from the edges, from the edges toward the center. Blend caramel and sugar inward like in the photos below:

mixing sugar and caramel in a pod with a spatula

Try not to let the dried sugar touch the edge.

Try not to let the sugar touch the edges since it can stick there, and it's gonna be harder to take it off later.

If you see small pieces of sugar at this point, mix more and let it melt. You can also crush it with a spatula as you do it.

Step 3: Add heavy cream and vanilla.

Remove it from the heat immediately once it turns into a nice amber color.

Add a vanilla pod and about ⅓ of the hot heavy cream.

Add it right away.

Add heavy cream immediately since the caramel can cool down and harden quickly.

There is no need to let them blend evenly here. Add the rest of the heavy cream once they are blended roughly.

adding a vanilla pod and heavy cream in hot caramel a pod

Use hot, heavy cream.

Add heavy cream while the caramel is fluid and extremely hot before it starts getting hardened.

Also, make sure that your heavy cream is very hot so that it does not harden the caramel. Today, I heated it with a microwave while heating the sugar, but if you feel nervous, you can heat it beforehand.

Step 4: Add salt (& butter).

After the heavy cream is roughly blended, add salt and butter. Butter is optional, so you can omit it as you like.

adding butter and salt in caramel sauce in a pod

Step 5: Heat the caramel sauce one more time.

Heat it until all the caramel dissolves.

You don't need to heat it for a long time. It is done once you see that all the caramel is melted and looks nice and smooth! Often, caramel is stuck to the edges, so scrape it off well.

Right after it’s made, you’ll see a lot of bubbles but it’ll soon calm down and turn into a shiny sauce!

Right after it's made:

After the bubbles calm down:

up-close of silky caramel sauce in a pod

And that's it! Use it right away for store it in an air-tight container.

Next, let's make caramel sauce with the wet caramel method.

The wet Caramel Sauce Method

Step 1: Heat water and sugar.

Add water and sugar to a pot and heat it at medium-high heat.

💬 Compared to dry caramel, wet caramel takes much longer for the caramelization to start happening. To speed up the process a little bit, I do medium-high heat instead of medium heat.

Sugar crystalization

Sugar crystallization is the worst enemy of wet caramel! Sugar crystallization can occur when the heated syrup cools down, turning into unclear sugar crystal flakes when it's worst.

So, the best thing is to leave it until it starts caramelizing slightly, or at least it thickens slightly.

To avoid it, do the following:

Shake a pot to ensure the sugar touches the water evenly.
Brush the edges with water to wash off any sugar sticking to them.
Do 3 at least 1 -2 times while heating the pot.
Do not touch sugar or shake the pot while heating until it thickens slightly.
Do not remove it from the heat once you start heating it.

You can also place a lid on top for the same effect as brushing water on the side; The steams fall from the side and wash off the sugar.

brushing water around the sides of pod with syrup

The bubble sounds tell.

At the beginning stage, you can hear the bubbling sound is high and loud. That means caramelization does not happen in a minute yet.

Once it gets lower and quieter, the syrup is much thicker, and caramelization happens quickly. And that’s when I slightly turn down the heat. Don’t go anywhere, and pay extra close attention!

Step 2: Once it starts caramelizing in one spot, turn your pot to even out the color.

Turn down the heat.

When you see the light caramelization partially, turn the heat down to low heat.

Like the dry caramel, it's very important to slow down the caramelization process to avoid accidentally caramelizing the sugar too much. It'll get dark very quickly when you keep heating with medium heat.

Turn the pot.

At the same time, as soon as you see the light caramelization, turn your pot to make the color even so you can judge the color correctly.

Repeat this until you reach the color you want.

bubbling caramel with foams on the surface

Step 3: Add heavy cream and vanilla to the caramel.

Do the rest the same as the dry caramel: Remove it from heat quickly, add a vanilla pod and about ⅓ of hot, heavy cream, mix roughly, add the rest, and mix.

💡 Wet caramel is slightly thinner than dry caramel and blends with cream more easily.

adding the rest of heavy cream in caramel in a pod

Step 4: Add salt (& butter) and mix.

Step 5: Heat one more time.

Heat one more time to make sure everything is melted.

📌 How dark the caramel sauce should be?

Remove it from the heat immediately when it tunes into the nice amber color.

But ultimately, you can decide how much you want to color it. Just remember that the darker it gets, the deeper the caramel tastes. Do not make it too dark since your caramel gets bitter and sour.

Once you start seeing smaller bubbles on the surface, that is the sign you need to stop. The caramel gets very dark quickly after that. And once it gets too dark, you can not fix it.

To make the light caramel sauce:

I understand some of you like light caramel sauce.

Add heavy cream when it's about this color:

And do the rest the same as darker caramel sauce.

Other tips to make light caramel sauce:

Note that the lighter the color is, the sweeter your caramel sauce gets.
Do not add the cream too early to prevent the sugar from crystallizing and getting grainy.
The light caramel sauce is slightly thinner than darker caramel, although it is a very small difference.

📌 The Comparisons Of The 2 Methods

Here are the comparisons of the consistencies at each temperature.

When they are warm:

the textures of caramel sauce when it's very warm

When they are at room temperature:

the textures of caramel sauce when it's at room temperature

When they are cold:

the textures of caramel sauce when it's cold

The Conclusion

As you can see above, all the caramel sauce gets thinner when it's warmer and firmer when it's cold. Adjust the temperature, depending on what you like to use it for.
Caramel sauce with butter is slightly thinner when hot and slightly firmer when cold than without it. Also, the flavor gets milder with butter. The difference is minor if you don't add much butter.
You can also see that wet caramel is slightly softer than dry caramel. But the softness of caramel sauce can easily be adjusted by adding more or less heavy cream.

To conclude, although there are some differences between the 2 methods, they are not significant and adjustable. I encourage you to pick whichever you feel comfortable with. If you are new to them, try both and see which one you like better!

📌 Uses For Caramel Sauce

As topping for your cakes and desserts such as ice cream, whole cakes, etc.
As filling for your cakes and desserts such as cream puffs, chocolate truffles, whole cakes, etc.
Mix it in your favorite frosting as a flavor, such as buttercream, whipped cream, etc.
For your drink: Enjoy making a lot of special drinks with this homemade caramel sauce!

homemade caramel sauce on ice cream in a glass cup

Nothing beats ice cream with homemade warm caramel sauce and some toasted nuts! I had it a couple of times this week... It was such a perfect indulgent for myself🤤

📌 Frequently Asked Questions

How should I store homemade caramel sauce? And what's the shelf life?

Store in a fridge in an air-tight container for up to 2 weeks. You can also freeze it for up to a few months.

How long can I leave homemade caramel sauce at room temperature?

Although it's often advised for a few days, I do not recommend leaving it for more than a half day since it contains heavy cream. It's always safer to store it in the fridge and reheat it before you use it!

Can I use milk instead of heavy cream to make caramel sauce?

Milk is not going to give the same richness and smoothness as heavy cream. The sauce gets much thinner with milk as well. Although it's technically possible, I recommend making it with heavy cream to get the best result.