Desserts Archives - My Beautiful Mess

Easy Homemade Caramel Sauce

November 9, 2022November 9, 2022by Mary LentzLeave a Comment

You don’t have to buy an expensive bottle of caramel sauce full of preservatives. You can make easy homemade caramel sauce with just three ingredients.

Making caramel has become a favorite holiday tradition for me. Once the Fall hits, I get a baking bug and I love Fall flavors like pumpkin and caramel. When I got married, I really wanted to learn how to make more things from scratch including my own sauces and that included my own dessert sauces.

Can I tell you something? I come from a family of candy makers. My family, both maternal and paternal have always been skilled tradesmen. My grandfather was a furniture maker and my grandmother was an upholsteress. My grandmother‘s father however was a candy maker. He specialized in making Mexican candies. It’s hard to believe but he supported seventeen children doing that during the great depression.

This recipe isn’t from my family. In fact, I’ve made it for so long, I honestly am not totally sure where I originally got it. I’ve had it handwritten in a recipe book for years. But believe me when I tell you it makes perfect. gooey, caramel. Making your own caramel sauce isn’t hard at all and once you learn to make it yourself, you won’t want to buy the sauce in stores that is full of preservatives and chemicals.

The Tools

You don’t need many things for this recipe. It doesn’t call for any kitchen equipment that is out of the ordinary.

Medium Sauce Pan – You will need a medium sauce pan to cook in. It doesn’t matter if it is a stainless pot or a non stick pot.

Wooden Spoon or Whisk – Some recipes will tell you not to stir your sugar while it is melting. I think it is actually better to stir it to prevent scorching, particularly if you are a novice at melting sugar.

Mason Jar with Lid – I highly recommend storing this in a mason jar. particularly if you are storing in the fridge. If storing in the freezer, you,” need to store it something other than glass.

Measuring Cups – for measuring

The Ingredients

This recipe only calls for three ingredients – sugar, cream and butter. This is one reason why making your own caramel is actually quite easy. I always keep heavy cream on hand. I may be even do a blog post sharing all the reasons why it’s a good idea to keep heavy cream in your fridge.

SUGAR – Caramel can me made using white sugar or brown sugar. Brown sugar is just white sugar with molasses. For this recipe, I recommend using white granulated sugar. This recipe will yield about a cup, but is easily doubled.

HEAVY WHIPPING CREAM – You only need a half cup of heavy whipping cream. You will need to let your cream warm up at the very least to room temperature but I find lukewarm is actually best. I’ll explain

BUTTER – I also find the letting your butter warm up is best also. Room temp or close is fine. To quickly soften butter, place the stick inside and upside down glass on the counter.

Instructions for Making Easy Homemade Caramel Sauce

Making your own caramel might feel intimidating, but it really isn’t that hard. The main thing is that this recipe calls for your attention. It isn’t something that you can walk away from and let cook on it’s own. That said, it also doesn’t take long. It only takes about fifteen minutes or so to make caramel.

In a medium sauce pan, add one cup of sugar to your dry pan on medium heat. It is important not to have too high a flame. Allow the sugar to warm up. You will start to see the sugar on the sides of the pan melt. You can stir it gently with a wooden spoon. You will the see the sugars melt and also start to see the sugar turn to yellow. Continue melting for a few more minutes until it resembles an amber color. Add your butter. It might seem at first like it is resisting to come together. It will become paste like and appear thick. That’s normal. Continue working together.

Once all the butter is melted, slowly add your cream. Your cream must be lukewarm or at the very least room temperature. If too cold it will crystalize (turn rock hard) and create toffee chips in your caramel or it will create a gritty like texture to your caramel. Once your cream is added stir well to combine. Your caramel should look smooth and creamy now. Remove from the heat. It will appear very runny when hot. Don’t worry. That’s normal and it will thicken once it cools. Let your caramel rest in the saucepan for 10-15 minutes before transferring. Use great care when transferring. The high sugar content keeps it scalding hot for a while.

Storing

I find this stores well in a mason jar (with lid) for 2-3 weeks. It will also freeze for up to 3 months. Just make sure you don’t freeze it in glass as it will break in the freezer.

How to Use Caramel Sauce

Whenever I share pics of this caramel sauce on social media, I always get asked, “what do I put it on?” You can basically use this sauce for anything you’d add caramel to. This sauce will be somewhat fluid and not solid like a soft caramel candy. You can put it in a squeeze bottle for easy drizzling the topping on ice cream, desserts and hot chocolate. You can even add it to desserts like pies or drizzle it on your pumpkin bread. I personally loving adding it to another favorite cupcake of ours called Harvest Cupcakes instead of icing – and of course I love adding it to my coffee. My youngest son loves me to put it on brownies with pecans for turtle brownies.

Easy Homemade Caramel Sauce

Print Recipe

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 10

Total Time 15

Course Dessert

Equipment

sauce pan
wooden spoon or whisk
measuring cups
mason jar for storing

Ingredients

1 Cup Granulated sugar
6 tbsp Butter, unsalted cubed
½ cup heavy whipping cream

Instructions

Take out your butter and cube it. Measure the heavy whipping cream and allow it to come to room temperature along with the butter. It must be lukewarm or room temp before cooking.
In a sauce pan over medium heat, add your white sugar to a dry pan. After a few minutes the sugar should start to melt.
Stir sugar with a wooden spoon or whisk as it continues to melt. You should notice the sugar starting to brown. Do not leave the sugar unattended as it can go from melting to burning very quickly. Continue caramelizing sugar until it reaches an amber color. Don't let it go too dark.
Once it reaches amber color, add your room temperature butter. The butter and sugar will resist coming together a little, but continue stirring until combined.
Once combined slowly add your room temperature cream. If the cream is too cold, it will turn hard similar to toffee. Stir in cream until rich and creamy.
Caramel will appear runny when hot. Allow caramel to cool and set for about 15 minutes before using or storing. Refrigerate in a mason jar with a lid. Stores for about 2-3 weeks in a fridge and can be frozen for up to 3 months.

Keyword caramel, caramel sauce, caramel topping, dessert topping, dulce de leche, ice cream topping

That’s it. I hope you enjoy this recipe for easy homemade caramel sauce. I know that you’ll love it. I’d love to hear how it turned out and what you put it on. Tell me in the comments.

Desserts, Recipes, Side Dishes

Easy Sweet Potato Casserole

November 24, 2020November 24, 2020by Mary LentzLeave a Comment

Easy Sweet Potato Casserole has become a family favorite of ours. My family begs me to make this dish every Thanksgiving. So today, I’m sharing these easy fall dish that is sure to be a crowd pleaser.

When I was a child, both my grandmother and my mother always made candied yams for Thanksgiving. Candied yams is a traditional thanksgiving dish. First, they used canned yams. I don’t mean to offend if you use canned vegetables. I actually love to can food. But the yams always seemed mushy and soggy. Candied yams then top them with marshmallows, cherries, even pineapple. It was never a favorite of mine. I just didn’t care for the combination. So for years, when people passed them to me, I passed them right along.

Fast forward to my twenties. I can recall watching a morning program where Martha Stewart was a guest and was sharing her version of sweet potato casserole. Oh my, this dish looked divine and I’ll never forget what she said. She said it tasted like sweet potato pie without the crust. Now that I had to try. (I dare say, it is better because of the praline topping). So that day I headed to the store for my first try of sweet potato casserole. It was a huge hit at Thanksgiving. To this day, my family will pass over the pies to have the sweet potato casserole. I often get asked to bring it to Fall parties. Trust me, it’s delicious! What really makes this superb is the praline topping.

Making Sweet Potato Casserole

Over the years, I’ve tweaked Martha’s recipe based on my own experience. I’ve also been influenced by other versions. You will need a nice deep casserole dish. I personally love baking it in stoneware because it is so easy to go from oven to table. I also highly recommend using raw, fresh sweet potatoes. You can cook them any way you like (bake or boil). However, I have found that boiling them makes them much easier to mash because they are very tender. Baking also takes much more cook time.

Now, if you want to save yourself some time in the kitchen or want to save some real estate on your stove on Thanksgiving Day, you can always cook the potatoes the day before and store in the fridge. Then you can take them out when you are ready for them and create your casserole. I’ve been asked if you can prep the whole casserole the day before. Yes, you can. However, you’ll need to make sure you put it in a metal pan instead of glass or stoneware. Putting an ice-cold dish in a piping hot oven can cause the glass to shatter. Also, you may need to increase the cook time to an hour if your casserole is refrigerator cold.

One of my favorite kitchen tools I’ve ever come across is this brown sugar keeper. If you haven’t discovered this, you don’t know what you are missing. It contains a terra-cotta disk that keeps your brown sugar soft and fresh. And it isn’t just for brown sugar! They also sell little terra-cotta discs that keep lots of things soft and fresh. Things like cookies, baked goods, marshmallows, baker’s coconut and granulated sugar. Anything that you want to keep soft. Best of all you can use them forever. Just wash them with soap water whenever you want to put it in a different food container.

How To Make Sweet Potato Casserole

You will need about 3-4 lbs of sweet potatoes. It is up to you if you want to peel before or after boiling. I prefer to peel after so they aren’t too waterlogged. Once peeled, transfer the potatoes to a large bowl. Mash your sweet potato with a potato masher. I typically don’t mind lumps in mashed potatoes, but for this recipe, I recommend working out as much of the lumps as you can. In a separate small bowl, beat your eggs, then add them to your potato mixture. Then you will add your pumpkin pie spice, vanilla, milk, sugar, salt, pumpkin pie spice, butter, and mix well. You will then pour the mixture into an ungreased casserole dish.

In a separate bowl, you will create a sugary praline topping. You will mix brown sugar, butter, flour, and pecans until it resembles a coarse mixture. The sprinkle atop the potato filling. You’ll bake it in the oven uncovered for about 45 mins. If you love this recipe, you should try another Fall favorite of mine Slowcooker Pumpkin Spice Latte. I make it every Thanksgiving as well! Your friends will ask you for that recipe also.

Easy Sweet Potato Casserole

Sweet potato casserole is a lot like sweet potato pie without the crust. This delicious sweet potato dish with praline topping is sure to be a crowd pleaser.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 1 30

Total Time 1 45

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 8