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This easy 3 ingredient caramel sauce is the easiest way to make homemade caramel for all of your desserts! You can make a batch and keep it in the refrigerator for up to two weeks in no time at all. You’ll skip the store-bought sauce once you try it!

Three-ingredient caramel sauce in a small glass jar with a spoonful coming out


Easiest Ever Caramel Sauce Recipe

You only need THREE ingredients to make this caramel sauce, and one of the ingredients is water.

If you’ve ever made the old-fashioned from-scratch caramel sauce, you know it can be a little scary. Caramelizing the sugar and adding cream can cause a sticky bubbling explosion that is not fun to deal with or clean up. I know this from experience. Not to mention problems like crystallized sugar making your sauce grainy or ending up with a less-than-thick sauce, which is also a bummer.

You won’t have any of those problems with this sauce. It’s a no-fuss no-fail caramel sauce that works every time. I’ve taken out the guesswork – just follow the recipe, and in no time at all, you will have a jar of golden sweet caramel sauce with the perfect consistency. 

Spoonful of three-ingredient caramel sauce being poured back into the small jar

3 Ingredient Caramel

  • Werther’s Soft Caramels: All you have to do is unwrap them! You can also use chewy caramels (Werther’s or Kraft).
  • Water: Doesn’t get any simpler than that!
  • Half and Half: This turns the melted candies into the smoothest, creamiest caramel sauce with rich, velvety thickness.

Best Caramels to Make Caramel Sauce

The key to this shortcut sauce is to use caramel candies. I like Werther’s Soft Caramels, but their chewy caramels work, too.

I’ve also tested the recipe with Kraft caramels, but as long as you use a similar type (soft or chewy), the brand you use shouldn’t matter too much.

tablespoon pouring water into pan of caramels.
pan of caramel sauce
cream pouring into pan of caramel sauce.
spoon stirring caramel sauce.

How to Make Caramel Sauce from Caramels

  1. Place the caramels in a medium saucepan with the water. Heat the pan over medium-low heat.
  2. Once the candies start to melt, stir them often until they are completely melted, and the mixture is smooth. There should be no lumps.
  3. Take the pan off of the heat and stir in the half and half.
  4. Once it’s combined, you’re done! You’ve made homemade caramel sauce, and the only hard part is waiting for it to cool and set up before you use it.
spoon stirring caramel sauce.

Tips

  • How to store caramel sauce: Transfer the sauce to a jar with a lid. I like to let it cool to room temperature before using it -especially for cheesecake. If it’s too hot, it will melt the cheesecake filling.
  • How to serve easy caramel: You can serve it warm with other desserts like ice cream, brownies, and slices of cake.
  • How much does this recipe make: This recipe makes two cups, and the caramel sauce will keep well for up to two weeks in the refrigerator. It never lasts that long at our house, though. It just magically disappears!
Three-ingredient caramel sauce in a jar with spoon inside

Three ingredients, a few minutes of cooking time, and you get a jar of caramel sauce that is better than any store-bought version. It’s simple, but adding a drizzle to all the sweet things will take them to a whole new level. I hope you try it!

Three-ingredient caramel sauce in a small glass jar with a spoonful coming out

3-Ingredient Caramel Sauce Recipe

5 from 32 votes
This easy caramel sauce is no fail – just 3 simple ingredients. No fuss or stress! The sauce is also great on ice cream or anytime you feel like a drizzle of caramel.
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Yield 2 cups
Serving Size 1 serving
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Ingredients
 

  • 1 10.8 ounce package Werther’s Soft Caramels , unwrapped
  • 2 tablespoons water
  • ⅓ cup half and half
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Instructions

  • Place unwrapped caramels in a medium saucepan and add water. Heat over medium low heat to melt the caramels. Once they start to melt, stir often until melted and smooth and no lumps remain. Remove from heat and stir in half and half.
  • Pour caramel sauce into a jar and let cool to room temperature before using on cheesecake. Store leftover sauce in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Recipe Nutrition

Serving: 1serving | Calories: 72kcal | Carbohydrates: 6g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 15mg | Sodium: 30mg | Potassium: 63mg | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 145IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 50mg | Iron: 1mg
Nutritional information not guaranteed to be accurate
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Author Dorothy Kern

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More Easy Sauces and Toppings To Try

This three-ingredient caramel sauce is the easiest way to make homemade caramel for all of your desserts!



Dorothy Kern

Welcome to Crazy for Crust, where I share recipes that are sometimes crazy, often with a crust, and always served with a slice of life.

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5 from 32 votes (27 ratings without comment)

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28 Comments

  1. HELLO DORATHY WOW LOOKS EASY & FAST WOULD LIKE TO TRY IT OUT WOULD YOU BE ABLE TO AY HOW MANY CARAMELS ARE THERE I BOUGHT CARAMELS AND GRANDKIDS MUNCHED SOME SO I CAN’T MAKE OUT THE WEIGHT – THANKYOU

    Reply

  2. I made this with sugar free caramels. It was amazing ! I drizzled it over sugar free brownies, which was so good. Thanks for the great recipe.

    Reply

  3. Hi,
    On the recipe for the caramel sauce you wrote half and half….but of what? Cream and water? And how many cups?

    Thank you and have a nice day!

    Reply

    1. Half and half is a milk-like product that’s thicker than milk but thinner than cream. It’s found in the diary section.

      Reply

    2. 1/3 cup of half-n-half.
      Half-n-half is essentially whole milk and cream premixed. A lot of people put it in their coffee.

      Reply

  4. GREAT! I made this for a caramel layer in a pie. Used 13.5 oz. (3 bags x 4.5 oz. each) of Werther’s Soft Caramels. I melted them in water bath in small crockpot with about 3 TBS (45 ml.) cream added. The pie would be chilled, and I wasn’t sure how much cream to add so I would end up with the perfect (soft, but not runny) consistancy. So I put a sample of the sauce into the refrigerator. I added ABOUT 2 more TBS. (30 ml.) cream ==> Perfect! (However, I later froze the finished pie for storage. The caramel ended up runny when serving the (cold but defrosted) pie. Next time I will reduce the cream by 1 TBS, or avoid freezing.) But the recipe was great. Thanks.

    Reply