This easy recipe for Caramel Glaze is also a simple caramel sauce made with brown sugar, butter and whipping cream. You literally just combine the ingredients and cook in a saucepan. It's that easy!
In just 10 minutes, you can make this as a brown sugar caramel glaze for cake or donuts, an easy brown sugar caramel sauce for bread pudding or a caramel syrup for pancakes and waffles.
This is my favorite easy cake glaze for my Apple Pecan Cake that I like to serve for Thanksgiving and Christmas dessert. The rich buttery caramel is the perfect drizzle for this show stopper cake.
If you love pecans and like I do, you will also love my Pecan Praline Sauce to spoon over ice cream and cake.
Shortcuts
- No candy thermometer needed. No need to tediously caramelize sugar.
- This brown sugar caramel glaze and sauce is ready in less than 10 minutes.
It makes just enough to glaze a cake (about ¾ cup) but easily doubles to serve a crowd as a caramel dip for apples.
Ingredients
What you will need to make easy caramel sauce and glaze.
Scroll down to printable recipe for exact ingredient quantities.
Just 4 ingredients you probably already have on hand!
How to make brown sugar caramel sauce
Scroll down to the bottom for the printable recipe with detailed instructions.
- Combine all four ingredients in a medium saucepan. I like to cut the butter into 4 pieces so it melts evenly.
- Cook over medium to medium-low heat, stirring slowly, until butter melts.
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- Bring to a boil and boil 2 minutes.
- Once the mixture starts to boil, do not stir! This helps prevent graininess in the sauce.
- Remove the pan from the heat. Mixture thickens as it cools.
It's ready to serve, but remember it's hot!
Pro Tips
A trick I learned in the test kitchen! To make your brown sugar caramel sauce is extra smooth and silky, stir in 1 tablespoon light corn syrup before bringing it to a boil.
Substitutions & Variations
Trade "this" for "that" in this homemade caramel glaze recipe.
- Coffee Caramel Glaze - Stir in 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder before bringing it to a boil.
- Easy Salted Caramel Sauce- Stir in ¼ teaspoon table salt or fine sea salt or ¾ teaspoon kosher salt. You can also sprinkle flaked salt or kosher salt on top of the sauce once it's drizzled on your dessert.
How to serve this caramel glaze
- Caramel Glaze for cake like my Easy Apple Pecan Cake.
- Caramel Donut Glaze- Dip my Copycat Krispy Kreme Donuts in this brown sugar glaze.
- Easy Caramel Dip for apples- Serve with sliced apples and pretzels for a crunchy treat.
- Quick and Easy Caramel Sauce- Spoon over bread pudding, pound cake and ice cream.
How to store
- To Store: Store any leftovers in the refrigerator, covered or in an air tight container.
- To reheat: Reheat in the pan on low heat or microwave in a microwave-safe dish 15 seconds at a time until desired thickness.
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Caramel Glaze and Sauce
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Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons salted butter
- ¾ cup light brown sugar
- ⅓ cup whipping cream or heavy whipping cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Combine butter, brown sugar, cream, and vanilla in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium to medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until butter melts.
- Don’t rush this step. Keep the heat medium to medium-low. This gives the brown sugar time to dissolve.
- Once the butter melts, bring the mixture to a full rolling boil. Boil for 2 minutes without stirring. Remove from heat.
- You can serve immediately over food like pancakes and waffles or a thin glaze for cakes. (Be careful. It's hot!) It thickens as it cools. For a thicker sauce, let cool 5 to 10 minutes and drizzle over cake, ice cream and bread pudding.
Notes
-If the mixture cools and becomes thicker than you like, just heat it in the saucepan over medium heat for 30 seconds or even less to loosen it up. -A trick I learned in the test kitchen! To make your brown sugar caramel sauce is extra smooth and silky, stir in 1 tablespoon light corn syrup before bringing it to a boil. Substitutions:
-Evaporated milk or whole milk can be substituted for cream. It won’t be quite as velvety or thick, but still delish! Make Ahead- Make up to 2 days ahead, reheat in the pan or microwave 15 to 30 seconds at a time until desired thickness to pour or drizzle.
Nutrition
Nutrition analysis on GritsAndGouda.com recipes are mostly calculated on an online nutrition calculator. I am not a dietitian and nutritional information is an estimate and can vary based on products used.
Scott Phillips
This is awesome on Ice Cream.
Kathleen
Yes! I love it on vanilla ice cream or Apple Pecan Cake WITH ice cream!