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This Salted Maple Caramel Sauce is creamy, smooth and silky. It has a rich, concentrated maple flavor with a buttery finish. And it is so easy!
I am super lucky that my husband and I live on the same page, but every now and again we disagree about something. One of those rare things is Maple. My Husband is “meh” about maple, whereas my blood is probably 20% maple syrup.
I love maple. All things maple. If I could live in Vermont next to a maple tree, I’d be a happy woman. So you can imagine that I turn to mush around this Salted Maple Caramel Sauce.
I could eat it by the bucket-full. With a spoon.
It’s all the things I love about salted caramel but made with maple syrup and 400x easier. It’s creamy, smooth and silky. It has a rich, concentrated maple flavor with a buttery finish.
You can use this sauce just like you would caramel sauce: on vanilla ice cream, on fruit, on buttermilk panna cotta, on crumbles, as a filling for cupcakes, or, my personal favorite, in these Maple Caramel Pecan Bars!
This particular batch was a thinner sauce, but you can easily make it thicker by cooking the maple syrup longer.
Salted Maple Caramel Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 cups grade B maple syrup
- ½ cup heavy cream
- ¼ cup sweet cream unsalted butter
- 2 large pinches sea salt I use fleur de sel
Instructions
- Pour maple syrup in a deep pot with a thick bottom. Being to a boil over medium heat and let boil softly for ~15 minutes. Stir every few minutes with a heat proof spatula or spoon to reduce the bubbles. You will notice that the syrup will start to coat the outside of the spatula or spoon and will cool quickly into a caramel-like consistency. It will resemble candy at the softball stage.
- Stir in the butter until it is completely melted and then add the cream, stirring constantly. It will not bubble up dangerously like caramel but it will still be very hot. Add the salt and then stir to mix.
Can I jar the maple caramel sauce and store in the pantry? Will it last as long as it is sealed?
It might separate because maple syrup doesn’t behave like granulated sugar. You can bring it back together by heating it but it will eventually crystalize.
Can I jar the maple caramel sauce and store in the cupboard? WIll it kee as long as it is sealed?
Should this be refrigerated?
It doesn’t need to be but you can if you feel more comfortable!
Hi
I have a question – not a comment.
I am looking to make the Maple Caramel Sauce: I am confused by the ingredient “1/4 cup sweet cream, unsalted butter”. If you read the instructions, it says to add the butter until melted and then add the cream. So its a little confusing.
I’m thinking the ingredients should be 1/2 cup heavy cream and 1/4 cup unsalted butter.
many thanks
Hi Cheryl, I can see how that would be confusing the way it is written. “sweet cream unsalted butter” is the type of butter. Most people just say “unsalted butter”. I apologize for the confusion!
Hey!!
Long time since JBS. So happy you are so passionate about baking!
A few questions – how long will this keep? Can you freeze it for future use?
Also on the banana pumpkin bread it goes with if I halve the sugar – could you add more applesauce, honey, agave nectar or sour cream? Would it destroy the texture? Would you need to alter cook time?
Thanks!
Erica
Hey Erica!!! It has been forever since JBS! I’m so glad you found my blog!
You can keep the maple caramel for months in the fridge just like regular caramel, but at some point it will probably crystallize. The longest I’ve kept it has been a month. I wouldn’t freeze it because of the cream.
I haven’t tried replacing the sugar with any of those options, but I think you can safely halve the sugar without completely destroying the texture or replacing it with anything. The applesauce is really a substitution for the oil in the original recipe and is only secondarily a sweetener. Adding more applesauce will definitely change the texture. Honey and agave will also change the texture of the final product but you could certainly try! If you want to sub the brown sugar with something I would use coconut palm sugar. But at the end of the day, sugar is sugar no matter the form 🙂
let me know how it goes!!!! xox L
Thanks 🙂
I made this over the weekend. I took half a cup of sugar from both the brown and white sugar. I made my own applesauce by blending roasted apples with water (leftover baby food prep haha).
It was excellent! Shared it with some of my friends.
Keep up the posts <3 them!
Nice! I’m so glad you like it. Props for making your own applesauce! I bet roasted applesauce tastes amazing!
Hi! I’m a novice at making sauce, just wondered if you stir in the butter and cream after the 15 minutes of boiling time & if you remove pan from heat or is the heat still on medium while stirring in the butter & cream? Also, by Grade B maple syrup do you mean pure maple syrup? Thanks !! Can’t wait to try this!
Hi Janet! I do stir the butter and cream into the maple syrup after the 15 minutes cooking time. Maple syrup isn’t going to burn like sugar, so the cooking time is just to reduce the maple syrup down until it is thick. It will taste good no matter when you stop cooking it, but it will just vary in viscosity (or runniness). I also removed the pot from the heat before adding the butter and cream. Butter first, then cream.
And I do use pure maple syrup. There are different grades of pure maple syrup. Grade A is typically what you see – it is your standard maple syrup, but Grade B is darker and has a more intense flavor. Maple syrup is odd in the sense that Grade B is better than Grade A! You can typically find Grade B in your standard grocery store. I don’t know what you have there but I have seen it at Kroger, Publix and Whole Foods.
The good news is that this maple caramel sauce is very beginner friendly. You’ll love it! Enjoy! And happy baking!
So yummy!! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks, Jessica!
This sauce looks amazing Lindsey! The pictures are gorgeous. I can only imagine how good it must taste with those apples. Yum!
Tastes like maple syrup only creamier and butterier and better! 🙂