Five Ingredient Homemade Caramel Dip (or Syrup)
With just five ingredients, and ready in 10 minutes, this homemade caramel syrup (or dip) is fun, quick, and easy. Perfect for sundaes, dunking apples, topping pancakes and more.
Caramel syrup is often considered a fall food–but it’s actually perfect all year round. In summer, you can drizzle caramel syrup on ice cream sundaes, then in fall make a tasty caramel apple dip. In winter, you can warm up with a caramel latte, and then serve salted caramels for Easter or Mother’s Day. Yum!
Now this recipe is pretty simple with two things that I especially like about it. First, it doesn’t require a candy thermometer–something that I know can be intimidating. And second, it only uses ingredients most people have at home: sugar, butter, milk, vanilla and salt.
Even better, it’s really versatile and can be turned into a thicker caramel dip or thinner caramel syrup just by varying the amount of milk you use.
The recipe makes about a half cup of syrup or dip, though you can double it if you need more. Of course since I finished eating the leftovers with a spoon (shhh), I’ll be sticking with the smaller batch!
Why Go Homemade
Of course, you could certainly head to the grocery store for a commercial jar of caramel sauce. But homemade is better in so many ways.
First there is the rich, homemade flavor—creamy and warm with notes of vanilla!
Then there is the fact that you can make it in a reasonable quantity if, like me, you have zero willpower (think of all the calories in a whole big jar, ahem). Plus, it’s probably quicker than a trip to the store.
Finally, this homemade caramel dip or syrup has 5 (recognizable) ingredients instead of a longer list I pulled online that included high fructose corn syrup, polysorbate 60 and red 40.
Ready to give it a try?
Step by Step Overview
Making this syrup basically involves making a sugar syrup, cooking it until it caramelizes, then diluting with milk to the desired consistency.
You first melt butter in a small saucepan over medium high heat. Add sugar, salt and water, then stir until dissolved. Bring to a boil, then cook without stirring until sugar turns dark gold (it will be lighter gold around outside of pan). Watch carefully so it doesn’t burn.
Lower heat, then carefully whisk in milk (it will spatter some), and continue to whisk until any sugar that hardens is re-dissolved. Remove pan from heat, then stir in vanilla.
Let cool slightly. Serve warm or cool.
Tips & FAQs
For a non-dairy/vegan version I recently made this with coconut oil instead of butter and coconut milk (the runny part from the can) instead of dairy milk. It was just a little harder to mix in the “milk,” and the sugar went from white to brown faster, but it was delicious.
Why don’t I need to use an instant read or candy thermometer?
While I’m a big proponent of using a thermometer to get many of my candies right (like in my Homemade Sponge Candy or Grandma’s Divinity Candy), this caramel syrup recipe is so easy you don’t need it.
When you cook melted sugar, as the water evaporates and it gets hotter, it will turn golden and smell like, um…, caramel. At that point, it’s ready–and it’s pretty hard to miss this if you’re paying attention.
Celebrating Ice Cream Day
- Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches from Creative Cynchronicity
- Reduced Sugar Rocky Road from That Recipe
- Tiramisu Ice Cream Cake from A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures
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Homemade Caramel Dip
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon butter or coconut oil
- 1 Tablespoon water
- ½ cup sugar
- pinch salt about 1/8 teaspoon
- 3-4 Tablespoons 2% milk or other milk see note
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium high heat. Add sugar, salt and water, then stir until dissolved.
- Bring to a boil, then cook without stirring until sugar turns dark gold (it will be lighter gold around outside of pan). Watch carefully so it doesn’t burn.
- Lower heat, then carefully whisk in milk (it will spatter some), and continue to whisk until any sugar that hardens is re-dissolved. Remove pan from heat, then stir in vanilla.
- It will be very hot, so let it cool at least a little. Serve warm or cool.
Notes
For a non-dairy/vegan version I tried this with coconut oil instead of butter and coconut milk (the runny part from the can) instead of dairy milk. It was just a little harder to mix in the “milk” (stir longer on the heat) and the sugar went from white to brown faster. But still nom!
Nutrition
Updated from the original posted Oct 18, 2018.
Me and caramel don’t get along. No matter how many times I try, it just isn’t smooth and creamy. Yours looks so good and the instructions are simple enough. Fingers crossed!
Good luck!
Haben Sie schon einmal mit braunem Zucker anstelle von weißem experimentiert, um einen intensiveren Geschmack zu erzielen?
I have experimented with brown sugar and the reason I go with white is that it’s very evident when you need to stop the cooking. With brown sugar, you run the risk of stopping the heating too early since the color is dark. This could be remedied by relying on smell more than color or checking that the temperature is 320-340. Hope you get a chance to try this.
This recipe is fantastic!
Thanks Diane. Isn’t it so much easier than anyone would expect?!
swoon! i only need a spoon, thanks. 🙂
This will be a perfect topping for the ice cream topping my apple pie!
Can I use coconut milk? (the refrigerated kind, not the canned kind)
Okay, I think I’m going to have to try it as a non-dairy recipe and post back 🙂
Really delicious ! I love dips!
Thanks Gloria!
Do you (or does anyone reading this) know if this will work with almond or soy milk? (lactose intolerant)
I haven’t tried it, but my guess is that it would. The milk is used primarily to dilute the caramelized sugar (and maybe add a little flavor) which would be solid without it.
If you try it, let me know. Someone asked the same question on Facebook and may also be testing it 🙂