Caramel sauce is one of the sweetest, most delicious treats you can imagine. It is great on top of ice cream, drizzled over pumpkin pie, or just served poured over a few fresh apple slices.
Add the sugar to a medium saucepan and place over medium heat. Continuously stir the sugar with a wooden spoon. After about 3-5 minutes the sugar will start to crumble, turn darker in color and then it will melt into a liquid and become a brown amber color. Keep stirring until all of the sugar is melted. This process should take about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat.
Immediately add the butter to the saucepan and mix until the butter is completely melted and well combined.
Slowly pour the heavy cream into the saucepan and continuously stir until everything comes together. The mixture will still be thin at this point.
Whisk in the vanilla extract and salt if you're using it.
Pour the caramel into a jar and allow it to rest for 15-20 minutes until desired thickness has been reached.
Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
Notes
Start by making sure the butter and heavy cream are 100% at room temperature, you can even heat the heavy cream in the microwave for a few seconds. This recipe will NOT come together if either the butter or cream are even slightly cold.