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Add a little twist to your favorite salted caramel sauce with coffee! This coffee salted caramel sauce infuses those wonderful coffee flavors with sweet and slightly salty caramel that will have you eating it out of the jar with a spoon! Trust me, I did. 

Dish Count :: 1 Sauce Pan, 1 Mug

Homemade Coffee Salted Caramel Sauce - Perfect on ice cream or in your morning coffee! Keep a jar in the fridge for when the craving strikes!

Praise the Lord almighty, I got some sleep last night. A whopping 7 hours. I’m a whole new woman. It was getting dicey there for a while. And while it was dicey, I did something dumb like read the internet about why I wasn’t sleeping. Apparently, I have issues. According to one study at least.

But really, we knew that already. Didn’t we? So let’s break it down.

Mason jar of salted coffee caramel sauce on a baking sheet with coffee beans strewn about.

According to this study, if you can’t fall asleep (which up until two weeks ago, my head hit the pillow and I was out!), you are suffering from stressful life events, or you have anxiety. Let’s add this to the things I need to deal with, along with my new found paranoia of having to have the seam of my coffee shop paper cup on the opposite side of where the lip is.

Ever wonder why your coffee dripped all over your white pants that day you had that really huge presentation. It was probably because of the coffee cup seam. And my wonderful coworker decided to instill that added level of paranoia into my life. This is probably what started the sleepless nights, me over analyzing every cup of coffee that dripped on me EVER.

But besides my new found coffee cup paranoia, there is the other work stress, like starting construction on my new project! It’s coming along, and I’m excited and scared. Then not seeing Ben for you know, like days – Hashtag Nurselife. And planning a baby shower for another friend. Because what kind of cake am I going to make?! Will it have fondant, or just frosting? Baby elephants on it, or just cupcakes? How many cake plates do I have? Do they match her theme? What other food should we have? No lunch meats or uncured cheeses, obviously. But I love cured meats.

Damn, being pregnant must be hard. Did the Mariners win last night? Oh yeah, buy plane tickets for your trip this fall. Austin? Check. Scotland, this week. How are we ever going to get the new car fixed after Ben’s accident? Do I need to order more pills for the dog?

THIS IS WHAT IT’S LIKE TO BE IN MY HEAD, PEOPLE!!

Homemade Coffee Salted Caramel Sauce - Perfect on ice cream or in your morning coffee! Keep a jar in the fridge for when the craving strikes!

Someone find me a sedative. So yes, I am sure that this sleep study about people not falling asleep, is definitely accurate. Anxiety and stress? I obviously have them.

Or let’s cut to the chase, omit the sedative and just give me a spoon and some of this coffee salted caramel sauce and a giant bowl of ice cream. I mean those are roughly the same thing to a stressed out person, right?

This recipe is based on my How To Make Salted Caramel Sauce, and Epicurious’s Coffee Salted caramel sauce recipe. This one took a couple of tries to get right, and to adjust the coffee flavor so it was just right. The first time I tried making it with coffee instead of water. That didn’t work so well. But Epicurious used concentrated coffee, and it worked like a dream. I used my base recipe, their trick for coffee extract and BAM! Nailed it.

One less thing for me to stress out over. Praise. 

Homemade Coffee Salted Caramel in a small jar on a baking sheet with coffee. beans around it

Ingredients for Coffee Salted Caramel Sauce

I love using simple ingredients to create an epic recipe. This is definitely one of them! I’m sure you have everything you need in your home right now! Jump to the recipe card below for a printable version of this recipe!

  • Sugar
  • Water 
  • Finely Ground Coffee
  • Heavy Whipping Cream
  • Butter
  • Vanilla
  • Sea Salt

Instructions for How to Make Homemade Caramel Sauce

  1. Line a coffee cup with a paper coffee filter. Add coffee grounds into the filter. Bring water to a boil in a sauce pan and remove 1/4 cup of the boiling water. Pour 1/4 cup of boiling water over the coffee grounds. Let steep for a few minutes and cool down slightly.
  2. While the coffee is cooling, . In a saucepan over medium-high heat, whisk together sugar and remaining water – bringing to a rapid boil. Cover and let boil for 5-8 minutes, or until the mixture starts to turn amber/golden brown and you can smell the caramelization happening.
  3. While this is simmering, remove coffee filter from the mug and let drain as much coffee extract as possibly. Gently squeeze the filter to make sure you have got as much as you can out of it. Discard the filter and coffee grounds. 
  4. Uncover the pan and working carefully – slowly stream in the whipping cream while whisking the mixture vigorously. The mixture will bubble and foam very quickly, so whisk constantly. Whisk until the foaming subsides. Stir in the vanilla extract, and the coffee extract, and finally the salt. Bring mixture back to a boil to thicken and turns a deep amber color. 
  5. Remove from the heat and allow to cool completely before consuming.
Homemade Coffee Salted Caramel Sauce dripping from a spoon into a jar with coffee beans

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I make this recipe vegan?

Yes I’m sure it can be, but I have not tried. There are lots of vegan caramel recipes, but I don’t want to share one I haven’t personally tried. 

Can I use unsalted butter for this caramel recipe?

Sure, adjust the salt at the end to get the right blend of saltiness for your own salted coffee caramel!

I am out of white sugar, can I use brown sugar?

Oh that sounds delightful. I haven’t tested this recipe with brown sugar, but I imagine it would have a nice molasses flavor to it. Be extra sure it doesn’t burn though. 

How do I store caramel sauce?

Because this has dairy in it, it’s best to store it in the fridge in an airtight container, like a mason jar. You can slowly reheat it in the microwave until it is the right consistency. You can also reheat it to a pourable consistency on medium-low heat in a heavy bottom saucepan. 

How do you make a caramel latte? 

This would be perfect for a caramel latte or a caramel macchiato! Skip the Starbucks! You can add the caramel sauce to the bottom of your cup and pour over a hot espresso shot, melting it into the coffee. Then steam your chosen milk and pour it over, stirring to combine. 

Or you can drizzle some of this caramel around the edges of the glass for decoration and flavor! It’s also perfect for cold brew!

This sounds amazing with an oat milk, or almond milk! You can obviously make it sinful with a steamed whole milk too!

Get my original How-To Tuesday on Salted Caramel Sauce. And make one batch of each! Because two is better than one.

Inspired Homemade Recipes To Try

Salted Caramel Chocolate Baked Donuts

Samoas Brownie Parfait with Salted Caramel Sauce

Chocolate Fudge and Caramel Melting Coffee Spoons – a GREAT Gift!

Mini Pear Caramel Cheesecake

Print
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Homemade Coffee Salted Caramel Sauce - Perfect on ice cream or in your morning coffee! Keep a jar in the fridge for when the craving strikes!

Coffee Salted Caramel Sauce

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  • Author: Megan Keno
  • Prep Time: 15 MInutes
  • Cook Time: 20 Minutes
  • Total Time: 35 minutes
  • Yield: 1 1/2 cups 1x
  • Category: Dessert
  • Method: Stove Top
  • Cuisine: French
  • Diet: Vegetarian
Print Recipe

Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 1 cup Sugar
  • 1/2 cup Water + 1/4 cup
  • 2 Tbsp Finely Ground Coffee
  • 3/4 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
  • 5 Tbsp Butter, cubed
  • 1/4 tsp Vanilla
  • 1/8–1/4 tsp Sea Salt

Instructions

Line a coffee cup with a paper coffee filter. Add coffee grounds into the filter. Bring water to a boil in a sauce pan and remove 1/4 cup of the boiling water. Pour 1/4 cup of boiling water over the coffee grounds. Let steep for a few minutes and cool down slightly.

While the coffee is cooling, . in a sauce pan over medium-high heat, whisk together sugar and remaining water – bringing to a rapid boil. Cover and let boil for 5-8 minutes, or until the mixture starts to turn amber/golden brown and you can smell the caramelization happening.

While this is simmering, remove coffee filter from the mug and let drain as much coffee extract as possibly. Gently squeeze the filter to make sure you have got as much as you can out of it. Discard the filter.
Uncover the pan and working carefully – slowly stream in the whipping cream while whisking the mixture vigorously. The mixture will bubble and foam very quickly, so whisk constantly. Whisk until the foaming subsides. Stir in the vanilla, and the coffee extract, and finally the salt. Bring mixture back to a boil to thicken.
Remove from the heat and allow to cool completely before consuming.

Notes

Adapted from Epicurious Coffee Caramel Sauce