Keto Caramel Sauce Recipe (With Dairy-Free Option)

This Keto Caramel Sauce Recipe is made with only 4 ingredients to use as a keto coffee creamer or on top of keto desserts. This easy, thick, homemade sugar-free caramel syrup is also gluten-free, refined-sugar-free, and a dairy-free option is provided.

Bonus, it only has 0.3 grams of net carbs per tablespoon. So it can be used anytime without guilt.

Is Caramel Sauce Keto?

Most store-bought caramel sauces are not keto-friendly at all. They are typically made with sugar, glucose syrup, and golden syrup.

As a result, a classic caramel sauce contains about 60 grams of net carbs per 100 grams or 20 grams per serving.

How To Make Keto Caramel Sauce

It is super easy to make keto caramel at home with only 4 simple ingredients.

Ingredients

All you need to make this sugar-free caramel syrup recipe are:

• Butter – I made the recipe with salted butter or unsalted butter, and both options work well. You can also use vegan butter like earth balance for a keto vegan caramel sauce.
• Golden sugar-free sweetener – I love to make keto caramel sauce with Swerve, but other brands work as well. The golden Swerve sweetener works better for this caramel recipe than the white version. It’s pure erythritol with a lovely golden color, and sticky texture like regular brown sugar but without carbs or calories. It creates the best keto caramel sauce with a dark brown color. For more on sweeteners, read my review of the best keto sweeteners.
• Heavy cream – or for a dairy-free option, use canned coconut cream or canned coconut milk. Always shake the can before measuring. If you are using vegan butter in this recipe, you must use coconut cream, not milk, or the caramel won’t thicken! Learn more about keto-friendly dairy products.
• Vanilla extract

Melting Ingredients

First, melt the butter in a small non-stick saucepan over medium heat.

Then, whisk in brown sugar-free sweetener and heavy cream. Whisk constantly until the sugar has fully dissolved.

Thickening

This keto sugar-free caramel sauce requires patience!

Bring the mixture to a gentle boil and cook for 6-8 minutes stirring a few times, until the liquid evaporates and the caramel volume has reduced by about a third.

Cooling Down

When the caramel sauce thickens and covers the back of a silicone spoon entirely, it’s time to stop the heat.

Cool the caramel sauce down for 15 minutes in the pan.

Then, transfer it into a glass mason jar.

Finally, when the caramel reaches room temperature, close the jar and store it in the fridge.

Keto Sweetener Choice

There are many other keto sweeteners you can use to make your sugar-free caramel sauce. However, keep in mind that each keto sweetener has different properties.

Some melt faster, like xylitol, and some like erythritol will never turn brown.

So to make a brown keto caramel that thickens easily, you must use golden erythritol or golden erythritol/monk fruit blend.

Other sweeteners like xylitol or allulose will work, but your caramel will never darken as much.

Storage Instructions

You must store caramel sauce in a fridge. In fact, caramel sauce contains butter and cream, and it must be placed in a sealed glass jar in the fridge.

You can store this perfect caramel sauce for up to 4 days in the fridge.

Freezing caramel sauce

If you have too much caramel sauce, freeze it in an ice cube tray. Place one tablespoon of caramel in each hole, cover the tray with foil, and freeze.

Thaw one cube at a time 2 hours before serving or microwave the frozen caramel to thaw and use quickly.

You can also add frozen caramel ice cubes to thicken keto smoothie recipes or into hot coffee as a coffee creamer.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Can I Do With Keto Caramel Sauce?

This is the perfect keto caramel sauce to use as a:

• Coffee creamer – add 1 tablespoon of this caramel sauce to your hot coffee. Bring everything in a blender and blend for 20 seconds to create a milky keto caramel coffee. You can also use a hand milk frother to blend coffee and caramel sauce directly into the coffee mug.
• Dessert topping – drizzle this keto caramel onto raspberry crumble bars, keto ice creams, keto pound cake, or floating island dessert.
• Pancake syrup – drizzle on top of my keto pancake recipe, keto waffles, or keto crepes.
• Keto smoothie syrup – add a tablespoon into my keto peanut butter smoothie or keto Frappuccino to add a lovely caramel flavor. Even better, add it frozen to thicken your keto smoothie!

Can I Make Dairy-Free Keto Caramel Sauce?

You can use this recipe to make a keto vegan caramel sauce too. To do so, replace:

• Butter by vegan butter. Don’t use vegan spread. It’s made of vegetable oils, and these are not approved for a keto diet. The best brands are Naturli and Earth Balance.
• Heavy cream by canned coconut cream or canned coconut milk. Careful coconut milk caramel sauce doesn’t thicken as much as coconut cream caramel! You need as much fat as possible to get a thick dairy-free caramel. Therefore, canned coconut cream works the best. Always shake the can before opening and measuring.

How Many Carbs Are In Sugar-Free Caramel?

Since sugar alcohols are not counted as carbs on a keto diet, you only get 0.3 grams of net carbs in this keto caramel sauce per tablespoon.

Why Has My Keto Caramel Sauce Hardened?

Caramel sauce always hardens when stored in a cold place. That’s normal, and this is not a problem.

To thin out your homemade keto caramel, bring the jar in the microwave for 20 seconds.

Otherwise, get into a saucepan and rewarm until liquid and easy to pour on keto pancake recipe or keto ice creams.

If your caramel is too thick for your liking, add 1-2 tablespoons of cold water to the saucepan.

Stir and rewarm until the caramel reaches the best consistency.

Why Has My Caramel Sauce Split?

If you boil your caramel sauce at a too-high temperature, the caramel can separate. Usually, you can fix that by:

• Reducing to medium heat to reach a light boil.
• Stirring in a few tablespoons of cold water into a caramel.

How Do I Know My Caramel Is Ready?

Making your homemade keto-friendly caramel sauce is pure science. A thick caramel is simply a reduced sweet sauce that is lightly boiled for 6-8 minutes.

The trick to making the best thick keto caramel sauce is to stir occasionally to let the liquid evaporate slowly. The less movement you add to the mixture, the faster it thickens.