Homemade Caramel Sauce in Your Slow Cooker (AKA Dulce de Leche)

Creamy and dreamy homemade caramel sauce made from sweetened condensed milk in your crockpot! A truly simple and easy caramel sauce recipe made with just ONE ingredient, AKA dulce de leche…

You are simply not going to believe how simple this caramel sauce recipe is! Granted it’s not as simple as opening a bottle of store-bought caramel sauce… But I took a look at the ingredients on one of those bottles recently and found no less than 20 ingredients, including more high fructose corn syrup and sugar than milk + a myriad of dyes and preservatives. Blech!

In contrast, this homemade caramel sauce (also known as dulce de leche) requires just one ingredient — sweetened condensed milk! I was happy to see that the brand that I chose contains only milk and sugar, so that’s a far cry from any store-bought caramel sauce I’ve seen.

Slow Cooker Caramel Sauce

But the very best part about this easy caramel sauce recipe is that it doesn’t require you to stand over the stove for long periods of time. I make it right in my slow cooker, which allows it to cook at a low temperature for a long period of time — meaning there’s virtually no chance of burning it.

Some of you may have made homemade caramel sauce in the past using a similar method where you boiled an unopened can of sweetened condensed milk on the stovetop. Please, I beg you, don’t do this again! Not only is it very difficult to tell when the caramel is finished cooking, but it’s also extremely dangerous because the cans can explode. Not to mention there are surely numerous chemicals leaching from the can into your cooked caramel…

Easy Caramel Sauce

Instead, transfer the sweetened condensed milk into several clean jelly jars, place a lid on them, and tighten the bands down well. I filled my jars up to the 6-oz. line to allow for expansion during cooking. As these jars are made to withstand the home canning process, they’re much safer, and they allow you to visually check the caramel for doneness.

Place the jars in your slow cooker and then fill the slow cooker up with water to about one inch above the top of the lids. Place the lid on your slow cooker and cook on low for 7.5-8 hours, making sure not to let the water drop below the lid level. I didn’t need to add water at any point, but I’d still recommend checking for safety’s sake.

After the caramel sauce has cooked for about 7 hours, you’ll want to check it periodically to see if its reached your desired doneness. You should be able to do this just by looking through the slow cooker lid so that you don’t let the heat escape. When it’s done, remove the jars from the water and allow them to cool for about 20 minutes.

Note that you may hear the lids sealing themselves as the caramel cools, but they are not sufficiently processed for long term shelf storage. The refrigerator is the safest place to store them. For best consistency, you’ll want to bring the caramel to room temperature before serving. Or you can microwave it for about 30 seconds at a time, whisking between each interval, until it’s warm.

Homemade Caramel Sauce Recipe

You may notice that the caramel seems a little chunky when you first open a jar. No worries — it’s absolutely delicious and I have NO problem scarfing it down with some of the beautiful seasonal apples available right now. But if you want a silky smooth homemade caramel sauce, simply whisk it briskly until any lumps are gone.

Another option for using this caramel sauce up is this to-die-for caramel frosting. Spread over a fresh apple cake, it’s totally decadent and amazing!

I’d love to see how your homemade caramel sauce turns out… Tag me @Unsophisticook on Instagram or use the hashtag #Unsophisticook so I can check it out. Enjoy!