Instant Pot® Salted Caramel
Makes 1 cup
Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
3 tablespoons butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Directions:
1. Set Instant Pot® to sauté. Add the sugar and water, stirring to combine. Then walk away for 14 minutes, not touching the pot (melting sugar can be a fussy task).
2. Once the time is up, immediately whisk in the butter, followed by the cream, until smooth. Add in salt and vanilla and immediately remove from heat. Pour into a heat-proof glass jar and allow to cool. Refrigerate for up to 5 days.
Enjoy, Julie
Thank you for this blog! I’m getting one for Christmas!
Can you clarify if sauté should be set to low, normal, or high? Thanks!
Hi Julie! I followed your recipe to a T and my caramel is very pale in color, not dark like yours. Should I have cooked sugar longer than 13 minutes?
Hi Janie. I retested this recipe today, and you know what, at 13 minutes my caramel was pale, too. I was testing a lot when I first made the recipe, and I am wondering if my unit was just hotter an gave me that result sooner than if I had just plugged it in. I amended the recipe to 14 minutes (and took new pics – since I was comparing both). I really appreciate reader feedback to put out the best recipes possible, so thank you.
Does it need to stay refrigerated? I was thinking of giving these out at work and won’t necessarily have a fridge to keep them in.
Hi Ellie,
I am a bit of a food-safety freak, so I think they should stay cold. Can you bring them in a cooler and give them out at the end of the day? While they probably would be fine, I would hate to advise otherwise and have there be a problem. Maybe someone with more expertise can chime in.
Julie
Hi! Have you ever made more than one batch at a time? I want to make for gifts but didn’t know if 14 minutes would be enough if I made it 8x the recipe or whatnot. Thanks!!
Thank you! I tried it but the sugar wasn’t all dissolved, even with more time 😞 I may try it again and stir it a bit while it’s cooking. Thanks for your help!
Did you try it? I did it two times just by doubling it and it keeps freezing up on me to hard sugar never starts to get Amber brown!😬😩 what am I doing wrong?? Help me I don’t want to be doing the single recipe 12 times!! I did it once single recipe came out great! 😁
Please do give info on multiplying this recipe I hate to have to do this 10 times. I did try doubling it for some reason it totally Hardened on me never got Brown …I’m wondering if maybe a little bit a water from the previous stir on the spoon made it do that!😳 trying again with just one batch!🤞🏼
I totally understand! Thanks for getting back to me 😉 I found another recipe that makes double I will try it on stove 👍🏻
It might be that some water got in during the cooking. That will cause it to seize. That only fix for that in the conventional candy world is to add water and melt from there and let the water evaporate over time. In the IP, I don’t know.
This was spectacular. I let it go for 14 minutes. It might be a tad paler than the photos, but oh my, taste. I served it over my IP vanilla yogurt. It is amazing.
Making this in a 3qt mini-duo. Any adjustments needed?
I tried this for the first time and the sugar just crystalized.
I have some questions about the procedure.
Do you bring the saute function up to temperature before adding the sugar and water or start from cold?
Do you cover the pot?
Is a 6 quart pot too big? Should I put the ingredients in something smaller inside the main pot?
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