This sugar free caramel sauce is ooey and gooey and it stays pourable! Best of all, it tastes just like real caramel sauce. This is the only keto caramel sauce recipe you will ever need. I am excited to bring you this updated recipe and a new instructional video.
Want to hear something crazy? I just improved my keto sugar free caramel sauce recipe! It was always truly amazing and by far one of the most popular low carb caramel recipes out there, but now it’s even better.
And I attribute this improvement to two “secret weapon” ingredients: The new Swerve brown sugar replacement and Bocha Sweet. The combination of these two keto sweeteners results in the most perfect caramel that stays soft and pourable for days. It can even be refrigerated and still stays soft, with absolutely no recrystallization.
Creating a really good, true-to-life caramel sauce with erythritol has been one of my low carb goals for a long time now. Almost from the first moment I started baking and cooking low carb, I found myself wondering if it was possible and absolutely determined to find out.
Creating Keto Sugar Free Caramel Sauce
I’d tried a few store-bought sugar-free caramel sauces and they were simply awful. They were laden with chemicals and they tasted like it too. So I had to find a way to make homemade sugar-free caramel sauce from scratch, and I set my sights high.
It had to be:
- Gooey
- Smooth and creamy
- Have true caramelized-sugar taste
- Not harden and recrystallize upon cooling
Anyone who has ever worked with erythritol-based sweeteners will know that the last issue was the biggest challenge to overcome. I’ve made some great-tasting and great-looking sauces along the way, but they all had a tendency to harden up pretty quickly.
Even my previous recipe, which I considered almost perfect, did begin to solidify and get a bit grainy as it cooled. The addition of some Yacon syrup, molasses, or even coconut sugar definitely helped offset that reaction, but it also added a little to the carb count. Some people objected to these additions but I felt that they were worth it to get really good low carb caramel sauce.
But honestly, both Swerve Brown and Bocha Sweet have totally changed the sugar free caramel sauce game. Completely and utterly. How so?
- Swerve Brown gives the sauce a perfect caramel color without the addition of Yacon or molasses
- Bocha Sweet keeps it soft and inhibits the crystallization of the erythritol
- The combination of the two gives it the ideal caramel sweetness
I first tried a bit of Bocha Sweet in my caramel sauce a few months ago and was astonished to pull it out of the fridge the next day and still have it be perfectly pourable. And when the long-awaited Swerve Brown finally came out, I tried the two together and I knew I had perfected this recipe.
But please don’t worry if you can’t get your hands on these sweeteners. I am putting notes in the new updated recipe so that you can still make it the old way, with Swerve and a little Yacon syrup. It’s still amazing and delicious!
So put away all those awful store-bought, chemical-laden sugar free caramel sauces because this keto caramel sauce recipe will blow your caramel-loving mind. Check out the video in the recipe card!
I’ve actually been using this caramel sauce recipe in many of my other dessert recipes for a while now, like my maple pecan pie. But I use it so often and found myself rewriting it so frequently, I decided that it needed to be a stand alone recipe.
Believe me, it deserves it! It’s already part of some of my favorite keto dessert recipes and it will be part of many more to come. But it truly is good enough to be have its very own recipe post. Sometimes I just make some for the heck of it, just to keep in the fridge. It’s fantastic slathered on a piece of very dark chocolate with a little sea salt sprinkled on top. Or drizzled over low carb vanilla ice cream. Or simply licked from the spoon.
I really don’t think there is a better low carb caramel sauce out there. Back when I first wrote this post, I said if there was any way to improve on this recipe, I would find it. And I truly believe I just did. I can die happy now!
How to enjoy your keto caramel sauce
- Keto Caramel Cake
- Keto Salted Caramel Brownie Bites
- Keto Salted Caramel Cheesecake Bars
- Keto Turtle Cupcakes
- Keto Salted Caramel Butter Bars
- Keto Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate
The Best Low Carb Caramel Sauce
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup butter
- 3 tbsp brown sugar replacement
- 3 tbsp allulose, or BochaSweet
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
- 1/4 tsp kosher or sea salt
- 2 tbsp water
For Salted Caramel Sauce:
- 1/2 tsp additional kosher salt or sea salt
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine butter, Swerve, and Bocha Sweet. Bring to a boil and cook 3 to 5 minutes (be careful not to burn it).
- Remove from heat and add cream. Mixture will bubble vigorously.
- Sprinkle with xanthan gum and whisk vigorously to combine. Add salt.
- Return mixture to heat and boil 1 more minute. Let cool to lukewarm and stir in water until well combined.
- For salted caramel, simply stir in additional salt at the end.
- The sauce can be stored in the fridge for a week or so (I've actually stored mine for several weeks). Just gently reheat in the microwave or in a saucepan to make it pourable again.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer
Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I am simply recounting and sharing my own experiences on this blog. Nothing I express here should be taken as medical advice and you should consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program. I provide nutritional information for my recipes simply as a courtesy to my readers. It is calculated using MacGourmet software and I remove erythritol from the final carb count and net carb count, as it does not affect my own blood glucose levels. I do my best to be as accurate as possible but you should independently calculate nutritional information on your own before relying on them. I expressly disclaim any and all liability of any kind with respect to any act or omission wholly or in part in reliance on anything contained in this website.
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Can I use this caramel sauce to make a caramel candy? Thanks!
No, not really. It doesn’t harden and become chewy the way something made with sugar does.
Thank you!
Hi Caroline,
if I make syrup with swerve, it crystalizes and becomes rock hard.
Do you think using xylitol would work? Maybe combining it with stevia (liquid)?
I’ve read somewhere that xylitol doesn’t harden like erythritol, …
Thank you for all your great recipes!!!
Xylitol also doesn’t caramelize very well. So I think you need a combo of xylitol and erythritol
Will try that! Thanks!
Carolyn,
I live in China so in the land of dumplings, noodles, and fried rice, living low carb hasn’t been easy. Now it’s apple season and I’ve been resisting the salted caramel I’ve been making for years. I just made your low carb caramel recipe, exactly as you wrote it with coconut sugar. OUTSTANDING. The swerve is undetectable. Thank you for everything you do for your followers!
So glad you like it!
I’d like to make a caramel that can go in the middle of a fat bomb to be similar to a rolo. Do you know how to do that or how to make this recipe a more chewy caramel? I am going to make this, but I’d love to make candies. (Oh, I mean fat bombs.) 😀
Not sure how to make it chewy, sadly. But it does firm up in the fridge and then you could roll it into balls and dip in chocolate.
That’s a great idea! I could also pour the first half of the fat bomb, let it partially harden, somehow put a dent in the middle and pour some caramel in, let that harden, then put the remainder of the fat bomb on top.
Could you use Stevia (granulated) instead of Swerve ? We don’t have Swerve locally.
No, stevia does not caramelize. You need some sort of erythritol based sweetener.
Made this to go on top of a apple pie bread pudding that I used your apple cider donut recipe and rehydrated dried apples in water with apple cider, swerve, and cinnamon. DIVINE! Seriously, this tastes like the real deal. I added 1tblsp of vegetable glycerin at the end to help with crystallization and I used the liquid from the apples after hydration in place of the water. THANK YOU!
Wow, sounds fantastic!
I had to comment. This recipe rocks! I used full fat coconut milk instead of cream or half and half. I used 4tbsp erythritol and 2tbsp of brown sugar Splenda instead of Swerve. And a word to the wise, don’t use a plastic spoon, it melted in the Carmel, had to throw out that batch. Second batch, wooden spoon, perfection!
Just made this…it is excellent! Pouring over unsalted mixed nuts and freezing for a treat similar to peanut brittle. Thanks for all your hard work!
Lovely.
Made this sauce and it worked perfectly. :). I made it for the low-carb Twix cookies and will now be making it for other recipes (and ice cream) too. YUMMY — thanks again for a wonderful, easy-to-make recipe!!
My sauce separated while cooking. Can anyone tell me what I did wrong?
Did you use any ingredient different than the one I had listed? It should come back together when you whisk in the xanthan gum.
Could I make this into a caramel candy? How would I get it to that consistency?
Sorry, I don’t really have any suggestions. It does harden a bit after cooling but you’ll never really get that chewy caramel consistency without sugar.
I didn’t have xanthan gum so I used guar gum. Should I try cornstarch instead?
It looked really great before the second heating. When it said bring to a boil I really did crank the heat to get it to boil stirring constantly but maybe that’s what did it.
Not sure what went wrong with my sauce but it separated from the butter. I used molasses. Should I try heating it up again?
I need it for your twix thumbprint cookies
I am not at all sure why it separated. It’s never happened to me and I make this often. too much heat might be the culprit…keep it lower if you need too. Also, the xanthan gum should bring it all back together when you whisk it in.
Thank you Carolyn!
I’ve see-sawed back and forth on low carb/keto diets for years. It works great for me, but I typically cave in the latter part of the year with goodies from Halloween through Christmas. Being able to find low carb dessert options like this will make the transition so much easier and not feel quite so sacrificial. I look forward to following your newsletter and helpful posts.
Many, many thanks!
Thanks, Betty!
Found it!, Can’t wait to try it, I love, love, love caramel! So excited!
If you didn’t mind having some actual sugar in it could you sub out something like rapadura for the coconut sugar?
I suppose that would work.
Really lovely recipe! I will make it today. I will be making the caramel with all coconut sugar. For some sad reason swerve gives me painful digestive issues. Hope it turns out. That being said It is doubtful that I will eat so many that the sugars will be harmful. I have been involved with health and healing since 1972 (!) and can happily say that I have never had health problems. In that time there have always been people lecturing on the dangers of any kind of sugars and whatever else they have decided is evil. I feel coconut sugar, maple syrup, and honey in small amounts have enhanced my health and well being. Those who are needing to lecture us all might need to start their own blogs… thanks for all of your real work involving health.