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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Sorry if this question has already been asked, but there are so many comments it’s hard to read through them all. Do you use granulated Swerve or confectioners? I find a lot of recipes don’t specify but one usually works much better than the other. Thanks!!!
Granular.
I could drink this 🙂
Perfect sauce for so many applications from cookies to ice cream to anything your heart can imagine!
I can’t wait to put this on everything!
Yes – I want to put this on everything!
Sorry I meant I drizzled this over your LC Skillet Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookie
This is a winner-so good drizzled with lc caramel sauce (your recipe too). The only substitution I made is Bob’s Red Mill Fine Macaroon Coconut for the coconut flour-I don’t like the taste or texture of coconut flour but do like other forms of coconut.
https://www.bobsredmill.com/fine-macaroon-coconut.html
It was shy of a cup so I just used the whole amount for the Pecan Pie. SO eager for this pie tonight! It’s in the oven now. Cauliflower Crust pizza for dinner and pie for later…I’m in heaven!
OH MY GOSH!!! ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS AND ONE WOULD NEVER, EVER KNOW THAT THIS IS LOW CARB!
YOU ARE AMAZING AND THANK YOU! THANK YOU!!!!
Glad you like it!
I made this for the Magic Cookie Bars, and made a double batch while I was at it, to put over ice cream. Yum! I had a thought, though, when I was just cooking the butter and sweetener, before I added anything else. When I set the spoon I was stirring it with down and the bits of mixture cooled, it seemed almost like penuche. I love penuche! I may try making a small batch and see how it turns out. It reminded me of when my mother-in-law used to make homemade caramels at Christmas and sometimes she cooked the mixture either too much or not enough (I’m thinking not enough now) and I liked it better than the caramels. Anyway, the sauce is amazing, whether on the magic cookie bars, on ice cream, or straight from a spoon 🙂 Thank you so much, Carolyn, for your recipes. My body is so much happier without all that sugar.
I made this for Thanksgiving Dinner (the first low-carb or keto dinner since becoming LCHF). It was a super hit! I didn’t have coconut sugar, so I used Truvia (plus, only two of the four at dinner are LCHF, maybe we’re making converts?)… I realize that changes the sugar content, next time I’ll use the right stuff.
Thank you for this recipe, my dear husband has already requested it as a repeat for Christmas Dinner!
Is there a replacement for the gum? Can I just omit it?
Thanks
You can omit but your caramel will likely harden and crystallize more upon cooling.
I love this! Is there a way to make this a recipe that can be hardened and cut into small candies?
No, it doesn’t harden like that. Sorry.
Because of this recipe, my teens, who were getting a little keto-bored, now think I’m magical. That is all.
Yay! We like keto magic.
O.M.G. Best caramel sauce ever. The coconut sugar really adds to the smell of caramel.
Hi, do you know if THM gentle sweet will work in place of the Swerve? Also, can xantham gum be replaced with glucomannan in this recipe? I made your Kentucky Butter Cake a few weeks ago and it was delicious. This time, I want to make this caramel sauce to go with it but wondered about making those substitutions. Thank you!
Since THM sweeteners are much sweeter than Swerve, they don’t caramelize as well and you don’t have as much volume. So you can try but I can’t guarantee the results.