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The Best Caramel Dip

By Melissa

4.73 from 40 votes

on Sep 19, 2019, Updated Mar 22, 2024

This is the best caramel dip recipe ever. Made on the stove with butter, sugar, and sweetened condensed milk, it’s the perfect consistency for dipping pretzels and apples.

THIS recipe is the one that your friends and family are going to be begging for! When you take it to a get-together you’ll be the star of the show. And the best part – it only took you a few minutes to put together. This is the first recipe I publish online because SO many people asked me for it. You are going to love it too.

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The Best Caramel Dip

This caramel dip recipe is something you need in your life. It is actually the very first recipe that I published as a blogger way back in 2009. I didn’t even have a picture of the end product but wanted to share the goodness. And goodness it is! This is the perfect homemade caramel for dipping. It’s thick and smooth, while still being scoop-able. I’ve made this recipe every fall since I first discovered it. I hope you try it and love it like I do.

I think of this caramel as party food and take it to fall parties over and over again. It makes about 3 cups of caramel dip, so there’s plenty for a crowd. It’s really simple to make, too — you are just cooking a few simple ingredients on the stove. I serve it with apples and pretzels for dipping. There’s something magical about fresh caramel and homegrown apples this time of year.

How do you get the perfect caramel consistency?

The goal for this dip is to be well, dippable, so you’ll want to bring the sugar mixture to a nice bubble but not a full boil. If you boil it too long or hard, you’ll end up with a thicker caramel that is great for dipping whole apples, but less great for dipping little apple slices and pretzels.

Can you use something other than corn syrup?

I often get asked about switching out the corn syrup in this recipe, and I haven’t played with that much, so I don’t recommend doing it. I only use corn syrup in this recipe, my white cloud frosting recipe, and in caramel corn. That being said, it is a different product than high fructose corn syrup. Here’s an article from The Kitchn about it.

What should I do if I notice my caramel is burning?

Don’t wander away from this recipe while it is cooking. You need to do a lot of stirring, or the bottom of the dip will scorch and burn — not the dream. If you do see that the bottom is starting to scorch (you’ll see little flecks of really dark sugar when you stir), remove the pan from the heat right away.

If the caramel hasn’t finished cooking, you can return it to the heat while being careful to only stir the top of the caramel and avoiding scraping up the burnt sugar on the bottom of the pan. If the scorch isn’t too bad, you won’t be able to taste it, but you still might have little flecks of dark sugar in your caramel. It’s not ideal, but it’s better than feeling like you ruined the whole batch.

4.73 from 40 votes

The Best Caramel Dip

By: Melissa Griffiths

This is the best caramel dip recipe ever. Made on the stove with butter, sugar, and sweetened condensed milk, it's the perfect consistency for dipping pretzels and apples.

Prep: 5 minutes mins

Cook: 15 minutes mins

Total: 20 minutes mins

Servings: 24 (Make 3 cups)

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Ingredients 

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• ▢ 1/2 cup salted butter
• ▢ 1 1/2 cups brown sugar, light or dark
• ▢ 3/4 cup light corn syrup
• ▢ 1 can sweetened condensed milk, (14 ounces)
• ▢ 1 teaspoon vanilla

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Instructions 

• In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat.
• Add the brown sugar, corn syrup, and sweetened condensed milk, stirring to combine.
• Stir constantly until mixture comes to a light bubbly boil, with just a few bubbles popping through the surface of the caramel (see notes for more details).
• Remove from heat right away and add the vanilla. Stir to combine.
• Serve warm or at room temperature with apple slices and pretzels, or drizzle over ice cream.

Video

Notes

• The goal for this dip is to be, well, dip-able, so you’ll want to bring the sugar mixture to a nice bubble but not a full boil. If you boil it too long or hard, you’ll end up with a thicker caramel that is great for dipping whole apples, but less great for dipping little apple slices and pretzels.
• I often get asked about switching out the corn syrup in this recipe, but I haven’t played with that much, so I don’t recommend doing it. I only use corn syrup in this recipe, my white cloud frosting recipe, and in caramel corn. That being said, it is a different product than high fructose corn syrup. Here’s an article from Serious Eats about it.
• Don’t wander away from this recipe while it is cooking. You need to do a lot of stirring, or the bottom of the dip will scorch and burn — not the dream.
• If you do see that the bottom is starting to scorch (you’ll see little flecks of really dark sugar when you stir), remove the pan from the heat right away. If the caramel hasn’t finished cooking, you can return it to the heat while being careful to only stir the top of the caramel and avoiding scraping up the burnt sugar on the bottom of the pan. If the scorch isn’t too bad, you won’t be able to taste it, but you still might have little flecks of dark sugar in your caramel. It’s not ideal, but it’s better than feeling like you ruined the whole batch.

Nutrition

Serving: 1 of 24 servings, Calories: 170kcal, Carbohydrates: 31g, Protein: 1g, Fat: 5g, Saturated Fat: 3g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.2g, Monounsaturated Fat: 1g, Trans Fat: 0.2g, Cholesterol: 16mg, Sodium: 62mg, Potassium: 81mg, Sugar: 31g, Vitamin A: 162IU, Vitamin C: 0.4mg, Calcium: 61mg, Iron: 0.1mg

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Other easy desserts you might like:

• Glazed Donuts
• Cinnamon Caramel Corn with White Chocolate and Pecans
• Pumpkin Sheet Cake with Caramel Frosting
• Gooey Caramel Corn
• Salted Caramel Pretzel Bark
• Cake Mix Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Grandma Shoaf’s Quick and Easy Chocolate Sheet Cake
• Easy Apple Pie Recipe (Using Fresh Apples)
• The Best Easy Apple Cake
• Perfect Pumpkin Bread
• The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Ever
• Soft Gingerbread Cookie Recipe
• The Best Simple Oatmeal Cookie Recipe

This post was originally published in October 2009, was republished with updated text, recipe instructions, and nutritional information in October 2017, and was updated and rephotographed again in September 2019.

This is truly the BEST caramel dip, and it’s perfect for your next party because it’s always a crowd favorite (and it only takes you about 20 minutes to put together — you can’t beat that!).