If you landed here because you’re standing in your kitchen thinking, “I could just make these sauces myself,” you’re right, and you can. Caramel, white chocolate, mocha and the rest take a saucepan, a whisk and about ten minutes. That’s all the time most of these sauces took. 10 minutes. The pump bottles at the coffee shop are just sauces someone made in a pot.
Make a jar or two, keep them in the fridge, and every cup of coffee turns into a latte, a mocha or dessert. Here are all eight, with the drinks each one belongs in.
You’ll find affiliate links throughout this post, that’s how I keep this blog and my content free for readers. Thank you for supporting my small business and my content.
1. Caramel Sauce
Ingredients: 1 cup granulated sugar, 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, ½ cup heavy cream, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, ¼ teaspoon salt.
How to make it: Melt the sugar in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring gently, until it turns amber. Whisk in the butter, then pour in the cream slowly, because it will bubble up. Take it off the heat and stir in the vanilla and salt.
This is the one that does the most work. It’s what turns an iced coffee into a caramel iced coffee, and it’s what you drizzle down the inside of the glass before the milk goes in. Use it for caramel lattes, caramel macchiatos and caramel apple cider. Don’t walk away from the pan. Sugar goes from golden to burnt faster than you’d think.
2. Chocolate Sauce
Ingredients: 1 cup granulated sugar, ½ cup cocoa powder, ½ cup heavy cream, 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, a pinch of salt.
How to make it: Whisk the sugar, cocoa and cream in a saucepan over medium-low heat until smooth and just bubbling. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter, vanilla and salt.
This is your everyday chocolate sauce. It goes into hot chocolate and chocolate milk, and it’s the base of the mocha sauce further down. Drizzle it over whipped cream for a mocha frappe look, or stir a spoonful into cold milk for the easiest chocolate milk there is.
3. Brownie Fudge (Chocolate) Sauce
Ingredients: 1 cup granulated sugar, ½ cup cocoa powder, ½ cup heavy cream, 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, a pinch of salt.
How to make it: Same method as the chocolate sauce. Cook it a minute longer so it thickens, then stir in the butter, vanilla and salt off the heat.
The extra butter makes this one richer and thicker, closer to a brownie batter than a drizzle. It’s the one for a chocolate fudge brownie latte, or for spooning over ice cream and cheesecake. It also thickens as it cools, so warm the jar briefly before you pour it.
4. White Chocolate Sauce
Ingredients: 1 cup white chocolate chips, ½ cup heavy cream, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, a pinch of salt.
How to make it: Heat the cream until it’s steaming but not boiling. Pour it over the chips, let it sit for a minute, then whisk until smooth. Stir in the vanilla and salt.
This is the sauce I’m using in today’s Instagram video. I’m making an iced white chocolate mocha: espresso, milk and ice with a few spoonfuls of this sauce, then caramel drizzled over the top. It also makes a hot white mocha, and it turns a plain latte into something that tastes like a bakery. It sets up firmer than the other sauces once it’s chilled, so warm it a little before using.
5. Mocha Sauce
Ingredients: 1 cup chocolate sauce, 1 tablespoon instant coffee, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, a pinch of salt.
How to make it: Warm the chocolate sauce gently and stir in the instant coffee until it dissolves. Add the vanilla and salt.
This is the chocolate sauce with coffee built in, and it’s what makes a mocha taste like a mocha. The other drink in my video is an iced chocolate mocha topped with vanilla sweet cream. The chocolate goes in with the espresso, and the cream floats on top so you drink through the sweet cream first. It also works in hot mochas, mocha frappes, and swirled into cold brew.
6. Butterscotch Sauce
Ingredients: 1 cup granulated sugar, ½ cup unsalted butter, ½ cup heavy cream, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, ¼ teaspoon salt.
How to make it: Cook the sugar and butter together over medium heat until the sugar is melted and golden. Whisk in the cream slowly, then the vanilla and salt.
Butterscotch is the sauce people forget about, and it tastes like a coffee shop that has its own bakery. Use it for a butterscotch latte, pour it over cold foam, or drizzle it on an iced coffee. It’s also good over apple crisp and warm cake.
7. Cookie/Biscuit Sauce
Ingredients: 1 cup brown sugar, ½ cup heavy cream, ¼ cup unsalted butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, a pinch of salt.
How to make it: Melt the brown sugar, cream and butter together over medium heat, stirring until smooth and slightly thickened. Take it off the heat and stir in the vanilla, cinnamon and salt.
This is the spiced cookie flavour you get in the trendy cookie latte. Make an iced latte with it, add it to a cold brew, or drizzle it over whipped cream with some crushed cookies on top.
8. Salted Caramel Sauce
Ingredients: 1 cup granulated sugar, 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, ½ cup heavy cream, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, ½ teaspoon sea salt.
How to make it: Make it exactly like the caramel sauce, then stir in the sea salt at the end.
The salt is what separates this from plain caramel. It’s the sauce for a salted caramel latte, a salted caramel macchiato, or a salted caramel mocha. Try it with the chocolate sauce, and you’ll see why the two are sold together.
Why each ingredient is in these sauces
Butter makes caramel, butterscotch and fudge sauce smooth and glossy instead of grainy. It also gives richness, which is why the butterscotch with ½ cup tastes so different from the caramel with 6 tablespoons. Leave it out and the sauce turns dull and loose.
Heavy cream is what makes these pourable and gives them body. It’s why they stay creamy and don’t harden into candy. Skip it and the caramel sets up hard.
Vanilla extract rounds out the sweetness and makes everything taste more like itself. A teaspoon won’t announce itself, but you’d miss it.
Salt keeps the sauces from tasting flat and one-note. A pinch brings out the chocolate, and the half teaspoon in the salted caramel is what makes it that sauce.
Cocoa powder gives the chocolate sauces their deep chocolate flavour without making them too sweet. It’s also why they’re thick without needing melted chocolate.
White chocolate chips are the entire flavour and body of the white chocolate sauce, which is why it only needs cream and a little vanilla.
Instant coffee is what turns chocolate sauce into mocha sauce. Without it you just have chocolate sauce.
Cinnamon gives the cookie sauce its warm, spiced taste.
Brown sugar gives the cookie sauce a deeper, almost molasses flavour that white sugar can’t give.
How to store your sauces
Keep each sauce in a clean jar in the fridge and use it within about a week. They thicken when cold, so warm the jar briefly before using.
A Pinch of Scripture
Everyone knows the first spoonful of something sweet makes you stop and pay attention, and the Bible says something about that too.
O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him. — Psalm 34:8
David doesn’t say “read about it” or “hear about it.” He says taste it. You can describe a salted caramel latte all day, but until it’s in your hand you don’t really know. I think God works the same way. Some things you can’t be talked into. You have to try them for yourself.
So the next time you’re pouring a drizzle of your own caramel over a cup of coffee, let it be a small reminder that goodness is something you can experience. Taste it, and then trust Him.
Stop buying Pre-made Spice Blends – Make them yourself
Want more coffee at home? Try my [Caramel Candied Iced Coffee], which uses the homemade caramel from this post, and my [Budget Coffee Station Upgrade] to set up the place where all these jars live. The Homemade Syrups 101 is coming next.
Try this recipe, enjoy, and bless your life.
Stay faithful, stay seasoned, and stay loyal.
With love and fire,
V.S. Beals
Servant. Disciple. Woman of the Word.
Have you tried our last recipe
