Miso caramel takes a classic, buttery-sweet caramel sauce to new heights with a savory depth and layered complexity. Think salted caramel, but instead of a sharp hit of salt in each bite, miso weaves in a warm, nutty umami that lingers through every drizzle.
Trang’s Recipe Highlights
- FLAVOR: Miso caramel sauce is buttery and rich, deeply caramelized with the perfect sweet and salty balance.
- TEXTURE: It is smooth, glossy, thick but pourable.
- EASE: This recipe is completely fail-proof! While it can be a tiny bit tricky to get just the right amount of caramelization, my step-by-step instructions are beginner friendly.
Ingredients you’ll need
You’ll need 7 ingredients (that’s including water) to make this super yummy miso caramel sauce. As always, for the full list of ingredients with quantities and step-by-step instructions, skip straight to the recipe card.
- Butter – don’t use salted butter, save the salt quota for miso to maximize umami!
- Heavy cream – you can likely substitute light whipping cream or milk, but your caramel won’t be as rich and will likely be thinner. To go dairy free, you can even use coconut milk like in this coconut caramel recipe.
- Vanilla – I like to add just a bit of vanilla at the end to enhance the overall flavor. Omit if you don’t have any, it will still be delicious.
Do I have to use corn syrup?
Corn syrup is the fail-proof ingredient. It is an inverted sugar that helps keep your caramel sauce from crystallizing. I have made caramel sauce before without corn syrup and as soon as I transferred it to a jar, it became a crystalized mess. Ever since then, I have never made caramel sauce without corn syrup. Trust me, especially if you are a beginner, this will save you so much heartache.
And before you hem and haw at corn syrup, it is not the same as high fructose corn syrup. Corn syrup is a simple sugar (glucose), made by breaking down corn starch. Whereas, high fructose corn syrup is made by further processing corn syrup and converting some of the glucose into fructose, increasing its sweetness, which makes it cheaper to use in commercially processed food and drinks.
The white miso I use
I use the same premium white miso paste, with low sodium (290 mg per tablespoon), that I typically use in many of my miso desserts, like these miso brown sugar shortbread cookies and these miso toffee shortbread cookies. The sodium content is important because you don’t want your caramel sauce to be extremely salty but you want to add enough miso to get maximum umami.
For this miso caramel recipe, I used about 1 ½ tablespoon of miso. This has about 435 mg of sodium which is equal to just under ¼ teaspoon of kosher salt. So if you are using a different miso, check the sodium content and try to keep it under 500 mg. Of course you can always add more to your taste!
Tips for making miso caramel
Using the right equipment
Make sure to use a light colored pan for your miso caramel so you can see when the sugar changes color, and one with a heavy bottom for even heat distribution.
For the quantity in this recipe, I used my small stainless steel saucepan. If you are planning to make a bigger batch, make sure to use a large enough pan so it doesn’t bubble over when you stir in the butter and cream.
Getting just the right caramelization
A few times during testing, I burnt the caramel to crisp! I was overzealous with achieving a deep amber color for the caramel but ended up burning it instead. The trick is to get the sugar to a light amber color, but when you tilt the pan, it is actually already a deep amber.
Keep in mind that caramel will continue to cook when you take it off the heat. See the side-by-side photo below. I took this off the heat to take a few photos and keep swirling the pan around for about 1 minute, and the caramel kept getting darker.
This is not to say a darker caramel is not good. You may prefer your caramel with a slight hint of bitterness to cut through all the sweet. As long as it is not so dark and so bitter… like my first couple batches. I do prefer a darker caramel when making caramel frosting for a stronger caramel flavor.
Blend the miso with cream
I tried both blending the miso with cream and stirring in the miso at the very end. I prefer getting the miso blended with the cream ahead of time for a more even distribution. Stirring in the miso at the end works too but the caramel sauce has a tiny bit of a gritty texture at first.
Blending it with the cream first is especially helpful if your miso has been sitting in the fridge for a while and is a bit dryer too.
What to use miso caramel with
- Drizzle it over homemade ice cream for a decadent topping.
- Use it to make the best pecan sticky buns.
- It will be incredible drizzled over banana bread french toast in place of maple syrup.
- Make the best caramel frosting to elevate all your cakes and cupcakes.
Hungry for more?
Miso Caramel Recipe
Equipment
- Stainless steel pan
Ingredients
- ¾ cup granulated sugar, 150 g
- 2 tablespoon corn syrup, 40 g
- 2 tablespoon water, 30 g
- 1 ½ tablespoon white miso paste, 25 g, see note on sodium level
- ¼ cup heavy whipping cream, 60 g
- 2 oz unsalted butter, 57 g
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Caramelize the sugar – Add granulated sugar, corn syrup and water to a heavy bottom stainless steel pan. Heat the mixture over medium heat without stirring. You can swirl the pan occasionally to ensure all the sugar melts and heats evenly. When the liquid turns amber, take it off the heat. This could take around 10-15 minutes, more or less, depending on the strength of your burner.¾ cup granulated sugar, 2 tablespoon corn syrup, 2 tablespoon water
- Blend miso with cream – While the sugar is caramelizing, mix together cream and miso in a small bowl. Use a small spatula to press the miso into the side of the bowl to incorporate it into the liquid completely.1 ½ tablespoon white miso paste, ¼ cup heavy whipping cream
- Add the butter – Once you take the caramel off the heat, immediately add the butter and stir to dissolve. The mixture will bubble rapidly as the butter melts and combines with the caramel. Keep whisking until smooth.2 oz unsalted butter
- Add the miso cream mixture – Now add the miso cream mixture and whisk to combine. The mixture will bubble rapidly again as the cream is mixed with the hot caramel. Just keep whisking until smooth.
- Add vanilla – Finally, stir in the vanilla.½ teaspoon vanilla
- Cool – Transfer warm caramel to a heat proof jar for storage and allow it to cool. Caramel will thicken further as it cools.
Notes
- Choose low sodium miso paste: I used Marukome premium white miso paste which has 290 mg of sodium per tablespoon. Adjust the amount of miso as needed to keep the total sodium from miso paste to just under 500 mg if you’re using a different miso paste.
- Storage: store your miso caramel in the refrigerator for up to 1 month and in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- Warm before using: caramel thickens as it cools so warm it up in the microwave in short bursts, stir in between, until you get the desired consistency before using.
- Larger batch: you should be able to double this recipe and make it in a larger pan.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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