Salted Caramel Muffins
These Salted Caramel Muffins are incredibly decadent. They have a brown sugar muffin, a soft homemade salted caramel centre, and a salted caramel sauce.
Salted caramel is one of my favourite things on the entire planet and I am utterly obsessed with this salted caramel muffin recipe.
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Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce
I made my own salted caramel sauce for this recipe using my Homemade Caramel Sauce. The salted caramel sauce does make more caramel than you will need for this recipe however, it can be stored and used in other recipes like my Salted Caramel Popcorn Loaf Cake or my Salted Caramel Apple Crumble Cake. You could also use the sauce to top ice cream or other desserts.
The Salted Caramel Sauce is made using only five ingredients. Water, White Granulated Sugar, Double Cream, Unsalted Butter and Sea Salt.
Related Recipes
Salted Caramel and Peanut Brownies
You need to use unsalted butter in this recipe, this helps to thicken the caramel up. A baking spread like Stork won’t thicken your caramel up and it will be too runny.
You also need to use double cream in this caramel sauce recipe. Similar to the butter, single cream won’t thicken the sauce up enough.
The caramel sauce will naturally thicken in the fridge as it sets, but it is by no means a set caramel like the caramel used in Millionaire Shortbread.
Tulip Muffin Cases
I absolutely love these Tulip Muffin Cases, and I use them for all of my muffin recipes. They are slightly larger than cupcake cases or baking cups which is perfect for muffins.
Salted Caramel Muffins
I wanted to make these Salted Caramel Muffins as Salted Caramelly as possible. To begin with, I froze 12 salted caramel blobs for the centre of the muffins. When the muffins are baked the caramel in the centre will soften, so once your muffins are baked and you bite into them you will lovely soft caramelly centre.
The Salted Caramel Muffins are made using light brown sugar which gives the muffin a lovely hint of caramel too. Basically, I wanted to use caramel as much as possible in this recipe.
There are a few differences between a muffin and a cupcake recipe. One of which is that in muffin recipes you mix the wet and dry ingredients separately first. Before combining them together.
Muffins use oil in the recipe as opposed to butter. The oil needs to be flavourless, so I tend to use either sunflower or vegetable oil. Muffins can be denser than cupcakes so the oil helps to create a lovely and light texture within the muffins.
Baking the Muffins
Before you bake the muffins, split half of your muffin mixture between your 12 muffin cases. Put your frozen caramel blobs in the centre of each muffin case and cover with the remaining muffin mixture.
Whenever I am making muffins I always use an ice cream scoop to portion my mixture. This way I know that each muffin case has the same amount of batter in it.
The muffins need to be baked in the oven for 25-30 minutes. You will know they are ready once they have risen and are golden brown in colour. Another way to tell if your muffins are ready is to gently press down on the top of them. If they spring back to their original shape when you remove your finger then they are baked. If you end up with a slight dent in the top of your muffin pop them back into the oven for 3-4 minutes and repeat.
Cooling the Muffins
The muffins need to be cooled completely before you can decorate them. Leave the muffins to cool for 10-15 minutes in the muffin tray before moving to a wire rack to cool fully.
I decided just to add a spoonful of the salted caramel sauce to the top of the muffins. You could make a salted caramel buttercream (head to the alternatives section below for the method) or decorate in any other way you want.
Alternatives
If you want to make these caramel muffins, just leave the salt out of the caramel.
To decorate if you want to make a salted caramel buttercream, you will need 150g of unsalted butter, 300g of icing sugar and 50g of salted caramel sauce. Add the butter, icing sugar and caramel to a large bowl and beat together until thick and creamy. If the buttercream is too thick, add 1 tbsp of whole milk and beat again. Repeat until the buttercream is the desired consistency and use it to decorate the top of your muffins.
Equipment
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Salted Caramel Muffins
Ingredients
For the Salted Caramel
- 250 ml Double Cream
- 50 g Unsalted Butter
- 350 g White Granulated Sugar
- 100 ml Cold Water
- 1/2 tsp Sea Salt Chunks
For the Salted Caramel Muffins
- 12 tbsp Salted Caramel Sauce
- 150 ml Vegetable Oil
- 175 g Whole Milk
- 2 Large Eggs
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 250 g Self-Raising flour
- 175 g Light Brown Sugar
For the Decoration
- 12 tbsp Salted Caramel Sauce
Instructions
To Make the Salted Caramel Sauce
- Measure out the cream in a jug and leave to one side.
- Measure out the butter and cut into small cubes. Leave to one side.
- Add the sugar and water to a large saucepan and pop onto a low/medium heat.
- Stir continuously until the sugar has completely dissolved (the mixture will be cloudy)
- Once the sugar has dissolved stop stirring and leave the mixture to come to the boil.
- Once the mixture is boiling, leave until it turns a lovely amber colour, and then remove from the heat. This can take up to 10 minutes.
- Whisk the caramel and add in the double cream. This will bubble and spit so please be careful. Keep whisking as quickly as you can until the bubbling has stopped.
- Add in the butter and whisk again until it is completely melted.
- Sprinkle in the sea salt and mix until combined.
- Careful pour the mixture into a clean jar, pop the lid on and place it into the fridge until it is completely cool.
To Make the Salted Caramel Muffins
- Add twelve tablespoons of caramel to a lined baking tray or freezer-safe container and freeze until solid (around 1 hour)
- Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan. Line a muffin tray with your muffin liners and leave to one side.
- Add the oil, whole milk, eggs and vanilla to a large bowl or jug and whisk until they are all combined. Leave to one side.
- In a separate bowl add the flour and sugar and mix until fully combined.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and whisk until the mixture is smooth and combined.
- Split half of the muffin mixture between your 12 muffin cases.
- Add your frozen caramel to the centre of each muffin and cover with the remaining muffin batter.
- Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes. Once they have baked leave them to cool in the muffin tray for 15-20 minutes before moving them to a wire rack to cool fully.
To Decorate
- Once the muffins have cooled completely add a tablespoon of salted caramel to the top of each one and enjoy!
Notes
- These Salted Caramel Muffins will last 3+ days in an airtight container.
- I use these Tulip Muffin Cases
- If you want to make a Salted Caramel Buttercream head to the alternatives section above for the ingredients and method.
- Leave the salt out to create a regular caramel sauce.