Caramel Extract substitute

Best substitute

Caramel sauce or dulce de leche

Use 1 to 2 tbsp for every 1 tsp extract, minus the same volume of liquid and 1 tbsp of the recipe's sugar

Best for cakes and cupcakes

Different texture

Caramel extract is aroma only, so nothing about how your recipe rises or sets depends on it. The best swaps are real caramel sauce or dulce de leche at 1 to 2 tablespoons per teaspoon of extract, with the recipe's liquid cut by the same amount and its sugar cut by a tablespoon; a tablespoon of dry caramel or toffee sweets ground to a powder; or, best of all in a batter, 2 tablespoons of white sugar caramelised dry in a pan, cooled, cracked and ground. If you have neither the time nor a jar, swapping 2 tablespoons of the recipe's white sugar for dark brown sugar plus a pinch of salt and a little extra vanilla gets you a surprising distance for free.

Other caramel extract substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Sugar caramelised dry, then ground
Close match
Use 2 tbsp caramelised sugar, ground, for every 1 tsp extract
Pure caramel flavour with no water, no cream and no extra sugar, since you are using sugar the recipe already contains.
What changes
Best for
buttercream and frosting, cookies and shortbread, macarons and meringue, cakes, sprinkling over desserts
Prep. Spread 2 tablespoons of white sugar in a dry pan over medium heat and leave it alone until it melts and turns deep amber, swirling rather than stirring. Pour it onto a lined tray, let it set hard, then break it up and grind it to a powder.
The best option for anything that cannot take extra liquid, and it costs nothing. Two practical notes. Take the sugar further than feels comfortable, to a deep amber the colour of an old penny, because pale caramel tastes only sweet, and the bitter note is what makes it read as caramel; stop before it smokes. And subtract the 2 tablespoons from the recipe's own sugar, since caramelised sugar is still sugar. Ground caramel absorbs moisture and will clump, so grind it just before you use it.
3Hard caramel or toffee sweets, ground fine
Different texture
Use 1 to 2 tbsp fine powder for every 1 tsp extract, minus 1 tbsp of the recipe's sugar
Caramel flavour already concentrated in sugar, with no water attached, which makes it easy to add to a dry mixture.
What changes
Best for
cookies and blondies, frosting, chocolate work and bark, toppings and streusel
Prep. Grind hard caramels, Werther's-style sweets or toffee in a food processor to a fine powder and sift out any shards.
Handy and reliable. It behaves well in chocolate, where a water-based extract could cause seizing. The trade-off is sugar and grit: reduce the recipe's sugar to match, and sieve properly, because unsieved shards inside a cake crumb are unpleasant. Toffee sweets often contain butter and cream, which pushes the flavour towards butterscotch, so expect a slightly milkier, more molasses-inflected result than a pure caramel.
4Dark brown sugar plus vanilla and salt
Different taste
Use Swap 2 tbsp of the recipe's white sugar for dark brown sugar, add ½ tsp extra vanilla and a pinch of salt, for every 1 tsp extract
The free, no-shopping option.
What changes
Brown sugar contributes molasses depth, vanilla contributes sweet creaminess, and salt is what makes the brain read the combination as caramel.
Best for
cookies and blondies, cakes and muffins, frosting, oatmeal and granola
Worth being honest: this tastes of toffee and molasses rather than of true caramel, because it has no cooked-sugar bitterness in it. In a chocolate chip cookie or a blondie nobody would question it. In a caramel buttercream or salted caramel sauce, where the caramel is the entire dish, it falls noticeably short and you would be better off caramelising sugar. The salt matters more than people expect and is the cheapest improvement available.
5Caramel coffee syrup
Different texture
Use 1 tbsp for every 1 tsp extract, minus 1 tbsp liquid and 1 tbsp sugar
The bottled syrup used in coffee shops, which is caramel flavouring in sugar syrup, so the aroma is right and the concentration is low.
What changes
Best for
coffee drinks and lattes, glazes and cake soaks, whipped cream, frosting, milkshakes
Overlooked but perfectly good, especially if you already keep it for coffee. Because it is mostly sugar and water, make both adjustments or a frosting will be loose and cloying. The flavour is candied and simple rather than deep and slightly bitter, so it shines in drinks and glazes and does less for a batter where you wanted real cooked-sugar character.
6Nothing at all, with a sugar swap in its place
Different taste
Omit the extract, swap 2 tbsp of the recipe's white sugar for dark brown, and add a pinch of salt
The honest answer, since extract contributes only aroma and the recipe will bake identically without it.
What changes
Best for
brownies and blondies, cookies, cakes, frosting
Leaving it out has no structural consequence at all. The bake will simply taste less of caramel, and the brown sugar and salt swap recovers a real part of that for nothing. Where you should not simply omit is a recipe named for caramel with no other caramel in it, such as a caramel frosting or caramel pudding, since there is nothing else to carry the flavour. In those, spend five minutes caramelising sugar instead.

What is Caramel Extract?

Caramel Extract is Caramel extract is a small bottle of concentrated flavouring that carries the aroma of cooked sugar, and it is used about a teaspoon at a time to make a bake taste of caramel without adding the sugar, cream or moisture that a real caramel sauce would.

Cooking tips

Caramel and butterscotch are different things and swapping one for the other changes the flavour in a predictable way. Caramel is white sugar cooked until it browns, so it is cleaner and slightly bitter. Butterscotch is brown sugar cooked with butter, so it is milkier and more molasses-forward. Butterscotch extract or sauce will work in a caramel recipe, but the result reads darker and softer.
If you caramelise sugar yourself, take it darker than instinct suggests. Pale caramel tastes of nothing but sweetness; the flavour people recognise as caramel comes from the compounds that appear once the sugar is a deep amber. Pull it off the heat just before it starts to smoke, since it goes from perfect to acrid in seconds.
Anything wet you use in place of extract must be paid for twice: remove an equal volume of the recipe's liquid, and remove roughly half that volume in sugar. Skipping this is why caramel buttercream made with a jar of sauce ends up too soft to pipe and too sweet to eat.
Salt is the cheapest way to make a caramel substitution taste more like caramel. A good pinch of flaky salt, or a scant quarter teaspoon per batch, sharpens the sweetness into something recognisable. This is the reason salted caramel became ubiquitous.
For chocolate work, use a dry option rather than extract or sauce. Ground caramel sweets or ground caramelised sugar mix into melted chocolate without trouble, while any water-based liquid can make chocolate seize into a grainy paste.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best substitute for caramel extract?

Caramel sauce or dulce de leche, 1 to 2 tablespoons per teaspoon of extract, whisked into the wet ingredients, with the same volume of liquid and about a tablespoon of sugar removed from the recipe. If the recipe cannot take extra moisture, caramelise 2 tablespoons of the recipe's own sugar in a dry pan, let it set hard, grind it to a powder and use that instead.

Is caramel extract the same as butterscotch extract?

No. Caramel is cooked white sugar, so it tastes clean and slightly bitter. Butterscotch is brown sugar cooked with butter, so it tastes milkier and more molasses-forward. They substitute for one another at 1:1 and most people will not object, but a caramel recipe made with butterscotch tastes darker and softer, and a butterscotch recipe made with caramel tastes lighter and less rich, which a teaspoon of molasses will fix.

Can I use caramel sauce instead of caramel extract?

Yes, 1 to 2 tablespoons per teaspoon, but pay for it in two places: take out an equal volume of the recipe's liquid, and cut the sugar by about a tablespoon. In buttercream, hold back some of the milk as well or the frosting will be too soft to hold a piped shape. A dark, properly bitter caramel sauce works far better than a pale sweet one.

Can I just leave caramel extract out?

Yes. It adds only aroma and nothing that affects structure, so the recipe bakes and sets identically. Since you are already mixing, swap 2 tablespoons of the recipe's white sugar for dark brown sugar and add a pinch of salt, which recovers a real share of the flavour at no cost. The exception is a recipe where caramel is the only flavour, such as caramel frosting, in which case caramelise a little sugar instead.

How do I get caramel flavour without adding liquid?

Caramelise 2 tablespoons of white sugar in a dry pan until deep amber, pour it onto a lined tray, let it set hard, then break it up and grind it to a powder. Use that in place of a teaspoon of extract, and subtract the 2 tablespoons from the recipe's own sugar. Ground hard caramel sweets work the same way. Both are dry, so they are safe in buttercream, macarons and melted chocolate where extract or sauce would cause problems.

Related substitutes

More flavorings substitutes

Caramel Extract substitute

Other caramel extract substitutes

2Sugar caramelised dry, then ground

3Hard caramel or toffee sweets, ground fine

4Dark brown sugar plus vanilla and salt

5Caramel coffee syrup

6Nothing at all, with a sugar swap in its place