Sauces & Dessert Spreads

Sauces and dessert spreads are sweet toppings to pour or spread over desserts, fruit and bread, from caramel and fudge sauces to nut spreads and milk jams such as dulce de leche.

How to choose Sauces & Dessert Spreads

  • Pour or spread. Caramel sauce is loosened with butter and cream, and the water in the cream keeps it loose enough to pour. Milk jams and nut spreads are cooked or ground thicker, for a knife rather than a spoon.
  • Caramel or butterscotch. Caramel sauce is usually white sugar cooked until it colors, then thinned with cream. Butterscotch is built on brown sugar and butter, so it tastes darker.
  • Milk jam. Milk and sugar cooked down slowly turn brown as the milk's own sugars and proteins react in the heat. The jam tastes of cooked milk more than of burnt sugar.
  • Hazelnut and cocoa. In the early 1800s, when Napoleon's blockade made cocoa scarce, Turin chocolatiers began stretching it with roasted hazelnuts. Chocolate hazelnut spreads carry on that pairing.

About Sauces & Dessert Spreads

Sauces and dessert spreads are preparations made to finish a plate rather than stand alone, spooned over ice cream, swirled into yogurt or spread on toast. Most are built on sugar, dairy, nuts or fruit.

A caramel sauce is sugar taken to color, then loosened with cream and butter. The cream adds water, which keeps the sauce from setting hard, and milk solids that brown further. Milk jams take the slow road, reducing milk and sugar until the water is mostly gone, with a little baking soda in many recipes to keep the milk from curdling.

Keep jars tightly closed. Refrigerating an opened jar of sauce extends how long it stays good.

At a glance

Main types
Butterscotch, fudge sauce, milk jams, nut spreads, kaya
Made from
Sugar, milk or cream, butter, nuts, eggs
Serve with
Ice cream, crepes, toast, fruit, yogurt

Sauces & Dessert Spreads questions

What is kaya?

Kaya is a sweet custard spread cooked from coconut cream, eggs, sugar and pandan leaves, which are used for their scent. Its name is the everyday Singapore word for serikaya, a family of egg and coconut milk confections with Malay roots. In Singapore it is eaten as kaya toast, spread on toasted bread with butter.

What is cajeta?

Cajeta is a Mexican caramel sauce made by reducing sweetened goat's milk until it turns thick and dark. It is tied to the city of Celaya, in the central state of Guanajuato. The goat's milk gives it a more complex taste than dulce de leche made with cow's milk, with a brightness that balances the sweetness.

Does dulce de leche need to be refrigerated?

Not before opening. Dulce de leche is cooked until it holds very little water, and that low moisture is what lets producers store it at room temperature for roughly 160 to 180 days. Once a jar is open, keep it covered and in the refrigerator to stretch its life, and use a clean spoon each time.

Sources: University of Richmond chemistry of cooking notes; National Library Board Singapore; Ohio State University Extension.

Shop by brand

Guides and recipes

Related categories