This easy Whiskey Caramel Sauce is made with heavy cream and your favorite whiskey, bourbon, or wine reduced to a syrup. Deeply flavored, it's caramel sauce taken to a whole new level!
1½cups(354grams)whiskey, wine, bourbon, or your spirit of choice
2cups(400grams)granulated sugar
¼cupwater, optional, see Recipe Notes
1tablespoon(20grams)light corn syrup, optional, see Recipe Notes
6tablespoons(89grams)heavy cream, warmed between 100°F to 110°F
2tablespoonsunsalted butter
1teaspoonkosher salt, optional, see Recipe Notes
Instructions
Boil the whisky in a small saucepan over medium heat until reduced to ½ cup, about 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
In a 3-quart heavy saucepan, stir together the sugar, water, and corn syrup until the mixture looks like wet sand. Bring the mixture to boil over medium heat and cook until the caramel has a deep amber color, about 10 to 12 minutes. DO NOT STIR during this process, but wash down sides of saucepan with a wet pastry brush. Watch it carefully as the caramel will turn dark very quickly at the end.
Once a deep amber color is reached, remove from heat and SLOWLY add the warmed heavy cream. The mixture will boil up, so stir continuously to keep the mixture from bubbling over. Stir until combined, then return to heat and add the butter and salt, if using.
Keep boiling the caramel, stirring occasionally to keep the mixture from bubbling over, until a digital thermometer or candy thermometer registers 230 °F, about 1 to 2 minutes more.
Remove from heat, pour the caramel into a storage container with a tight-fitting lid (like a canning jar), and cool to room temperature before using. It will thicken as it cools.
Storage instructions: Store the caramel for up to 1 month in the refrigerator, sealed tightly in the jar. When you want to serve it, reheat it gently in the microwave (20 second increments at 40% powder) or on the stove over low heat until it has reached your desired consistency.
Recipe Notes
You can use any type of full-flavored whiskey, wine, or bourbon you’d like. Just remember that since the spirit will be reduced, the flavor will intensify.Adding water to the sugar while it's caramelizing (called a "wet caramel") helps to keep the sugar from burning. If you leave it out, the sugar will turn amber faster, but you have to be super diligent, swirling the sugar in the pan to melt it evenly.Corn syrup helps to keep the sugar from seizing up during caramelization. It's optional, but recommended. You can also use honey, agave syrup, or golden syrup instead of the corn syrup.If the sugar does end up crystalizing during the melting stage, add some water with 1 to 2 tablespoons corn syrup to soften sugar crystals, then cook the mixture again until it's reached the correct color.Adding salt makes this, you guessed it, a Salted Whiskey Caramel Sauce. It's optional, and will depend upon the flavor profile of the spirit you're using.The sugar syrup can go from light amber to a black mess very quickly, so keep an eye on it and remove from heat as soon as the desired color is reached. The boiling sugar will also go from noisy to quiet as the sugar caramelizes, so you can listen for that.