Salted Bourbon Caramel Sauce

Today is Halloween, the most sugar laden day of the year, and in honor of that I have a post entirely devoted to sugar. Or more precisely about sugar and water and a little argument that they have been having since the beginning of time. I also have a recipe for salted bourbon caramel sauce, that is so delicious that my knees buckled when I tasted it.

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Why We Love This Recipe For Caramel Bourbon Sauce

If you are just here for the sauce, I really don’t blame you. It is redonkulous. Scroll right down to it. But if you are a food science dork, like me, you may want to read the stuff between here and there about the battle of sugar and water. Because I am not being hyperbolic when I say that this little battle, and understanding it, is one of the top five most important things to know about cooking. Plus, if you ask me, understanding how caramel and sugar works, is very interesting.

Now, about this salted bourbon caramel sauce. When it’s cooking, you can let this get as dark as you want to (a degree). You really don’t even need a thermometer for this. You are just looking for the color. I would say shoot for the color of light amber or maple syrup. If you’re using a thermometer, know that anything over 350ºF is way too dark, and will be bitter. I would say shoot for about 340ºF or so. With this small amount of sauce, once it starts to climb, it happens very fast, so pull it as soon as you’re close. The carryover heat will bring it up as you remove it from the heat. But if you want a more mellow caramel flavor, and a lighter colored sauce, pull it when it is a nice light amber color.

Once it’s done, transfer it to a mason jar and let it cool. Then, you can enjoy it in all its glory. Serve it drizzled over vanilla ice cream, sandwiched between cookies, dipped with apples, or just treat yourself to a spoonful (which is exactly what I like to do).

Key Ingredients For This Recipe

Bourbon

There are many types of whiskey, and Bourbon is one of them. It hails from Bourbon county Kentucky and some say it is an ever-so-slightly sweeter version of a regular whiskey. It’s aged in oak barrels, which help give it notes of vanilla and caramel, making it the PERFECT addition to caramel recipes (and many other baking recipes in fact).

Additional Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• ¼ cup water
• ½ cup whipping cream
• ½ teaspoon salt

Step by Step Instructions to Make This Salted Caramel Bourbon Sauce

Step 1: Melt sugar

Stir to combine the sugar and water in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan, and set over medium high heat. Do not allow the flames to lick the sides of the saucepan. Cook, stirring until the sugar is dissolved, and the mixture becomes clear, and starts to bubble along the edges.

Step 2: Brush down sugar crystals

Wet a pastry brush with cold water, and run along the edge of the bubbling sugar mixture, brushing down any crystals of sugar. Set a sugar thermometer on the side of the saucepan so that the indicator is submerged into the simmering sugar.

Step 3: Simmer sugar

Let the sugar simmer over medium to medium-high, undisturbed, until the mixture starts to darken along the edges, 7 to 8 minutes. Gently swirl the pan and continue cooking until the mixture is amber colored.

Step 4: Whisk in cream

Quickly remove the saucepan from heat and carefully pour in the whipping cream and Bourbon. The mixture will bubble vigorously. Whisk in the salt. If the mixture is not smooth, return to medium heat, whisking until smooth, about 1 minute.

Step 5: Cool

Transfer the caramel to a heat-proof jar and allow to cool. Use or store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

FAQs and Expert Tips

There is a tiny little war going on every time you cook. Did you know that? A little tiny microscopic war between sugar and water. This war has two sides to it. Water and Sugar. These two are in disagreement and will always be because

1. Water boils at 212 degrees.
2. Sugars caramelize between 230 degrees and 356 degrees.

Sugars cannot caramelize and win the war while there is water around keeping things at 212 degrees.

Let’s talk about that first: If you have ever made caramel sauce then you know that a mixture of sugar and water won’t go above 212 degrees F until all of the water is evaporated. It will boil and boil and boil staying at exactly 212 degrees for a while. The water is winning the battle. Then all of a sudden, once the water is evaporated, the temperature of the whole solution will start to rise. Up up it goes and then the whole thing starts to darken, or caramelize. The sugars win the battle! In other words: when it gets above the boiling point the sugars can start to caramelize.

Caramelization is pretty complex and I don’t really remember all the details from Cooking Theory class, but I think what happens is that the complex sugars are broken down, become sweeter to us, and the also produce caramel flavors. Or some such junk. Really all you need to know is that when sugars caramelize our mouths get happy. We want that a lot of time in cooking. Like for example when we sear meat, before a braise. It adds richness, and flavor. Another example would be the difference between golden brown roasted potatoes and a boiled potatoes. The difference is in caramelization of the sugars on the outside of the potatoes.

So here’s the second important thing: sugars burn if they get too hot, so… duh don’t let them get too hot. How do we control that? Well one way is to stop cooking something. Yeah, simple, just pull it off the heat. Another way is to bring water (or something with water content) into the cooking equation. You can control the amount of caramelization in any recipe by using water. From roasting to sautéing to searing. And it doesn’t have to be just water, it can be water containing ingredients that provide the water, and subsequent drop in temperature.

Let’s go back to that saucepan with the caramel sauce boiling there for a minute. When you are cooking something, say chopped onions for example, each cell of that onion is like a tiny little pot of caramel. On a mini level, when the water gets cooked out of the cell, the sugars will caramelize. This happens from the outside in. Where the onion is touching the hot saucepan, skillet, oil, the water will sizzle/steam right out, and those exterior sugars will caramelize. The water on the inside is still fighting the fight at 212 degrees.

Have you ever heard the expression to sweat an onion? Sounds gross, but it just means to cook it in a moist environment, slow enough so that it will not brown. You can do this by never letting it get hot enough to allow it to sear and create dry contact (water free) with the skillet. One way of doing this is by using the lid to keep the moisture in or starting your onions in a cold skillet.

The reason we preheat our skillets is to make sure that we are getting a jump on the water. Preheating the skillet way up over 212, will ensure a sear and some caramelization before the water comes out of whatever you’re sautéing. If you skillet is really hot, and your food is low in water, you can beat it, and never let the water win, and stay above 212. If you are too low, and or your food has a high water content, the water will come out, and your temp will drop to 212, and caramelization will stop.

The real reason I am saying this today is that I believe that as cooks, we cannot be bystanders on the edge of the battle field. We have to be in the trenches, negotiating and controlling the dynamics between the two sides. When we do that we become better cooks, our food tastes better and we can even cook without a recipe (without fear. )

Additional Recipes to Try

• If you want to keep the caramel theme going, test out these Gluten-Free Sweet Potato Praline Mini Bundt Cakes!
• Serve this Grapefruit Champagne Cocktail at your next party.
• This Maple Bourbon Pumpkin Pie is so darn tasty.
• Clementine Rum Balls always hit the spot when craving something sweet.