Salted Whiskey Caramels

Caramels are sentimental memory of my childhood. I can remember visiting my Grandpa and sneaking caramels out of a drawer that was just for them. I loved that drawer!
While flipping through Pinterest I came across a recipe that I just had to try. Salted caramels made with Whiskey. Yep, you heard that correctly whiskey. Well, being a casual whiskey drinker myself (whiskey and cider anyone) I just had to make these for Christmas.

I followed the recipe exactly this time around. You can find it here or read below.
Ingredients:
5 tbsp butter
1 cup heavy whipping cream
 1/4 cup whiskey (I used Jameson)
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp coarse salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup water
1 tbsp. coarse salt, for sprinkling (I used Sea Salt)
To start, line 9-inch square pan with wax paper, spray with cooking spray.
In small saucepan, heat butter, heavy whipping cream, whiskey, vanilla, and 1/4 teaspoon salt to boiling, stirring frequently. Remove from heat. This will be used later. I forgot to take a picture of this step.

Next, in large saucepan, mix sugar, corn syrup, and water. You will heat to boiling over medium-high heat. DO NOT STIR. Boil until sugar turns a warm golden brown. This will take a while, but don't go to far away you don't want it to burn.



Now that sugar mixture is done slowly add the cream mixture to the sugar mixture. It will bubble up a lot at this point, that ok.  Cook over medium-low heat until the mixture reaches 248 degrees F (firm ball) on a candy thermometer. This will take for ever but it's worth it. Getting it to the right temperature is what makes caramels the consistency they are. To early and they never set right to long on the heat and they are more like brittle.

 Pour caramel into pan. Let it cool for a bit before sprinkling with salt or the salt will just melt. Then you will want it to cool completely. Then cut into squares. I ran into a slight problem at this point the wax paper would not come off the caramels. It took a lot of peeling and scraping from me to get them edible.

But once they were I thought they were great! So did everyone else which makes it even better.

Hope you give them a try and enjoy them as much as we did.
~ Cassi

Pin It