Transform Your Treats with Whiskey Caramel Sauce

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This post is sponsored by Javy Coffee. However, all opinions expressed are my own.

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Cooking With Anadi

12K subscribers · rich caramel with cream, butter and a whiskey edge

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Caramel sauce is one of those integral pieces for a fabulous dessert, wouldn’t you agree?

Sure you can buy caramel sauce in the containers, but that’s just not the same as a warm, smooth, silky homemade sauce right?

Back in my restaurant days, caramel sauce was made all the time. However, I was never actually hands-on for that station. It always intrigued me to make my own caramel sauce, however. Now it’s finally time!

Let’s face it that caramel sauce is pretty much used everywhere. You top it over your frappuccinos, hot chocolates, lattes, brownies, cookies, or just use it as a dip for fruit! I can’t find a way NOT to use caramel sauce!

Once you’ve made it and start using it in your daily treats you won’t be able to go back, trust me! This caramel sauce is also like no other! We’re not only making it a caramel sauce with whiskey, but it will also have a hint of coffee thanks to using Javy instant coffee concentrate! This caramel sauce seriously has it all, and you’ll never experience your desserts and drinks the same! I know my life has changed! Admittedly, I was inspired to make my own caramel sauce after enjoying lots of Starbucks, and loving the caramel goodness they throw on top! If you need some inspiration for new recipes, then going outside can totally help with that! I give more details about this concept in my 5 Tips To Make Cooking Fun! Making caramel sauce has been on my bucket list for so long, and I’ve finally ticked off that box! The bucket list is one of my themes in my one-month Live to Cook challenge, so be sure to check that out along with my free motivational guide by signing up for my email newsletter! If you make this sauce and participate in your Live to Cook challenge, then tag me on Instagram to share your journey with me! I love to see your creations!

To follow along with me making this sauce, be sure to watch the full recipe video! Please subscribe to my YouTube channel if you haven’t already, and make sure to hit the bell button so you receive notifications for when the recipe videos go live! This caramel sauce recipe takes a bit of patience and care, so watching the video can help you grasp the concepts along with the written recipe. Let’s get cooking!

What Tools Do I Need to Make This Whiskey Caramel Sauce?

You probably already have all the tools you’ll need to make this, but let’s quickly review what’s needed!

• Saucepan: You’ll want a good quality pan to make the sauce in! You can use a pot or a non-stick pan as I did since I was making custard pudding in the saucepan. I use both of these tools for nearly everything!
• Whisk: Make sure you have a good whisk to combine everything together!
• Measuring cups: They will be helpful to measure out your sugar and heavy cream.
• Measuring spoons: I recommend you have a measuring spoon to measure your Javy coffee concentrate. You don’t want to put too much since it is very strong! You may also want to measure out the vanilla and whiskey with measuring spoons.

I also recommend that you have a spatula on hand so you can easily transfer your sauce into a container, squeeze bottle, or mason jar to store for later. I’ll discuss storage instructions more in a bit!

How to Use This Special Whiskey Coffee Caramel Sauce

How could you not use it! Really the possibilities are endless! Leave a comment on how you’ll be enjoying your caramel sauce!

• Oatmeal: Drizzle it over your overnight oats or stovetop oats!
• Chocolate: Dip a piece of chocolate in this caramel sauce and your mind will be blown!
• Fruit: This would be such a wonderful dip for fruits! Try with apple slices, bananas or peaches!
• Café lattes: A drizzle over your Café Mocha, White Chocolate Mocha, or Tim Horton’s French Vanilla will certainly enhance these drinks!
• Iced coffee: Top this over the whipped cream in my Iced White Chocolate Mocha!
• Cold brew: Spruce up your Starbucks Chocolate Cream Cold Brew by garnishing with a drizzle!
• Hot chocolate: Top this over your Decadent White Hot Chocolate or S’mores Hot Chocolate and it will change your life!
• Smoothies: You can add a bit in or top your favorite smoothies! This would be awesome with my Healthy Strawberry Cheesecake Protein Shake or over my Healthy Mango and Vanilla Protein Ice Cream!
• Pancakes: The perfect pairing for pancakes or add in your Strawberry Banana Nutella Crepes!
• Baked goods: Transform your Espresso Brownies by swapping the Peppermint Mocha Cream with this sauce, or add some over your Skillet Protein Chocolate Chip Cookie! I made this syrup specifically to top my Chocolate Chip Brioche Bread Pudding!
• Yogurt: Find yogurt boring? A drizzle over yogurt will totally change it up, adding a hint of sweetness! You’ll never have yogurt plain again!
• Ice cream: It would be criminal not to!
• On its own: No judgment here!

Tools Needed

• Pan
• Whisk
• Measuring cups
• Measuring spoons

Ingredients for Coffee Caramel Sauce with Whiskey

Don’t forget to scroll to the bottom of this post for the FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE CARD to see all ingredient quantities and the full recipe instructions. The recipe card will let you scale the recipe based on how much sauce you want to make - so you can even make a big batch and freeze it for later!

• Heavy Cream: This helps to give a smooth and luscious texture. Heavy cream is also called whipping cream. You want to look for the 30-35% fat content cream!
• Butter: This will add a bit extra fat to the sauce giving it body and thickness.
• Instant Coffee or Liquid Coffee Concentrate: For this recipe, I’m using a liquid coffee concentrate (psst! Click that link for a 20% discount off your first order!) that was sent to me by Javy Coffee. I appreciate Javy for sending me their awesome coffee concentrates! They’re great not only to make instant coffee but I love them for baking since you can easily adjust the quantity based on how strong of a flavor you want. I love the variety of flavors too! This is in the caramel flavor, so that will give an even more prominent caramel flavor to our sauce, along with a hint of mocha! If you don’t have coffee concentrate, you can also use instant coffee or espresso powder for this recipe, but the caramel flavor of the sauce won’t be as rich.
• Vanilla extract: A little bit will add some extra aroma to this caffeinated caramel sauce.
• Whiskey: I’m actually using Jack Daniel’s whiskey. You can replace the whiskey with bourbon of rum if you choose to.
• Sugar: I’m just using table sugar here. This is how you get your caramel sauce to be perfectly sweet!
• Water: This will be mixed with sugar before you bring it up to a boil.

How to Make Caramel Sauce with Whiskey

In a pan, add the sugar and water and whisk well to combine.

Turn the heat to medium-high heat and leave the sugar-water mixture alone.

The mixture will start to simmer, and eventually the color will change from white to amber. Keep a close eye and don't stir or shake the pan until the color changes.

Then, remove the pan from the heat and pour in the cream gently, while whisking well. Add the butter as well.

Once the mixture has stopped bubbling and has turned into a rich caramel color, add the javy coffee, whiskey and vanilla and whisk to combine.

Set aside to cool down before using.

Tips for a Perfect Caramel Sauce

The biggest tip you can follow is to just let the sugar-water mixture sit and bubble up until it changes color. Don’t touch it, don’t shake it, don’t even look at it (just kidding) until it changes color.

Also, be confident and careful while pouring in the cream with the pan off the heat, until the texture resembles a sauce.

Other Dessert Topping Recipes!

• Quick Vanilla Syrup For Coffee
• Café Mocha Chocolate Syrup
• Vegan Nutella
• Cream Cheese Glaze for Pancakes
• How to Make the Best Whipped Cream at Home

This Is the Wet Caramel Method

There are two ways to make caramel and this recipe uses the more forgiving one. The dry method puts sugar alone in the pan and melts it, which is fast and gives you about four seconds between perfect and ruined. The wet caramel method dissolves the sugar in water first, and that is what is happening here with 1 cup of white sugar and 1 cup of water whisked together before any heat is applied. The water buys you time: it has to boil away before the sugar can begin to color, so the whole thing moves at a pace a human can actually watch.

Note it is white sugar, not brown sugar. Brown sugar already contains molasses, which browns on its own schedule and makes it impossible to read the color of the caramel underneath. There is also no corn syrup, which is what a lot of recipes add as insurance against crystallizing. Doing without it is perfectly workable, it just means the no-stirring rule below is not optional.

Do Not Stir, and Why Crystals Ruin a Pan

Once the pan is on medium-high heat, the instruction is to leave the sugar mixture completely alone. Do not stir it and do not shake the pan until the color has changed from white to amber. This is the single rule that decides whether you get caramel or a grainy mess.

The reason is worth understanding rather than just obeying. Stirring flicks dissolved syrup up onto the side of the pan, where it dries back into sugar granules. If one of those granules falls back into the syrup it acts as a seed, and sugar will crystallize around it in a chain reaction that turns the whole pan opaque and gritty in seconds. There is no rescuing it. If you can see granules clinging above the liquid line, the fix is a wet pastry brush run around the inside of the pan to wash them down, never a spoon.

A heavy-bottomed saucepan is the other piece of insurance, and reach for a medium saucepan rather than a small one. A thin base gives you hot spots that scorch the syrup in patches while the rest is still pale, and a pan that is too small leaves no room for the violent bubbling that comes later. Pay close attention from the moment any color appears, because the window between a deep amber color and burnt is genuinely a matter of seconds. The recipe uses color as the doneness cue rather than a candy thermometer, which is one less thing to own.

Off the Heat Before the Cream, and What Goes in Last

The pan comes off the heat before the cream goes anywhere near it, and this is the step that catches people out. Hot caramel sits far above the boiling point of water, so adding a cup of cold heavy cream makes the whole thing erupt. Pouring gently while whisking, off the heat, keeps that under control. The 1 tbsp of unsalted butter goes in at the same time and melts through as the bubbling subsides.

Everything that carries flavor rather than structure goes in at the very end, once the bubbling has stopped and the sauce has settled to a rich caramel color: 1 tbsp of the caramel instant coffee, 2 tablespoons of whiskey and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Because none of that ever sees direct heat, the alcohol does not cook off, and the coffee flavor stays bright rather than baked. Instant espresso powder or strong brewed espresso stand in for the coffee powder, and bourbon or brandy for the whiskey.