Maple Bourbon Caramel Sauce

I like October, October is my favorite!

I hope you read the opening with the voice of Will Ferrell a la Elf in your head. I basically said it exactly the same way. Can we talk about the how sexy that picture is? I mean I can’t decide what I love more the caramel or the bottle of Smoked Maple Bourbon? This probably explains why I knew they had to be combined.

I think Caramel and Pumpkin are the symbols of fall and perhaps by default, the symbols of October. I actually came across a quote that sums up my feelings about October pretty accurately…

 This month is also the month of celebrations. My parents celebrate their wedding anniversary (29 years!), then we wish dad a Happy Birthday (forever 50), and then we finish it out by celebrating our wedding anniversary (3 years now). Lots of celebrating and it always help that nature is providing the most excellent of backdrops. I probably stop and take pictures every other day and then I get disappointed when the pictures don’t match what I see. Clearly I need to step up my iPhone picture taking game; where are you iPhone 6 that I ordered a month ago?!?!?!

Side Note: Did anyone catch that blood moon? I always think I’ll wake up to see all those cool astronomical events but then I don’t. I guess I’ll have to wait until 2015.

When I was making this caramel sauce I started thinking about halloween. I remember making caramel apples one year during halloween, maybe we gave those away as treats? I wish I could remember what we did with those apples but I do remember sitting in the kitchen watching the caramel squares melt and become that delicious coating for those tart apples. As a kid caramel apples were clearly the best fall treat you could ever have but when you are a kid with braces your heart breaks when you realize you can no longer bite into that chewy-crunchy goodness. I know there are others reading this who relate to that pain.

As a grown up, I have to remind myself that it’s not very ladylike to bite into an apple on a stick. I guess I’ll just have to do it when no one is looking! It should be noted that this caramel sauce has a nice taste of maple bourbon that really takes it to the next level and is certainly not the type of caramel that you want to hand out to the little ghost and ghouls knocking at your door.

Maple Bourbon Caramel Sauce

October 9, 2014

by hautepepper

Category Recipes

Adapted from Cook's Illustrated 

Persons

2

Ingredients

• 1 Cup Water
• 2 Cups Sugar
• 1 Cup Heavy Cream
• 2 Tbsp. Unsalted Butter (chilled)
• 3 Tbsp. Maple Bourbon (Knob Creek)
• 1/2 Tsp. Sea Salt
• A candy thermometer

Instructions

1. Add water to a saucepan and then pour the sugar in to the middle of the pan, careful not to get sugar on the sides of the pan. Cover the pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Once boiling, remove lid and insert a candy thermometer. Continue cooking until the sugar solution registers 300 on the candy thermometer, about 15 minutes. Reduce heat and continue to cook until the temperature reaches 350 or has turned an amber color.
2. While the sugar mixture is cooking, place the heavy cream in a small saucepan and heat over hight heat. Allow the creamy to come to a simmer, careful not to overcook the cream. Once the cream comes to a simmer you can remove it from the heat.
3. Once the sugar mixture registers 350 on the thermometer you can slowly add 1/4 of the heavy cream. The mixture will bubble up, stir until the bubbles subside. Add the remaining cream being mindful of bubbling, stir until the mixture smooths out. Add the chilled butter, sea salt and bourbon and stir. Let the sauce cool and serve with all of your favorite fall treats.
4. The sauce can be kept in the fridge for 2 weeks.

Tags

Bourbon,

Caramel,

Fall,

Halloween,

October,

Sugar

http://www.hautepepperbites.com/2014/10/09/maple-bourbon-caramel-sauce/