Salted Whiskey Caramels Recipe

🥃 Love cooking with whiskey? Try my Whiskey Steak Marinade, Bacon and Whiskey BBQ Sauce, or Apple and Bourbon Baked Beans.

Why Make This Recipe

• Budget Friendly: Making your own caramel candies can be a cost-effective way to enjoy this sweet treat. You can give the indulgent caramels as a special gift without much cost to your pocketbook.
• High Quality: When you make homemade caramel candies, you know what goes into your recipe. Using high-quality ingredients, such as fresh cream and organic butter, can result in a richer, creamier flavor and texture than store-bought candies
• Fun: Making homemade caramel candies can be a fun and rewarding experience, especially if you enjoy cooking and experimenting with different flavors. The maple whiskey adds a unique depth to the gooey caramel, and the salt perfectly complements the smokey whiskey.

Ingredients In Salted Whiskey Caramels

• Heavy Whipping Cream: Be sure to use heavy whipping cream. Do not use half-and-half, milk, or nut milk.
• Crown Royal Maple Whiskey: This recipe has a hint of maple in the caramels from the maple whiskey. However, if you can not find maple whiskey, plain whisky will work, also.
• Vanilla: It's important not to use imitation vanilla. Choose a good quality vanilla extract.
• Maple Flavoring: Do not use maple syrup. For this recipe, I used maple flavoring.

• Salt: When making caramels, you will need to use a course salt, not regular table salt I use a finishing sea salt.

⭐️ Note: A complete list of ingredients and measurements are in the recipe card below.

Instructions For Making Caramels

1. Prep your pan: lightly grease a 9-inch square pan with butter, being sure to get all sides and bottom.
2. Mix cream and seasoning: In a 1-quart saucepan, heat butter, heavy whipping cream, whiskey, vanilla, maple flavoring, and 1/4 teaspoon salt to boiling, stirring frequently. Remove from heat; set aside.
3. Cook sugar mixture: In a 3-quart saucepan, mix sugar, corn syrup, and water. Heat to boiling over medium-high heat. DO NOT STIR. Boil until sugar turns a warm golden brown.
4. Add cream to sugar mixture: Place your candy thermometer onto the side of the pan. When the sugar mixture gets to 235 to 240 degrees F. (soft-ball) and turned to a golden brown, turn off the heat. Slowly add the cream mixture to the cooked sugar mixture. Be careful -- it will bubble and splatter if you do it too quickly. Whisk until well combined.
5. Cook: Cook again over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes, until the mixture reaches 245-249 degrees F (firm ball) on a candy thermometer.
6. Pour: Remove from heat. Pour caramel into greased square pan.
7. Cool: Allow caramel to cool for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with up to 1 tablespoon course finishing salt; cool completely.

How To Cut and Wrap Homemade Caramel Candy

Cutting and wrapping homemade caramel candy can be a bit sticky and tricky. However, with these tips and the right tools and techniques, you can have professional-looking wrapped caramels.

1. Supplies Needed: You will need a sharp knife, parchment paper or wax paper, and some butter.
2. How To Cut Caramels: First, cool your homemade caramel candy to room temperature. Using a slightly buttered knife, cut the pan of caramels into small squares or rectangles. If the caramel is too soft, it may be difficult to cut cleanly. In this case, try chilling it in the refrigerator for a few minutes to firm it up.
3. Wrap Carmaels: Cut small squares of cellophane or wax paper, about 4-5 inches square. Make sure they are a little bigger than your piece of caramel so you can twist the ends tightly. Place a piece of caramel candy in the center of each square, then fold the paper around the candy and twist the ends to seal.

Tips For Cutting Caramel Candy

• If the caramel sticks to your knife, try coating the blade with a bit of butter or non-stick spray.
• For a neater presentation, you can trim the edges of the caramel squares with kitchen shears after cutting them.
• If the caramel seems too hard to cut, you can place all the caramel back into a saucepan. Add a few tablespoons of water. You could also use whipping cream instead of water, don't heat it for more than a few minutes. Heat the pan over medium heat. Stir continually until a candy thermometer reads 242 degrees. Do not overcook.

How To Store Carmael Candies

After you wrap your individual caramels you can place them in an airtight container. It's best to store them at room temperature. They should remain fresh for several weeks.

Homemade Caramel Questions and How-To Tips

Making homemade caramel is a bit challenging, however, it's well worth your effort. Here are a few more questions you might have to make the perfect caramel candy at home.

How To Make Caramel Not Stick

Butter is your friend for helping caramel, not stick. Be sure to lightly grease your pan before you pour cooked caramels in it to cool. When it's time to slice your caramels spread a little butter on your knife to prevent sticking. You could also put butter on sharp kitchen scissors and cut this way. To keep your cut caramels from sticking together, wrap individual pieces in wax paper squares.

Why Salt Caramel?

My favorite part of these caramels is the flavor the salt adds to the candy. The salt also makes them look like you bought them in a high-end candy store.

The combination of sweet and salty makes for an appealing treat for the taste buds. The sweetness mingles with flavor-enhancing salt to create a unique flavor that you will want to eat again and again.

Salting Caramel Tip

• The trick to getting salted caramel right lies in the ratios. It only takes a simple sprinkle using your index finger and thumb to distribute evenly over the top of the candy.
• Be sure to use large flaked salt when putting it on top of caramel candy.

What Type of Whiskey Goes In Caramel?

For this recipe, I used Crown Royal Maple Whiskey however, you could substitute for any other good quality whiskey or bourbon.

Equipment Needed For Candy Making

Making candy requires a few quality pieces of equipment to ensure great success. The use of quality pans and thermometers are the tricks of the trade when making good candy at home.

What Type of Candy Thermometer Is Best?

The key to good caramel is quality ingredients and a good candy thermometer. It's important to bring your caramel to 248 degrees which is a softball stage. This temperature will keep them soft and chewy.

What Type of Pan Is Best For Making Candy?

Professional candy makers prefer a copper pan to make candy. The copper conducts heat easily so that the cook can manage the temperature easily. The even distribution of the heat will prevent crystallization which can be a challenge with other types of pans.

Giving Caramels As A Gift

Giving someone a really special gift does not have to be extravagant or expensive. As a matter of fact, taking time to make someone a special unique gift can mean more than buying something. What better way to show some love than to take the time to make these Salted Maple Whiskey Caramels as a sweet treat to give as a gift?

Make the gift of candy unique by wrapping the caramels in Paris theme paper, Christmas candy wrappers or floral candy wrappers.

Hungry for more sweets?