Ingredients
5 tablespoon butter
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup your choice of bourbon
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup water
coarse sea salt for sprinkling on set caramels (I used this Chipotle Sea Salt)
Directions
Line a 9-inch square pan with parchment paper by laying two pieces over each other.
In a medium size saucepan, bring butter, cream, bourbon, vanilla, cayenne and salt to a boil. Watch it closely as the cream will boil over very quickly. Remove from the heat and set aside.
In a larger saucepan, mix together the sugars, corn syrup and water. Attach the candy thermometer to the side of the pot. Bring the sugar up to a boil, without stirring, until the thermometer reaches 310F, about 10-15 minutes. When the sugar reaches 310F, pour the cream mixture into to sugar mixture and whisk. The sugar will bubble up, but continue to whisk.
This is very important and will make or break your caramel… the cream will cause the sugar to drop in temperature. Continue to cook it allowing it to drop as far as it’s going to drop and keep whisking until the temperature comes back up to 250F. This whole process will take another 10-15 minutes.
When the thermometer reaches 250F, pour the caramel into the parchment lined pan and allow it to cool completely. Sprinkle with the sea salt and cut into squares. You can wrap them individually in parchment paper if you like.
