With fall on its way, I’ve begun daydreaming about warm, rich, cozy flavors like coffee, caramel, toffee and maple. So today I’m sharing the recipe for this insanely good salted bourbon and brown sugar toffee sauce. It’s much easier to make than a traditional salted caramel sauce, but just as delicious.
Looking for more recipes like this one? You’ll love my homemade salted caramel sauce, caramelized banana toffee ice cream, and apple caramel crumble with toffee sauce.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Quick and Easy to Make. From start to finish, this toffee sauce only takes a few minutes.
Standard Pantry Ingredients. Simple ingredients and a simple process makes this a great alternative to caramel sauce when you want a delicious and rich homemade sauce to serve with dessert.
Delicious on Everything. From ice cream to apple pie to cheesecake or brownies, this sauce is great on everything!
How is Toffee Sauce Different from Caramel Sauce?
Salted Caramel Sauce
While somewhat similar in ingredients, the cooking methods for the two sauces are quite different. With a traditional caramel sauce, granulated sugar is cooked with water and corn syrup until it become a deep amber color. (Some professionals will cook the sugar “dry” without water. And while the corn syrup is not a standard ingredient in all recipes, but it greatly helps in preventing the process of sugar crystals forming, since the corn syrup is an invert sugar.)
This process can be a little finicky, with burning the sugar and/or sugar crystals ruining the texture being the main culprits for failure. Once the sugar is caramelized, the heavy cream, butter and salt are added, and you will have a beautiful, rich, deeply-flavored caramel sauce.
Toffee Sauce
With toffee sauce, the process is much simpler than caramel sauce, and far less prone to problems. Brown sugar, instead of granulated sugar, adds a deeper flavor with notes of caramel, toffee and molasses. Brown sugar, cream, butter, salt, bourbon and corn syrup just need to be cooked for a few minutes until syrupy, and the toffee sauce is done. Rich, sweet, toffee-scented, delicious.
So, which is better? Honestly, it’s just a matter of personal preference. Caramel sauce tends to be a bit smoother, but they both have amazing flavor, and you can’t beat the ease of making this brown sugar toffee sauce.
Ingredients
- Butter. The butter adds fat and richness to the toffee sauce.
- Brown Sugar. You can use either light or dark brown sugar in today’s recipe.
- Salt. Balances the sweetness.
- Bourbon. Adds the most wonderful flavor, but if you want an alcohol free version, simply use vanilla extract instead.
- Cream. Heavy cream or half and half adds a smooth, creamy texture to the sauce.
- Butterscotch Syrup. The syrup is an invert sugar, and helps to prevent crystallization of the sugars. You can use butterscotch syrup or golden syrup, or even light or dark corn syrup.
Instructions
- In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat, then stir in the brown sugar, cream, bourbon, syrup and salt.
- Cook the toffee sauce while stirring gently, for 5-10 minutes, until the temperature reaches between 228-232 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Pour the sauce into a glass jar. Use while hot or at room temperature. Refrigerate leftover sauce for up to 2 weeks.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!
Frequently Asked Questions
What should I serve this sauce with?
Oh, my gosh, what couldn’t you serve this decadent sauce with? A dark chocolate cake. Ice cream. Cheesecake. Apple crisp. Brownies. Just to name a few things.
How do I reheat the sauce?
The toffee sauce will thicken as it chills. To rewarm it to a pourable consistency, microwave the sauce in 20-second bursts at 50% power, stirring well until pourable. Note that it can become grainy if it’s chilled and reheated over and over.
Can I make this recipe without the bourbon?
Yes, as noted in the recipe card, you can use vanilla extract instead of bourbon.
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Bourbon and Brown Sugar Toffee Sauce
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Digital Instant Read Thermometer (or Candy Thermometer)
Ingredients
- 6 tbsp (85g) unsalted butter
- ½ cup (80g) light or brown sugar, lightly packed
- ½ cup (122ml) heavy whipping cream or half 'n' half
- 1 tbsp (15ml) good-quality bourbon or whiskey (or substitute 2 teaspoons vanilla extract)
- 1 tbsp (15g) butterscotch syrup (or golden syrup or light corn syrup)
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
Instructions
- In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat, then stir in the brown sugar, cream, bourbon, syrup and salt.
- Cook the toffee sauce while stirring gently, for 5-10 minutes, until the temperature reaches between 228-232 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Pour the sauce into a glass jar. Use while hot or at room temperature. Refrigerate leftover sauce for up to 2 weeks.
Looks amazing, but what are the measurements for the ingredients? I can’t find them. Thank you!
Connie
Everything you need is in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. 🙂
This sauce is wonderful! Great to dip apples into. I’m not at high altitude and it took about 20 minutes to reach the required temp.