GFG guest tutorial- flavored salted caramels by sips etc.

As an added (surprise!) bonus, my lovely sister-in-law Tricia from Sips Etc. is joining us for Gifts for Guys!

I introduced Tricia a little when I told you about the drink blog we're doing together (ok, to be fair, it's mostly Trish's fabulous work over there and I write a post ever once in awhile). And, honestly, it's kind of hard to narrow my list of favorite things about her. But we'll start with these- she has a fantastic eye for design (which makes her great at presentation and party planning!), she is such a gracious hostess (the Sips Launch party that we cohosted was one of my favorite parties this year), she has fantastic creative ideas (I LOVED the turkey cups!), she has a knack for making everyday things special (see the H2O bar!). Best of all, though, she is such a grounded, gracious, encouraging part of my life. My brother couldn't have done better!

And, good news for us, Tricia's here today with a fabulous Gifts for Guys tutorial (I will be honest- a couple of these yummy deliciousnesses fell prey to my 'sampling.' YUMMY!).
 

Hi! I'm Tricia, half of the sister-in-law team that blogs at Sips etc. (You know the other half pretty well if you are here reading this series-- Kirstin!). We're pretty new around the blogging world, but we love taking simple things in life and making them just a bit more fun. That's the reason we started our blog! You can find more out about us here, and we suggest checking out some of our favorite drinks here, here, and even the Sippy Cup (our kids column) feature here. I'm excited to be here today!

I'm going to let you in on my most recent guy-present-giving dilemma: Patrick, our brother-in-law, was coming in to town for Thanksgiving and I was planning to give them each a little early Christmas present since we won't see them for the actual day this year.

After a few ideas that I bounced off Adam, I think I found the perfect gift that would cater to his love of whiskey and his renowned sweet-tooth: (Whiskey) Flavored Salted Caramels!

The recipe I used was altered from the one here. I'll show you what to do incase you have your own whiskey + sweet-tooth loving guy in your life too!

Here's what you'll need:

5 T butter

1 c whipping cream

1/4 c whiskey (the alcohol will boil off during the cooking, so it'll be alcohol free by the time you partake)

1 t vanilla

1/4 t salt

1 1/2 c sugar

1/4 c light corn syrup

1/4 c water

1 T coarse Kosher salt

Here's how to do it:

Take a 9x9 baking dish and line it with parchment paper. Spray with cooking spray, and set aside.

In a 1 qt sauce pan, heat the butter, whipping cream, whiskey, vanilla, and salt until boiling, stirring often.

Then set aside.

Then in a 3 qt sauce pan, over medium-high heat, mix the sugar, corn syrup and water. DON'T STIR (the recipe is really clear about this. Avoid the temptation to stir, it's hard, but don't do it!)

Boil until it reaches 310 degrees and is a caramel color.

This part stressed me out. I was so afraid it would burn. So I took lots of pictures so you can see what looks "normal".  It took me about 30 minutes. And also, I used a meat thermomater because we didn't have a candy thermomater.

When it the mixture reaches 310, add in the cream mixture and reheat again until it reaches 248 degrees. This took me about 15-20 more minutes.

When it's at 248, pour into your glass pan and let cool for about 10 minutes.

 Then sprinkle the last tablespoon of Kosher or Sea Salt on top. I didn't even need to use the full tablespoon and there was plenty of salt on top.

Let cool completely and then cut it into pieces.

And, for fun packaging, try this:

cut wax or parchment paper into large squares.

place the salted caramel in the center, salt side down.

cut out a cross shape around the caramel so it looks like this:

then fold two opposite sides on top of each other

then fold in the last two sides in

seal with printed masking tape (I love finding uses for this stuff! It's so fun!)

put into a bag and tie with a bow!

In case you were wondering, they went over quite well. If I can brag, I'm pretty sure the word that was used was "delicious".

Happy baking! And thanks for having me!

Head on over to Sips Etc. and check out the recipes, the party ideas, the how-to's, and Tricia's snarky wit. 

You'll love her like I do, I promise!