Salted Caramel Drink Syrup

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   Recently I started a series on my social media where I share a coffee recipe along with a verse and I just talk about it. I am going to try my hardest to post a new flavor and verse every Monday but you know how things go... Anyway, for the first flavor, I wanted to make something easy and that everyone knows. So I decided to make a salted caramel latte! This flavor can also easily be modified to be normal caramel but the extra salt just enhances all of the flavors so I strongly recommend you try salted caramel if you've never had it!

    For the longest time I couldn't figure out what was going wrong with my caramel syrup and sauce! It would always crystallize once cool and never was super "caramelly". That was until I actually read the directions on someone else's caramel sauce recipe instead of just skimming the ingredients and discovered my fatal error. I actually have to caramelize the sugar! (Insert facepalm) Yea, pretty obvious, right? Anyway, now that I have it figured out I have realized that it is super easy to make, delicious, smooth, and one of my new coffee flavors. 

    To make salted caramel coffee syrup, I start by caramelizing the sugar. I do this by dumping my sugar into a small saucepan and letting it melt slowly over medium heat. I rarely stop stirring it because I am terrified of burning sugar, hot sugar can be kind dangerous. After a while it starts to clump then turn to a liquid. Once it is a liquid, I slowly add in my water. This part is a little scary. The sugar is so hot that the water will immediately boil. All I do is turn down the heat a bit, protect my arms and face, and pour it on in. 

    For a second all of the sugar will solidify but that is ok. Once my water isn't sputtering all over the place, I return the heat to medium and stir everything together until the sugar re-dissolves. This can take a few minutes but be patient. DO NOT turn up the heat because it can cause it to boil and that can be a huge sticky mess. When the sugar is close to re-dissolving, I add in 2 tsp of sea salt and let it dissolve. If you don't want it, you don't have to add it. However, I think the salt enhances the flavor expontnetially. Seriously, it is SO GOOD. 

    Once everything is dissolved and smooth I let it sit on medium heat and stir periodically, letting it simmer a bit, until I think it is thick enough. To test the viscosity, I take a room temperature spoon and dip it into my syrup before holding it up flat with the bottom side up. If the syrup totally runs off like water, I let it sit a little longer. However, if it runs off but leaves a thin coat on the back of the spoon then it is ready! Remember that it will thicken up more once it is cool so always err on the side of being a little thin to be safe!

    When my syrup is thick enough I let it cool a bit and then pour it into a container. It can still be warm when you transfer it but be super careful, you have no idea how many glass containers I have busted from pouring too-hot liquids into them! When it is cool, it is ready to use! For a 12-16 oz latte or cup of Seven Weeks Coffee (use code JOSLITTLELIFE10 for 10% off your order!) I like to use about 1 tablespoon of syrup but the nice thing about making this at home is you can add as much or as little flavor as you want! You can also take 1/4c half and half and mix in 1/2 tbsp syrup before using a brother to mix it together until thick, making a cold foam for the perfect coffee shop drink!

What did you think of this recipe? Questions? Comments? Concerns?