Why Mid-Tier Bourbon Is King When Making Dessert Whiskey Sauces

If you love whiskey and you also have a sweet tooth, you should try making your own homemade whiskey sauce. It will upgrade any homemade dessert and you can make a whiskey sauce with just two ingredients: whiskey and brown sugar. Or, you can try a more complex recipe (which may also call for ingredients like butter, sugar, eggs, or milk). 

The key to picking a whiskey for this purpose is to reach for a mid-tier brand of bourbon. Many bourbons have flavor notes of vanilla, caramel, or nuts, making it the perfect choice for integrating into a dessert. You don't want to buy one that is super cheap — in other words, something that you wouldn't enjoy on its own — because the flavor of the whiskey is going to be prominent in the sauce, especially if you make the two-ingredient version. Plus, you won't be using up much whiskey — the two-ingredient sauce calls for a cup and a half for every pound of brown sugar, while other recipes may call for as little as 1 or 2 tablespoons per quarter to a half cup of sugar.  

However, you also don't need to go out and buy a top-shelf bottle of whiskey just for dessert purposes — save that super high-quality bottle for special occasions. Instead, opt for a mid-tier bottle — one that you would enjoy on its own but that isn't too fancy. All of the bottles listed in Tasting Table's ranking of the best bourbons under $50 should work nicely for a whiskey dessert sauce.

The whiskey dessert sauce can be used to upgrade a number of desserts. For example, you can drizzle it over a bowl of ice cream — vanilla is a delicious choice of course, but feel free to get creative with other flavors. The other most popular flavor, chocolate, will also pair well with the whiskey sauce, as will flavors such as chocolate chip cookie dough or coffee ice cream. It also makes for a great topping to something like apple pie — and you can drizzle it over the classic pairing of pie and ice cream.

It can also be used to spice up a simple dessert, such as a classic pound cake or butter cake. Or, use it as a dipping sauce for shortbread cookies or sliced fruit. It even makes a great companion to bread pudding, either a traditional rich bread pudding or, for an even sweeter version, cinnamon roll bread pudding.