Homemade Chocolate and Salted Caramel Liqueur Recipe
How to easily make chocolate and salted caramel liqueur at home using a homemade cacao nib infused vodka, sugar and salt. Perfect for cocktail creations, Espresso Martinis or served over ice.
This chocolate and salted caramel liqueur recipe is one I have been playing around with for awhile now. It has a deep richness about it that works wonders in a huge variety of drinks and cocktails, especially when added in small amounts to hard-hitting and booze forward cocktails.
At first, the sound of this might seem like quite the difficult task to pull off. But I promise you, as you read through this recipe and try it out for yourself, you will find that this chocolate and salted caramel liqueur is super easy to replicate.
The liqueur itself only takes around 10 minutes to make give or take a couple of minutes. Making it super quick. However, that being said, we will be making this liqueur completely from scratch. Meaning there is a little bit of time needed for prep. That being said, its not much time. We need to make a cacao nib infusion first which is simple enough. Once we have that the chocolate and salted caramel liqueur comes super easy.
Salted Caramel Liqueur
For the salted caramel liqueur, the simplest method is to make salted caramel and mix it with vodka. Now for this recipe we will go an extra mile and infuse that vodka with cacao nibs to turn this plain salted caramel liqueur into a chocolate and salted caramel liqueur.
Making the salted caramel aspect of this liqueur seems like the most difficult sounding step. But I assure you, once you get started, it’s relatively fuss free.
How to make salted caramel
In a small saucepan on a medium heat, pour over 75grams of sugar and allow to caramelise. This will take 5 or so minutes. You know when your sugar has turned to caramel once its turned completely to liquid and is brown. You’re looking for a golden brown colour, too dark and your caramel will taste burnt, not dark enough and it wont taste like caramel.
If you took it off the heat at this point it would harden into a caramel candy. We want to keep it liquid, which is where the water comes in.
Pour over 150ml of water, stand back as it may spit. Once you’ve added the water. The caramel will instantly harden and crack as a different temperature has been added. Don’t worry, this is normal. That caramel will start to soften and infuse into the water. After around 3 minutes the entire mixture should be one combined brown and watery mix.
At this point you can add a pinch of salt and you have salted caramel. A little Vodka and you have salted caramel liqueur.
How to determine the Alcohol percentage of your homemade salted caramel liqueur
To determine the alcohol percentage you start why determining the complete alcohol percentage in your spirit base. A typical Vodka might be 40% alcohol, which means the other 60% is non-alcoholic. We need to figure out what volume of liquid is 100%. For example, 100ml of vodka at 40% abv would be 40ml of pure alcohol. Does that make sense? It’s okay if not, bare with, the sum will make sense in the end and if it doesn’t, just trust me, it works.
The first sum is the volume of the spirit in liquid measure, any measurement will be fine. Now multiply it by the percentage of alcohol by volume. Divide that amount by 100.
So for this specific salted caramel liqueur, we will use 120ml vodka (that’s out spirit in liquid measure) and the ABV of that vodka is 40% (that’s our percentage of alcohol by volume). So our first sum is;
120 x 40 = 4800
Then we need to divide that number by 100;
4800 ÷ 100 = 48
What that means is that for our 120ml of vodka, 48ml is 100% alcohol. (it also works if I did 40% of 120, the calculation would equal 48)
Now all we have to do is determine our complete liqueur volume, easily done, just measure it. Which in this case would be 200ml. I know it’s 200ml because I measured it in a jug. That’s 150ml of water, plus the 120ml of vodka, plus the 20ml of pure caramel. Just keep in mind, this is the complete volume, not just the non alcoholic bit. However much liquid you have is the number you need. So because we have 200ml in total, we divide 48 with the 200 which gives us;
48 ÷ 200 = 0.24
Ignore the zero (or just multiple it by 100) and that’s your abv.
This also works with ounces as well.
So let’s test it. I have 100ml of vodka which is 40% ABV. I add 100ml of orange juice. Now what is the ABV of the entire thing?
The answer is 20%. Did you get it correct?
Cacao nib infused vodka recipe
First things first, to get the luxury and velvety chocolate taste to our liqueur we are going to make a cacao nib infused vodka, this will be the alcoholic part of our mix and will also give this liqueur its richness. This step means you need to allow a few weeks for the cacao to infuse.
There are quicker ways to make chocolate and salted caramel liqueur, but if you want that luxury rich finish, this is the way to go and its the way I highly recommend. Its the way I do it myself and its honestly worth the wait. trust me
So lets kick this off, here’s how you will make your cacao nib infused vodka.
Ingredients
250ml Vodka
50grams Organic cacao nibs
Method
Mix everything together in a sealable jar.
Seal and leave in a dark place, shaking once a day
After 1 month, fine strain the mix and move onto making your chocolate and salted caramel liqueur.
Where to get the best cacao nibs
There are a lot of places you can get your cacao nibs. Remember that this is what’s going to make our deep chocolatey flavour. For that, we want the best cacao nibs we can get but also at an affordable price.
If you’re making this from the UK then these are the cacao nibs I use. And here’s the link for people reading this from the USA.
The above links are affiliate links. Meaning if you purchase from them I earn a small commission at no extra cost to yourself, much like a referral commission. Its a win win really because those cacao nibs are the ones I personally use and would recommend, and you purchasing them keeps me being able to develop these recipes. It also means you get amazing quality cacao nibs! So maybe that’s win win win.
Cacao nibs infusion times
As stated in the method section for the cacao infusion, this process takes around 1 month to fully infuse. If you want your cacao nib infusion sooner, you can add more nibs to the recipe. Doubling the cacao nibs from 50grams to 100grams will mean you get the same product in half the time (2 weeks) However, because there are more cacao nibs soaking up the vodka. You may end up with less cacao infused vodka then your anticipate.
With the 50-250 ratio I used, I ended up with just under 200ml of strained cacao infused vodka. Granted, I spilt a bit when I was opening the lid. However, It’s worth keeping in mind that you may end up with less due to the cacao nibs soaking up that vodka.
You can also infuse your vodka for longer. I was aiming to make chocolate bitters with my cacao infusion so my maceration lasted for 6 months as opposed to 1 month. Which is crazy long and developed more of a bitter flavour to the liqueur. The vodka will keep any nasty bacteria from getting in your mix so you can leave it to infuse for however long you want.
What else you can use your cacao nib vodka for?
One thing you can do, is up the recipe and use a full 700ml bottle of vodka. Once you have your infusion going there is so much more you can use it for other then this chocolate and salted caramel liqueur.
Just leave the cacao nibs in your jar with the vodka and strain out whatever you need whenever you need it. Every couple of months you can top up the cacao nibs/vodka and constantly have a cacao infused vodka ready for anytime you may need it.
Here’s a few recommendations to how else you can use your cacao nib infused vodka other then this chocolate and salted caramel liqueur.
Baking: Use it as chocolate extract in cakes for a deliciously deep chocolate flavour
Bitters: Few drops in a Manhattan, Negroni or old fashioned will make all the difference
Chocolate vodka cocktails: Instead of turning it into a liqueur you can just add it as it is in chocolate cocktails. I recommend replacing the vodka in a White Russian for this cacao nib infused vodka. It will make all the difference.
The list goes on and on. If you come up with anymore uses for this then please do let me know! I’d love to hear them in the comments on this post.
Chocolate and Salted Caramel Liqueur Recipe
Now for the chocolate and salted caramel liqueur. This post was almost becoming all about cacao nib infusions. This is the bit you really came here for. You have your cacao nib infused vodka at the ready, strain some out and gather the below ingredients, as the rest of this recipe will take less then 10 minutes.
Ingredients
120ml Cacao infused vodka see above
125grams Granulated sugar
150ml Water
2g Salt (coarse)
Method
Gather your ingredients ready to use. Split the sugar so you have 75grams and 50grams.
In a small saucepan on a medium heat, pour over the 75grams of sugar and allow to caramelise. This will take 5 or so minutes. You know when your sugar has turned to caramel once its turned completely to liquid and is brown. You’re looking for a golden brown colour, to dark and your caramel will taste burnt, not dark enough and it wont taste like caramel.
Pour over your 150ml of water, stand back as it may spit. Once you’ve added the water. The caramel will instantly harden and crack as a different temperature has been added.
That caramel will start to soften and infuse into the water. After around 3 minutes the entire mixture should be one combined brown and watery mix.
At this point, take your pan of the heat and add your salt. Stir to dissolve then pour everything into a heatproof jug.
Pour in your cacao nibs infused vodka along with the rest of the sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar.
Once everything is mixed and the sugar has dissolved, fine strain into a bottle.
How to drink your chocolate and salted caramel liqueur
This liqueur works wonders served over ice for a sweet treat or used in a vast amount of cocktail creations to add some rich chocolate and salted caramel notes.
It works especially well in Espresso Martinis as a replacement for coffee liqueur. It also works great with a dash added to classic hard-hitting and spirit forward cocktails such as Manhattans, Rob Roy’s, Boulevardier’s and Old Fashioned’s
Spirit pairings
Vodka
Bourbon
Scotch
Dark Rum
Other pairings
Coffee
Sweet vermouth
Port
Sherry
Cream
Did you enjoy making this liqueur? How difficult did you find the process? How did you drink it? I’d love to know in the comment section below.
Salted Caramel Liqueur Recipe
Salted Caramel Liqueur
Ingredients
Instructions
- Mix everything together in a sealable jar.
- Seal and leave in a dark place, shaking once a day
- After 1 month, fine strain the mix and move onto making your chocolate and salted caramel liqueur.
- Gather your ingredients ready to use. Split the sugar so you have 75grams and 50grams.
- In a small saucepan on a medium heat, pour over the 75grams of sugar and allow to caramelise. This will take 5 or so minutes. You know when your sugar has turned to caramel once its turned completely to liquid and is brown. You’re looking for a golden brown colour, too dark and your caramel will taste burnt, not dark enough and it wont taste like caramel.
- Pour over your 150ml of water, stand back as it may spit. Once you’ve added the water. The caramel will instantly harden and crack as a different temperature has been added.
- That caramel will start to soften and infuse into the water. After around 3 minutes the entire mixture should be one combined brown and watery mix.
- At this point, take your pan of the heat and add your salt. Stir to dissolve then pour everything into a heatproof jug.
- Pour in your cacao nibs infused vodka along with the rest of the sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar.
- Once everything is mixed and the sugar has dissolved, fine strain into a bottle.
Notes
This takes 10 minutes from start to finish if you don't make the cacao infused vodka and instead just use regular vodka. But it does add some extra deliciousness Also, the ABV of this mix is around 24%.
Nutrition Facts
Calories
423.31Fat
13.73 gSat. Fat
9.27 gCarbs
36.05 gFiber
3.63 gNet carbs
32.42 gSugar
31.47 gProtein
3.52 gSodium
196.64 mgCholesterol
0 mgThe nutritional information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
