Perhaps I'm the wrong person to ask since I haven't really done shots since college. The hard sauce sounds good, especially with ice cream, but it sounds like a bit much with the shot. Unless... If it's just a spoonful of bourbon for the flavor rather than the boozy sauce I'm imagining, and then paired with a bourbon shot, that might be really good. You could go even farther, if you have a torch, and burn some sugar on top of the shot (crème brûlée style) to go with the caramel in the sauce, and have fun cracking it.

I can't think of something that would go with bourbon other than bourbon. Unless you count Jack as something different. Maybe a really rich sweet red wine, like a low class chianti, but they'd have to be tasted together ahead of time, because that could go all kinds of ways wrong. Maybe some kind of apple brandy to go with the tart, but I don't think I'd like it with the bourbon sauce.

If you were talking dessert cocktail rather than shot, I could see a fizzy apple drink, but with a neutral spirit. Thinner and fizzy makes me think it wouldn't fight the bourbon so much.

Whatever you decide, it all sounds like fun, and a great way to make a party even if it's just you two. Enjoy!

Don't know where you live so not sure if it would be available, but Crown Royal Maple is really nice to sip and I think it would go well with apple pie.

Pillog, I like your ideas. I’m going to try to post the link to the recipe for the sauce I’m planning to use. nekotish, Crown Royal is Canadian, as I am. My fil loves the maple flavour.

lets See if my pea brain can pull this off.

https://www.simplyscratch.com/2018/09/bourbon-salted-caramel-sauce.html

That worked fine. :) It sounds good. The tbsp of bourbon sounds like enough to make it taste a little boozy without really being alcoholic. The cream and butter combination, with the alcohol, should make it thinner than a lot of caramels, and should be a good consistency for your purpose. Re the aside, I've long assumed that the "ab" was for Alberta... And gotta love the autocorrect! :D

I thought I saw an apple CR today ... but maybe it was maple. Love, love, love crown royal ...

Linda, I like that!

I've never had calvados, can't really afford it. So that would be a very special treat for me . . .

tolkaji dessert wine is wonderful

A fine tokaji aszu is best by itself, I think. Like a great Sauternes, it's too sweet to accompany a caramel sauced dessert.

Bourbon or rum, would be my choice. I'm a fan of Jefferson bourbons and either Mt Gay or Ron Zacapa rums. Both would be great with apples and caramel.

Amusing rum story:

One of our friends visited Cuba for the brief time it was open travel under Obama. He brought back the Havana Club 7 yr for me (he doesn't drink hard liquor, just wines). This is from the original Bacardi Rum distillery which the Cuban government took over and still runs. You can only buy their rums at the distillery tasting room. It is legendary among rum lovers.

It is a PHENOMENAL rum - possibly the best I've ever had. The sad irony is, I told him to buy the most expensive rum he could find to bring back. Even offered to give him the money beforehand.

When he brought it over to me, he said, "Don't bother to pay me back. It didn't cost much." He said it cost him $15.

Then he innocently told me he had decided not to bring me back the 18 yr old Havana, because "it was $30!"

The thing that made me cringe was the 21 yr old Zacapa (which I had bought a month before I learned he was going to Cuba) hits the 3-figure mark, which is relatively low priced for a really fine bottle of liquor. Bourbon is "hot" and overpriced right now, whereas rum is still playing second fiddle to aged tequilas.

My rum-drinking friend and I half-seriously discussed springing for a plane ticket to send him back to Cuba for the older rum, LOL!

ha!