If you are ever in need of a dessert sauce for absolutely any purpose – I have the one for you! This butterscotch sauce is incredible. Put it on ice cream! Cake! Cookies! Brownies! Or just eat it straight from a bowl, like I did this afternoon!
I found this recipe for homemade butterscotch sauce at the end of the book Food Anatomy, which definitely is not a cookbook, but does have a few sporadic recipes sprinkled throughout. I finished the book a few days before Shepard’s parties last weekend, so it seemed like the perfect addition to his sundae bar. I’m SO glad I made it. I’ll be making this sauce forever. 🙂
I’ve made my own salted caramel sauces in the past. Many, many times because I needed to perfect it for my caramel apple cheesecake I entered in the Midwest Cheesecake Competition. I love salted caramel. But I think I love this more. It’s super easy, only has four ingredients, and can be made in ten minutes or less.
We ate the butterscotch sauce last weekend with a skillet cookie and/or ice cream. I ate it all week with leftover cookie or ice cream. Tonight I’m serving it with Molly Wizenberg’s chocolate cake recipe. It’s almost a flourless chocolate, but with the addition of 1 tbs of flour it somehow gives the cake top the texture and taste of a meringue cookie. I’ll have to share that recipe another day. And the skillet cookie recipe. That was good. But anything can be better with sauce on it. Words to live by!
Homemade Butterscotch Sauce
- 4 tbs butter
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 tsp salt (I used a full teaspoon)
- In a heavy bottomed saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. When it starts to soften, add the sugar and stir until moistened.
- Cook the mixture, stirring occasionally until it begins to thicken, just a few minutes.
- Whisk in the cream and bring to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until it is thick and glossy.
- Whisk in salt, adding more to taste. Let cool and refrigerate for up to two weeks.
I’ve only made this twice, but I think it’s pretty much fool proof. It’s not fussy the way caramel is. So no excuses – go make it right now!!
